The Official HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Thread

[Sonnie]

No... it won't squeeze... just too tight. After thinking about it, I may just buy the PS3 and place it on top of my cabinet to the left of the center and leave it there for a while, running both the XA2 and the PS3. It's not like I'm trying to impress anyone with my cabinet setup in a dedicated HT room. We don't go in there to look at the cabinet anyway. Although eventually it would be nice to only own one player.


I went to Wal-Mart at lunch and almost.... I mean ALMOST picked up a PS3. I got wise at the last second and realized saving that $40+ on tax that I would save buying it via the Shack store might be worth it.

[wbassett]

Can you get an extended waranty through the Shack Store? If so then that's perfect!

[bsoko2]

I got the AX2 about 6 months ago and got alot of HDDVD's to go with it. Now with all the hype about Warner I went out and bought the BD30 and some Blu-Ray movies. So for now I have both players and we the consumers win big time because they both will undercut each other in pricing and content. Just think what would have happened if there was only one format? We would still be paying over a $1000 for a player and $40 to $60 per movie. I hope this goes on for a few more years.

Bill

[AverageJoe]

muzz wrote:

...No question in my mind, and I spend alot more $ than the average Joe.

Well, Maybe , but my wife may disagree with you .

[bsoko2]

ALL wifes will disagree with you! Mine thinks that I'm a techno junkie and she's just finding this out after 40 years.

Bill

[dieselpower1966]

Personally I'm not sold on H.D. or Blu Ray, neither format is stable enough yet and one of them will go down the same was as the old Beta and Vhs war, and end up like the Laser disc.
I will wait it out.
There are 1 or 2 players out there that will play both formats, but only marginally. If for example you are watching Blu Ray, you cannot for some reason access all of the extras, and vice versa.

Dieselpower1966

[muzz]

AverageJoe wrote:

Well, Maybe , but my wife may disagree with you .

Heheheh

[jeffgoetz1]

Forbes.com


PaidContent.org
Toshiba Steps Up HD DVD Push Post-CES; Slashes Player Prices
Staci D. Kramer 01.14.08, 4:00 PM ET

Now, Toshiba is fighting back—a week after the death-bed stories, if not obits, in response, first, to Warner Bros.’s embrace of Blu-Ray from Sony and then to Universal’s decision not to date HD DVD exclusively.

The consumer electronics company, which has placed a large bet on HD DVD being at least one of two formats, is slashing prices on is HD DVD players, with some dropping to as low as $149.99, according to AP.

It’s a half-empty, half-full moment for retailers, who could see a sales boost at the same time that some may be faced with price matching from holiday sales.

The headline on the release actually explains the strategy: Toshiba Deploys New HD DVD Marketing Initiatives Based on Strong Fourth Quarter Unit Sales: Mass Market Acceptance Confirms that HD DVD is the Consumer’s Choice for Next Generation High Def Entertainment.”

The theory: play up the acceptance by consumers who have already paid for HD DVD versus those who get it with something else like a gaming console, get more players out there—and dare studios to ignore those consumers.

In addition to the sales cuts, Toshiba will launch “major initiatives, including joint advertising campaigns with studios.”

Toshiba says it closed 2007 with approximately 50% market share and an 80%-plus share of next-gen equipped notebooks sold in Q407.

Yoshi Uchiyama, Group Vice President Digital A/V Group: “While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer.” But will mainstream users pay even reduced amounts for something without full studio coverage?

Online content access: Universal Home Video, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG report that “an average of 30 percent of HD DVD owners have accessed Web- enabled network features and continue to do so regularly.” Players hooked up to the internet can stream new content, trailers, etc.

[MatrixDweller]

I think a big factor would be the market data showing that over 30% of HD-DVD users have accessed online content from the discs. Being able to draw that much traffic to your site is a money maker. The movie studios will be able to make quite a bit of money if they design their sites well. Merchandising, online premium downloads, memberships, etc could add quite a bit of revenue. Not to mention the advertising opportunities. It would be sort of like the way Disney World hits you with a gift shop as you come off the ride.

[bluejay]

Hmmmmm?

I voted for Blu-ray winning a while back, but, I ordered a HD DVD yesterday.

[imbeaujp]

I saw on a forum that Toshiba is going to invest on massive adds starting tomorrow at the SuperBowl.

[John Simpson]

Did anyone see this on Michael Bay's blog?

Well another studio down. Maybe I was right? Blu ray is just better. HD will die a slow death. It's what I predicted a year ago. Now with Warner's down for the count with Blu Ray. That makes it easier for Wal-Mart to push Blu Ray. And whatever Wal-Mart pushes - wins. Hd better start giving out those $120 million dollars checks to stay alive. Maybe they can give me some so I can give it to my Make-A-Wish charity, just to shut me up. Have faith people Transformers will come out in Blu-ray one day!

Well yay... I've been waiting on a Blu-ray copy of Transformers. Looks like it might happen yet...

[Sonnie]

These next few weeks will be very interesting.

[gnatnoop]

imbeaujp wrote:

I saw on a forum that Toshiba is going to invest on massive adds starting tomorrow at the SuperBowl.

It's probably too little too late, i say that owning an A2 and about 50 hddvd's. Oh well...lol.

