HD-DVD wins, Blu-Ray loses

[TruckWEB]

HD DVD wins, Blu-ray loses

Much like it is with game systems; competing formats for video are not about the best technology. They are about the most prevalent technology. It is expensive to publish movies and, at least for now, you can't put Blu-ray and HD DVD disks into the same box.

With the Xbox 360 moving so strongly into the market and the top accessory this year being the $200 HD-DVD drive the battle may be over by year end. There is every chance that there may be as many as ten times more HD DVD players than Blu-ray players in the market by the end of the year - even if you don't factor in that HP, the current leader in PC sales, started shipping desktop computers with a $100 HD DVD option. This, coupled with a much lower overall cost for the stand alone players as well as better support for legacy TVs and dual mode disks (that have both legacy DVD and HD-DVD content on a single disk), suggests that HD-DVD is now the format to beat.

HD-DVD wins because of the Xbox 360 - which is ironic, given Blu-ray should have won because of the Playstation 3. Instead, Blu-ray has delayed the Playstation 3 to a point where Sony may have to wait until the Playstation 4 to recover.

BetaMax, Mini-Disk, MemoryStick, and now Blu-ray. At least Sony is consistent. Also, if there is one company that is really looking forward to a better 2007 more than Sony I don't know of it. Boy, when you couple in root kits and battery/camera recalls, you are talking about a really nasty run of bad luck for Sony this year.

Source : TGDaily

[Inplode]

well DUH

[Slimy]

I love how with such a 'decisive' title, the author forgets to mention hybrid discs as one of his arguments.

[User6060]

I don't think this format war is even half way through, let alone won already.

[gadean]

Hahaha, well the rootkits are what did it for me. I lost all my trust in Sony from that point forward.

[nvllsvm]

I don't think this format war is even half way through, let alone won already.

Agreed, many consumers are still loving DVDs. I don't think many people want to rebuy some of their movies on HD-DVD or buy an expensive standalone player.

[Ryan Hoffman]

I love how with such a 'decisive' title, the author forgets to mention hybrid discs as one of his arguments.

Aparently, you didn't read the article. He's not talking about hybrid HDDVD+Blu-Ray, he's talking about DVD+HD-DVD discs.

These types of discs are great, buy a hybrid DVD today, and use it on your DVD player now. When your ready to make the jump to HD, your entire collection will be HD by just purchasing an HD-DVD player. Pretty smart, if you ask me.

[rajputwarrior]

Agreed, many consumers are still loving DVDs. I don't think many people want to rebuy some of their movies on HD-DVD or buy an expensive standalone player.

and i am one of those people, i still love my dvds, but i do think HD DVD will win, we are already selling them at work (future shop) on hp towers and they are a chea upgrade (like 150 canadian, not even), we don't expect to see any blu ray drives for a long time

[Amnesia]

Mini-Disc was very popular in Asia and the Middle East. (still is being used)

As for memory stick, that's just a proprietary memory format, just as mmc, sd, transflash etc... are

[Slimy]

Aparently, you didn't read the article. He's not talking about hybrid HDDVD+Blu-Ray, he's talking about DVD+HD-DVD discs.

I did read it. I was talking about hybrid HD-dvd + dvd, but I somehow missed the part where he did mention it :pinch:

That's the clear winner imho. The fact that Toshiba put so much effort into getting hd-dvd on one side and dvd on the other side is enough to win the battle :yes:

[Ryan Hoffman]

I just want to add, I own a 360 (probably could have guessed by my sig), and as soon as I get a bigger screen, I'm getting the HD-DVD addon. It's a no-brainer.

[TruckWEB]

You have to see a movie in HD-DVD and DVD to really see the difference and it will jump in your face (agreed, you need to own a HDTV). It's really nice to finaly have a picture with no noise, no artifacts, no compression aberations.

I know it's the same for Blu-Ray movies, but find me a $499 stand-alone player.... Or $200 for Xbox360 owners or at only $100 upgrade inside a PC.

I can't say that HD-DVD is the winner, but on price only, it beats anything else. And at BestBuy, HD-DVD movies cost less than Blu-Ray.... For the same movie.

Way to go Sony, how to kill another format.

[Alladaskill17]

I think HD-DVD will win. Just my personal opinion.

[LunarFalcon]

I think the price of the movies themselves will have to come down more before they really get mainstream. A lot of people don't want to pay $25-$40 per title when they can get the DVD of the same title for $15-$20

[Marshalus Veteran]

I've said it from the beginning, HD-DVD will win vs Blu-Ray because of the name.

