AlariceInsana

Just thought I'd pop in and defend myself. First, I'm not in denial, I'm angry. I can readily admit that BluRay seems to have the momentum right now and if a winner were declared today, it would take the prize. Second, of course I'm taking it personally. When you invest money in something (player and movies) and then see it about to be trumped by a competing and incompatible format, you take it personal.

When you logically look at the situation and really take a fair analysis of the pros and cons, I think you should come to the same conclusion that both formats are basically the same thing. What is winning it for BR isn't even really related to marketing. It is directly related to money, glad-handing, and big shiny numbers presented in the right way to the right people, e.g. the studios. In the end, we are all the losers for following this war in the first place.

fsusmithc2

superdynamite

I hope the 'war' continues since it helps to drive prices lower for us, the consumers but either way, I'll not lose any sleep over whichever high def format wins. The economy is in recession, we're stuck in the mire in freakin' Iraq pissing away billions of dollars and many human lives, the planet is slowly beginning to cook and yet we're spending our emotions on this completely unimportant topic.

careus

I believe I speak for a lot of people when I say that.

Sqube

smarttart62

Well there's color video phone (1971) MRI system (1982), laptop personal computer (1986), NAND EEPROM (1991), DVD (1995), the Libretto sub-notebook personal computer (1996) and HD DVD (2005)!

Yeah but apart from that..

Maxwells_Nylon_Hammer

ennTOXX

ennTOXX

watstein

CruJones

But anyways, it wouldn't be an if they go I go clause. It'd be more like a clause with an option to jump ship. That's not unheard of, it's basically an assurance to a viable market so that they don't have to sign a deal that says I'll go down with the ship.

Clammy42

HD movie downloads = not enough quality bandwidth to go around yet. They may be slowly creeping around but you'll be waiting years for a really good HD download experience.

CruJones

CruJones

deadlizard

It would be great it they could end this stupid format war. Everyone should suspend hi def movie purchases on both sides to encourage a definitive end through unanimous studio agreement.

Vagabum

Debra-K

[www.techconsumer.com]

Bob

_woozzy_

The only major difference between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is that HD-DVD is cheaper to produce, has cheaper players, has a smaller capacity, no region coding, and an (arguably) more memorable name.

I really see no benefit in Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, but I suppose long-term "Super Hi-Def" content (Sony's recent 4K display, leading that charge), will be better suited to that format.

I'm not overly surprised, though; from a pure numbers standpoint there are nearly 4 million Blu-Ray players but only 1 million HD-DVD players. Blu-Ray has 80% of the market.

(Mind you, take the consoles out of the picture, and the lead shifts to HD-DVD, approximately 700,000 to 300,000).

For disc sales, Blu-Ray comprises approximately 70% of all hi-def movies sold. HD-DVD has the higher attach rate, but is losing that numbers game as well.

So, Sony was right to include Blu-Ray in their game player, as it created a huge shift. Had Microsoft inclued HD-DVD - and let's be honest, they could have with the Elite - they would have likely made a larger impact.

Still, it's clear that HD-DVD had more potential, and I think it was squandered. The format won't be abandoned, I don't think, but I'm interested to see what way things go.

In the end, it's the total sales these studios care about, and they'll market to whatever audience is greatest. Hopefully we'll end up benefiting from this. Somehow.

JackTango

Arsenal6

telliott

kcmurphy88

Let Sony take over the corrupted music/movie industry. This industry is already crapped with RIAA, DRM, etc.

Those kids with PS3 who enjoy to be Blu-Ray fanbois - let them dance with Music/Movie Industry that at the same time screws them from the back.

There is much more important user base - the PC users who will really benefit from the HD format. And I hope that this format will be HD-DVD. Just because it will not be proprietary douche Sony format. Which means more freedom for programmers, application developers, codec developers, home users, etc.!

OldPunk

Geist420

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

EDALBNUG

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

Combo Blu-ray/DVD discs (old news, but possible):
[www.news.com]

Combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray discs:
[www.tgdaily.com]
[www.engadget.com]

mbizfreak

redman042

babanner

fsusmithc2

I also love how everyone is always complaining about the DRM, but then says how it doesn't really effect them because they don't do anything illegal. Bluray has also been cracked too: [www.slysoft.com]

Next let's talk about price. How many here adopted dvds when they first came out? I bought sony's first dvd play for $600 and there were 8 movies available at the time, none of which were below $20. There are lots of bluray discs below $20 if you look at the right places. With a single format, we'll end up with more competition within bluray. No longer will producers look at competing with another format, but within the format for better prices. Prices will drop faster and discs will be just as inexpensive dvds are now.