[bonehead848]

So did anybody see the big HDDVD superbowl ad? Wasnt broadcast in my area

[Sonnie]

I didn't see the first one... however I missed the most of the first half and half time.

I think Toshiba got wise and saved their money for something worth while.

[wbassett]

bonehead848 wrote:

So did anybody see the big HDDVD superbowl ad? Wasnt broadcast in my area

If it means anything, I don't remember seeing any Bluray ads either. We all know what Sony spent their money on though... Warner Brothers

Seriously... Sony probably figured there's no reason to spend that kind of money since they feel it's over, and like Sonnie said, Toshiba probably figured there are better places to spend their money as well.

I'm still waiting to hear something big from Toshiba. As I said before, one thing they can do is to convince Universal and Paramount to start pumping out some of the older classics that they have in their libraries. This is strictly my personal opinion, but I don't buy romantic comedies on High Def, I like big epic movies and classic movies. HD DVD could double their library if they open up the old stuff. Of course that takes a lot of film stock cleanup, but it's something, but it costs money. It all depends on how much more Toshiba wants to dump into the format. It's all up to them now.

The way I see it, they have another month to capitalize on income tax return season and make a big announcement. After that, it's really going to start looking bleak.

[John Simpson]

I dunno Bill -- I wonder if there's any point in releasing old movies on HD. I was reading a review of the Blu-ray version of "Close Encounters" and they were saying the HD format was not doing it any favours -- inconsistent and distracting video, I think they said (although the sound was pretty good).

Then again, when they release the entire Star Wars "extended, enlarged and engorged" Blu-ray boxed versions, I'll be the first one camped outside Target...

[wbassett]

John I agree that there may not be any point in releasing their older titles, but without more studio support they only have a limited number of potential new releases to draw on. It's about the only thing they could do as far as I can see- crank out as many titles as they can in HD DVD to increase the content. Some people only want the newest movies, some like older ones too. Without additional studio support though, what else can they do?

I've said before that they can only do so much with film, you can't make something high def if it didn't start out as high def, but I'll recant that somewhat. With the 4K film transfer process they can clean up film to look ten fold better than standard def DVD, but the problem is it's time consuming and costs money. Money is something that right now I think has been the topic of some major discussions in Toshiba board room meetings... how much more money do they want to dump into this? If little to none, it's all over except a masquerade to give the appearance it's not while they recoup as much as they can on existing player inventory.

If the plan is to flood the market with inexpensive players to try and convince the studios to at least move to dual format support, it's highly unlikely that alone is going to work. Content is a must.

I personally liked Beta better than VHS (ironically that was Sony, and a somewhat reversed situation and feelings now). I had a player, and also a VHS player. I watched Block Buster go from a 50/50 split of Beta and VHS titles, to 60/40, then 70/30... then one wall and a couple of shelves... to one row then nothing. It didn't matter if the movie title was a new release or older one, if I wanted to watch it and it wasn't available in Beta format, I picked up the VHS version. It's been said many times that without content a format can't survive, and I do agree with that 1000%.

Also the question is can High Def DVD survive at all? Again an old topic, but look at Laser Disc. I had and still have one of those as well as movies. The picture quality in my opinion was far superior to both Beta and VHS. Even if it was a lesser quality transfer that looked the same, I guarantee after a year if you put the Beta/VHS version in, it was no longer equal... Laser Disc at least would not degrade over time like tape does. Anyway, see how familiar this sounds (and it is a repeat of what has been said before)... Better audio and video quality, but higher prices for both the players and the titles. When I say higher prices, some titles were $40 or more, and this was around 15 years ago or longer. DVD came along, and Laser Disc didn't have a chance.

Now I do see titles below $20 for a lot of movies, but most are around $25, some even over $30. So less content, higher priced players and media... Well, history does repeat itself.

The best thing about the format war was the competition. It helped drive prices down faster than they would have come down if it was just one format, but they are still nowhere close to where they need to be. Just like with what DVD did to Laser Disc, Bluray may win the battle and beat Toshiba only to ultimately lose.

Now a little something off topic... Difference between Laser Disc and High Def DVD...

Most people know what a Laser disc looks like, but a lot of the younger set don't. Anyway, one thing you can do with Laser Disc you can't with DVD- Make a pretty cool HT display!

The cases are big and look like mini movie posters, and the disc itself looks like those platinum record awards you always see musicians have hanging up- put them in a nice frame with the case cover art displayed as well as the actual Laser Disc displayed! I'll whip up one sometime and post it in another thread, but it could be a pretty cool display.

So see? You still can have fun with an old defunct format!

Back to topic now- This is strictly my opinion, but I feel if Toshiba has anything up their sleeve, they have a month to pull it off and it better be huge. After that, it's down hill just like Beta and Laser Disc, except HD DVDs won't make cool HT decor ten years from now and Laser Discs still will look pretty wicked

[mechman]

bonehead848 wrote:

So did anybody see the big HDDVD superbowl ad? Wasnt broadcast in my area

Yep. The Planters peanuts/cashews commercial blew it out of the water though!

Linky

mech

[mechman]

Wow! Didn't realize it would make a big window like that! Here's the HD-DVD commercial.

HD-DVD

mech