People know what HD means, they know what DVD means, putting them together = "ooh, cool, high def DVD!"

Howard Stern was doing a plug on his show for some Sony Vaio computer the other day with a built in BluRay player and half way though it he was like "what the f$*# is BluRay???" -- I laughed so hard I nearly pee'd myself ;)

[TruckWEB]

Mini-Disc was very popular in Asia and the Middle East. (still is being used)

As for memory stick, that's just a proprietary memory format, just as mmc, sd, transflash etc... are

Only used in Sony devices. You wont find Memory Stick in anything else. It's SD or Compac Flash.

[kylejn]

HD-DVD beats Blu-Ray in price and quality. There's no way it can lose unless Sony does something sleazy like use its Playstation brand loyalty to force consumers to buy Blu-Ray players, thus increasing market share.

Oh, wait...

[Marshalus Veteran]

SD isn't proprietary, it's in everything these days. Hell my Dell laptop has an SD port.

[xxdesmus]

I'd have to agree. HD-DVD is on track to have a much biggger marketshare by the end of 2006/start of 2007.

I love that fact that Sony absolutely sucks at making up digital formats (as the past has shown). :laugh:

[User6060]

I've said it from the beginning, HD-DVD will win vs Blu-Ray because of the name.

People know what HD means, they know what DVD means, putting them together = "ooh, cool, high def DVD!"

Howard Stern was doing a plug on his show for some Sony Vaio computer the other day with a built in BluRay player and half way though it he was like "what the f$*# is BluRay???" -- I laughed so hard I nearly pee'd myself ;)

That's what I'm thinking, people see the name HD-DVD and they immediately know what the product is. Plus its sounds like the next logical step for formats. But don't expect HD movies to take off for atleast another year beause there are some titles that are Blu-ray exclusive.

[dheaddy]

Although HD-DVD seems slightly inferior on paper, the prospect of HD-DVD/DVD hybrid discs are a massive selling point for me. The market will struggle to be weaned off DVDs as it is, and interoperability will certainly help with this.

Today I got some promotional stuff from Comet (an electrical retailer), and on the back was an HD-DVD player for ?499 and a blu-ray player for ?999:pinch:h:

For me, I can't fathom why blu-ray is so much more expensive. I know the 2 formats are based on essentially the same technology, but is it because DVD manufacturing plants can be modified to produce HD-DVDs whereas blu-ray means investing in new capital and fabrication plants? Someone please educate m:):)

[kronix2]

These types of discs are great, buy a hybrid DVD today, and use it on your DVD player now. When your ready to make the jump to HD, your entire collection will be HD by just purchasing an HD-DVD player. Pretty smart, if you ask me.

That's the best reason to choose HD-DVD over Blu-Ray. That is unless DVD/Blu-Ray hybrid discs pop up, if that's feasible.

Now, if only Microsoft were to release an updated 360 with a built in HD-DVD drive once the cost drops to an additional $100 or so, and release games on the hybrid HD-DVD/DVD format. The HD-DVD layer would contain higher quality textures, sound and FMV, and the DVD layer would allow owners of the first generation 360 to still play the latest games.

One can dream. :cry:

[thagame]

Agreed, many consumers are still loving DVDs. I don't think many people want to rebuy some of their movies on HD-DVD or buy an expensive standalone player.

true enough but if i HAD to get a player, i think a $200 hd-dvd is more on my mind then a $1000 blu-ray

[Tech Star]

HD-DVD will not WIN. Neither will Blu-Ray for a WHILE....there is no telling right now.

[strotee]

This article is another example of analysts and haters of Sony "blowing their load" way too fast. The PS3 hasn't even been out for 2 weeks and people are already writing it off. So so foolish.

This article doesn't take into account the tens of millions of PS3s that will sell in the coming years. For each PS3 that sells, there's another Blu-Ray player sold. The same cannot be said for the 360; one needs to buy a separate accessory to play high definition movies. I would hate to be the one who has to make more room in the entertainment center when it could have been built-in.

Who knows, maybe HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will both fizzle out, not take flight, and some new, kick-ass format is born that sweeps the market.

Bottom line: Don't write off Sony and Blu-Ray just yet. It's very foolish.

There's a reason MS had that $100 sale on Amazon for their core system. They're desperate to sell systems.