Digital downloads are great, but they aren't getting rid of any optical disc anytime soon. I have fios, but I'd still rather go to a redbox and get rentals for a buck a piece. I can't wait till redbox starts stocking bluray disks. I've had blockbuster's online service and netflix in the past, they both have bluray for no additional charge. How many people are still buying dvd's on a weekly basis? My dvd library got to about 500 titles before i realized how dumb it was to purchase movies that i won't watch again. Sure I'll watch a few here and there, but it's cheaper to rent those if I must see them in the future. This war has really been over since blockbuster stocked only bluray, it's just taking the studios a bit longer to figure that out.

So what's left to argue? Ya it would be nice to have a trade in program of hd equipment for blueray, but it probably won't happen.

dhaberer

tuffguysf

Rusdude

navstar

navstar

Benitocarmona

graffiksguru

By stating that their "current plan" is to "support" HD-DVD, they are saying that as of right now they plan on supporting HD-DVD at some undisclosed level. THis could mean remaining exclusive, going neutral, or switching to the other side in the future - just not now. They do not however deny that they do in fact have this clause in their contract, or that they will *not* switch. They simply say that they're supporting HD-DVD and not switching as of today, which is something we already knew.

I would not be surprised to see them make an announce much like Warner did in the near future, stating that they will transition over to Blu-Ray exclusivity sometime later this year, but continue to "support" HD-DVD until that time. If they were 100% behind HD-DVD they would state that they have no plans to switch now or in the future. Their lack of confidence in their statement indicates that they are pondering the situation, which is really the responsible thing to do. Remember these guys are in the business of making $$$, not doing whats best for you and me.

unicron02

calebc

Once again, overzealous reporting leads to overzealous reactions and then real things start happining based on this fake news as both company's stocks went as you would expect them to if the news were real...but it wasn't. What the hell people. I bet some intern at Sony was promised a job if he slipped this fake news out. Wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Really folks, what's the big deal here? Why must every time Giz posts an article about this, the comments go on and on and on and on? Why are the comments always all the same? "Blu-Ray is teh roxors. It has more of teh gigz for super cool content." "See, Warner went Blu, that means it must be the best!" "Ha ha ha lolz111!!!OnE. Paramount is going Blu now so HD is so dead. Ha hah aha you guys sux and are total losers."

You guys sound like a broken record. Really.

I honestly cannot imagine how BluRay could possibly be winning. The picture and sound quality are the same. Don't kid yourself and try to tell me one is better than the other because it's just not true. Having a higher capacity disc means nothing in real terms other than a marketing gimmick. If you have more of something than your competitor, all you have to do is write up some copy on how having more is a good thing. Since there are way more dumb people in this country than smart, your objective is to sway them, which isn't too hard. The movies themselves take up roughly the same amount of space. The extra space is used for the bonus content and really, do we actually watch that stuff more than maybe once? I buy movies for the extra features too but I really don't often watch all of it, especially the gimmicky little mini-apps and picture-in-picture stuff.

What happened to the easy name recognition of HD-DVD? The common man doesn't know what Blu-Ray is, but can easily draw up an idea of what and HD-DVD might be. This has been said before and makes logical sense. Why isn't it working? Why aren't people buying the cheaper HD-DVD players in droves? Why does simply having the PS3 make Sony the winner? Has anyone looked lately? The PS3 has fallen quite short of both industry and consumer expectations. While Blu-Ray has had a few format revisions so far, HD-DVD has changed zero times, has always supported ethernet connectivity, etc.

What kind of company puts somthing like "If the other guys leave, i'm going too" in a contract? What if the company that left made a bad decision? Does that mean you're wiling to make the same bad decision?

CD, DVD, HD-DVD, it just makes sense. Blu-Ray should die! Ha ha ha lolz Sony sux HD-DVD rox if you got Blu, sucks to be you!!!!1111oneone!! Flame on people! But seriously, if you've got the stones to intelligently defend yourselves, please do so. Otherwise, please keep quiet.

fsusmithc2

EvilSnowMan

By Andy Fixmer and John Liu

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures denied a newspaper report that the studio is poised to follow Time Warner Inc. in abandoning Toshiba Corp.'s HD DVD technology.

``Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,'' Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount, said in an e-mail today.

Toshiba, the leading promoter of the HD DVD format for high- definition video discs, fell in Tokyo trading after the Financial Times reported Paramount is poised to adopt Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray format instead.

Paramount can defect because a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp allows the studio to switch to Blu-ray if Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. dropped its support of Toshiba's standard, the newspaper reported today, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan. Warner Bros. said on Jan. 4 it would drop its support of HD DVD.

Keisuke Ohmori, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Toshiba, said the report is speculative. Masayo Endo, a spokeswoman for Sony, declined to comment on the report.

Toshiba's shares fell 0.1 percent to close at 782 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after dropping as much as 1.3 percent. Sony's stock rose 3.4 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles at afixmer@bloomberg.net ; John Liu in Shanghai at jliu42@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 8, 2008 01:39 EST

gfapunk

Sgt. Bilbo

of course, current might mean: "until the end of the month"

i paid $99 for my a3 - and it upscales pretty darn well - so at least i got that goin for me...

Kricket

fochsenhirt

Laser disc... FTW!

blank

Good thing i never picked a side on this pointless war! I don't want to waste my doll hairs!

blank

UofITom

xibis

Noobs-R-Us

Brian Sexton

Now I want to start seeing lower prices and available options for Blu-Ray players and recorders for both desktops and laptop, specifically Macs.

chillywilly

unicron02

You have the people who don't want to buy either one because they don't want to pick wrong. Thereby not affecting the outcome one iota. Those are split into three further groups who will either complain because the one they wanted to win didn't, the one they wanted to win did, or the ones who gloat that they didn't pick a side.

The next big group consists of the people who bought a side that lost which breaks down into people upset that they picked a losing side and people eager to say F it, I'm going to get tons of discount clearance merchandise.

Then you've got the winning side which usually just breaks down into those who are relieved and those that want to gloat.

Almost lastly, you've got the distant cousin to not buying either in the one who has both. They hedged their bets and aren't too shaken up (though they might have preferred one side).

Finally you have the people who won't buy anything because it costs too much. Really? $25 is too much for a new movie? What did DVDs cost when they were first introduced? I can still remember (before the internet boom) a first week DVD cost about $17 then went up to $20. Usually you're in that range. Nobody said you have to buy all Blu-Ray. Just the stuff you want to see in HD (I recommend Into the Blue for Jessica Alba in HD) and the rest just get your trusty DVD for stuff where the picture/sound quality isn't needed.

CubFan81

GoPadge

demonwolf

Hahahaha not a chance. There are still vast areas in the states without broadband. My dad live 15 minutes from Eugene here in Oregon and has no access to any form of broadband.

MacBandit

Why replace? I've just been buying older movies I don't have and new releases and I've gotten them all on sale. I have about 25 blu-ray movies now and I haven't paid more than $20 for any of them except for Planet Earth which I paid $60 which is less than half of retail. Several I got for $10.

You just have to watch for the sales.

MacBandit

Phineas J. Whoopie

Canoehead

vote Obama

mrlokievil

Sgt. Bilbo

Did you not notice? There was a fight! No one is "giving up without a fight". There was one hell of a consumer scaring fight; and they finally seem to be admitting if they ever want to sell these things at all (to the Wal-Mart crowd), there needs to be only one type of disc in the marketplace.

FLskydiver

Sgt. Bilbo

FLskydiver

Sgt. Bilbo

serious.tigrrr

read about it [en.wikipedia.org]
It isn't Sony's format. Sony just happens to be doing the most with it at the moment. The Xbox-360 could have used Blu-Ray if they wanted to.

Sony did do most of the original R&D on blue-violet laser diode optical media along with Pioneer, but Its the same tech used in HD-DVD.

The Blu-Ray media format is Controlled by the Blu-ray Disc Association [en.wikipedia.org] which was founded by Matsushita, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, Samsung, and Sony.

VishusBurn

Oh well, I think Bluray won anyways. No studio is going back to HD DVD now.

