Toshiba has announced that it will be joining the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) which is the final chapter to the format war of HD-DVD vs Blu-ray. Toshiba who was the largest heavy-hitter backing the HD-DVD format was in a fierce battle against Blu-ray which was largely in part developed by Sony. When Sony bundled a Blu-ray drive in its PS3 console it gave the format its entrance into millions of homes for which HD-DVD was unable to compete."In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA. Toshiba aims to introduce digital products that support the Blu-ray format, including BD players and notebook PCs integrating BD drives, in the course of this year. Details of the products, including the timing of regional launches, are now under consideration. We will make announcements in due course"
The announcement which shows Toshiba's final commitment to the death of the HD-DVD format is important for the company as it moves forward to embrace and back the Blu-ray format. With all major producers of electronics now selling Blu-ray drives the price of entry should continue to drop even further as more consumers adopt the technology.
While Blu-ray has won the media format war the fight is far from over for Sony and the BDA. Streaming content is starting to take a firm grasp among consumers with Netflix leading the way with its streaming services. Will Blu-ray be the last hard media format that we are accustomed too? No one knows the answer to that but as broadband continues to spread to the farthest reaches and download speeds are being improved it is only a matter of time before traditional media formats disappear.
For the first 4 or 5 years after CD recorders were generally available, the blanks cost $15-$20 or more (which is MORE than $25 when compared to the value of today's dollar). The same thing happened with DVD recorders as well. Why would Blu-Ray be any different?
I think the biggest problem facing BD-R is compatibility. With DVD-R you could use them in any PC drive or set top DVD player. You have to have a Blu-Ray drive to even read BD-R though and hardly anyone has them.
Huh? People can and do watch Blu-Ray movies on the computer as well. And if you are talking about a Blu-Ray burner, the increase in storage capacity over DVD is an added benefit.
better known as a $90 brick. bd is more reliable for storage. So Unless you mirror each of your drives... not sure which would be the better buy. Really wish I'd gone cdrw drive instead of a SyQuest Syjet 1.5 gb drive in the late 90's. Made it to 4 of those $90 cartridges when the drive died and the company was forced out of biz. THAT WAS AN EXPENSIVE MISTAKE $500 drive and 4 worthless $90 cartridges. I've gotten the stuff off 2 of them. But the other 2 are full. and XP wants to write to them
More of an epilogue than a final chapter... if we are going to keep with the book metaphors.
This is just a reminder on how that turned out.
This is just a reminder on how that turned out.
LOL, you want a Sony cookie or something?
Sony's stance has always been "lets throw a bunch of crap against the wall and see what sticks" paired with lots of name-calling.
The biggest thing they did wrong was sit back and watch Apple dominate with MP3 players when clearly Sony should of re-launched the Walkman brand to play MP3 (which had been popular since the late 90's) instead of spending time faffing around with Atrac!
Sony's stance has always been "lets throw a bunch of crap against the wall and see what sticks" paired with lots of name-calling.
Except Blu-ray isn't a SONY format. Panasonic holds more IP than anyone in the BDA. The core group that started the format was Panasonic, Sony, Philips, and Pioneer.
In any case, Toshiba wasn't exactly "mature" about this, remember their "Super Upconversion" that they tried to sell?
The studios would never support it.
Any format needs software. Remember how HD DVD folded immediately after Warner announced it was going Blu-ray exclusive.
Last edited by PeterTHX on 12 Aug 2009 - 06:30
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