MrThunderfield

serious.tigrrr

Sheemo44

Now, Sony has made the decision for you by lobbying and wining and dining the studios :) Way to be a monkey :) HOOOHAHAHAGOOGOGOHAHAHA

Stacky Botrus

tro11

tutelary

radikaled

kiwy82

If you guys and gals are planning to purchase a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD - then purchase a MultiFormat player that supports them best - win win!

JoOngle

side

JayFight

fastzipperus

not products like ps1,2,3 , vaio's etc.

utube2007

I think Toshiba is smart enough to understand that the best thing for them to do right now is try to not piss off both the people that bought HD-DVD players, and get to making blu-ray machines ASAP. This idea that the HD-DVD format could live on as some sort of indie/home format is absurd.

The format wars are dead. Now lets all get to arguing about which codec is best.

AndyDuncan

tutelary

some_stupid_nut

No one is asking for you to REPLACE your exsisting library. DVD's work on PS3/BD players. Just get the new stuff that comes out and the movies you really want to see in HD. I love Blue Streak, but do I need an HD version? Nope. I think you are making it more difficult than it has to be.

DigitalHero

who cares which wins as long as the discs come down in price already...geez...I am tired of this shit

Seiven

calebc

shalomandigo

calebc

As to HD-DVD being "inferior": whatever fanbois. The content is what matters and both had adequate capacity to hold high bitrate 1080p/24 goodness. Everything else: don't care.

ianken

Scaramanga

calebc

Canoehead

89macrunner

Well, shouldn't they have a decent amount of mass duplicators of blu-ray? Nearly every single ps3 game uses blu-ray discs. That's probably more blu-ray discs than all the sold blu-ray and HD-DVD movies combined...

Jitty

Brock

Exactly. These people took HD-DVD, which they knew to be technically inferior to BluRay, and milked it for all it was worth. Sure they are cheaper to produce, but do you really want to replace your entire DVD library with the cheaper, inferior format? If you're going to spend money on a new media library you should pick the better format and if you can't afford it, wait for it to lower in price. Don't just cheap out and settle for second best. HD-DVD's only real strength (besides Shrek and Transformers) was its low price tag and the penny pincher's out there completely fell for it.

dna

klew

adkitchen

utube2007

daftrok

look on the bright side me, I'll be the first in line to get those discs that won't play in any of those other players when they go for $9.99 in the bargain bin....

also reminds of those tiger electronic cartridges at kb toys....

impliedsurprise

drcullex

But where's $200 BR players? I sure hope we will eventually see that, now that BR has one fewer reasons (and practically the only) to be competitive...

subyfan

Actually if there was a format after blu-ray, it would actually be violet-ray. Or maybe even ultraviolet-ray

Jitty

XDoctor

hn333

dashyt2dafulliz

Ryanraven

gunbu

I did, but it was a refurb with a short return policy. That's part of the "should've checked" thing...but at least I didn't pay $500 for it when it first came out.

agahnim

AGROS

blank

blank

Evo

BigViper

yellow73

EagleEye

"Sony is gearing up for an announcement. Insider news suggests that Sony plans on upgrading the Blu-ray Disc format next year to the 'Electric-Blu-ray' format. Stating that the regular Blu-ray Disc is just not fast enough for taking all your money to the bank."

...don't hate the messenger, hate the game...

ennTOXX

I'm glad this fucking format war is at an end. I've had my HDTV for a year now and haven't been willing to pick a side, lest I end up with the loser.

kromekoran

MONSTERGOC

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

ItsDon

myotheralt

myotheralt

imaria

No kidding. I bought an HD-DVD player as a Christmas present for my mom and sister. It's been broken since they opened it (I know...should've tested it when I got it...). It just came back from repair today, still broken. And now there's not a snowball's chance in hell it's going to be the winning format. So needless to say, I don't have much in the way of cuddly feelings toward Toshiba and the HD-DVD world.

agahnim

bandit

I would love to review that contract.

Gilbert

surfer88

mullingitover

bobide

DJJS

someToast

jakeyjohn1

VenoMuS

rainfever

turbineseaplane

God made the pretty girls pretty because he likes them more

[www.lockergnome.com]

theofactor

ShadowUnit

I skipped the war and choose this,

[www.lockergnome.com]

theofactor

DestroyerMTL

gary_slamson.

nappleheaded