Retailers see format war dragging on


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well that would have been great had all the major studios jumped to support hddvd.

but bluray is dropping in price. hddvd/BD media has had similar prices and you can generally find movies in the low 20's. of course as one format picks up rentals will grow too. the players are going to drop as well. not in 3-4 years. maybe thats a good thing thats come out of this war.. cheaper players sooner, regardless of the format, compared to the first 1-2 years of dvd.

HD distribution online or through IPTV will take a long time. and even if its viable for several tech-savvy consumers, it wont grow fast with the general public. we're not even close to having the infrastructure for that kind of distribution

Have you looked at XstreamHD? It is a perfect distribution model - no Internet connection required.

Of course Blu-Ray is dropping in price. Maybe I should have stated 2-3 years instead of 3-4. Affordable for the average consumer is sub $100, and I'm not talking about outdated Profile 1.1 players - I want sub-$100 profile 2.0 players. Since a Profile 2.0 player doesn't exist, and the cheapest standalone quality BD player is around $500, I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that it will take 2-3 years for BD players to drop to sub-$100.

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Have you looked at XstreamHD? It is a perfect distribution model - no Internet connection required.

Of course Blu-Ray is dropping in price. Maybe I should have stated 2-3 years instead of 3-4. Affordable for the average consumer is sub $100, and I'm not talking about outdated Profile 1.1 players - I want sub-$100 profile 2.0 players. Since a Profile 2.0 player doesn't exist, and the cheapest standalone quality BD player is around $500, I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that it will take 2-3 years for BD players to drop to sub-$100.

What's with all the ex-HD DVD camp pushing XstreamHD all of the sudden. I never heard about it one bit before now and suddenly it is the best thing ever? Its just VOD but at 1080p over a satellite connection right?

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I don't understand how HD-dvd is getting creamed. It had like a 6 month or more headstart over Blu-Ray and it was suppose to be cheaper to make for the companies because they could use the same dvd factories and such, whereas blu-ray required new processes.

I don't understand how they weren't able to translate those suppose advantages into a win. While I personally wanted blu-ray to win, when they first came out, in terms of supposed cost savings to the studios HD-dvd seemed liked the winner.

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What's with all the ex-HD DVD camp pushing XstreamHD all of the sudden. I never heard about it one bit before now and suddenly it is the best thing ever? Its just VOD but at 1080p over a satellite connection right?

pretty much, jsut like sky anytime we have in the UK, not really revolutionary, just evolutionary

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Haha, such anger on both sides. HD-DVD isn't a dead format, it's just not going to be used like Blue-ray will. The smartest thing to do is drop HD-DVD and release a dual format player. The HD-DVD profile is finalized anyway right? At least I think that would be the smart thing to do in my opinion. Saves a whole lot of time re-releasing all those HD-DVD discs.

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Have you looked at XstreamHD? It is a perfect distribution model - no Internet connection required.

Of course Blu-Ray is dropping in price. Maybe I should have stated 2-3 years instead of 3-4. Affordable for the average consumer is sub $100, and I'm not talking about outdated Profile 1.1 players - I want sub-$100 profile 2.0 players. Since a Profile 2.0 player doesn't exist, and the cheapest standalone quality BD player is around $500, I don't think it is unreasonable to assume that it will take 2-3 years for BD players to drop to sub-$100.

i've been reading about xSreamHD. i think its a good idea, but no where close to perfect. but do we have full studio support & cheap price? arent they talking about 400 for first 'STB'? it still cant completely replace an physical optical format for most people that may like to keep library of favourite movies. at the end it may just end up like any other satellite service? what about prices for renting or purchasing movies?

i guess you could do that now with a BD player & rent movies, no?

i think profile 1.1 players will be more common and hit $200 mark pretty soon. 2.0 adds network/internet connectivity. i find it hard to believe that the general public is looking for these kind of features.

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What's with all the ex-HD DVD camp pushing XstreamHD all of the sudden. I never heard about it one bit before now and suddenly it is the best thing ever? Its just VOD but at 1080p over a satellite connection right?

It's just 1080p VOD? This is fantastic! If the movies are reasonably priced, and enough studios sign on, what's there not to like? No $500 players, no concerns about profiles, no supporting Sony's antics, plus the movies are instantly delivered.

Imagine being able to browse a catalog of thousands of movies, picking one to watch, and instantly watching it in 1080p. What's there not to like?

The reason many ex-HD-DVD fans are pushing this is because it has the potential to be cheaper and a better model of movie distribution than Sony's expensive Blu-Ray.

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But then you dont get all the extra features that you HD DVD fans keep shoving in Blu-Ray fans faces with profiles this profiles that.

So as long as its not Blu-Ray youd be willing to forego with ANY extras.

Also im guessing this service will have as much DRM as Blu-Ray does with it being a digital format rather than a physical medium.

Hippocrites.

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But then you dont get all the extra features that you HD DVD fans keep shoving in Blu-Ray fans faces with profiles this profiles that.

So as long as its not Blu-Ray youd be willing to forego with ANY extras.

Also im guessing this service will have as much DRM as Blu-Ray does with it being a digital format rather than a physical medium.

Hippocrites.

The main reason I've been supporting HD-DVD is the price - if it is a choice of not being able to watch HD content at all or watching HD content with no extras, guess which I'm going to choose.

Hippocrites

Those stupid hippos! :D

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I don't understand how HD-dvd is getting creamed. It had like a 6 month or more headstart over Blu-Ray and it was suppose to be cheaper to make for the companies because they could use the same dvd factories and such, whereas blu-ray required new processes.

I don't understand how they weren't able to translate those suppose advantages into a win. While I personally wanted blu-ray to win, when they first came out, in terms of supposed cost savings to the studios HD-dvd seemed liked the winner.

Sony spent much more on advertising, the PS3 included a blu-ray drive which if it didn't help blu-ray sales, it makes people think it's somehow better... and it didn't help that all the ignorant drones that work in all of the electronics stores touted blu-ray as the best/better and the naive consumers ate it up.

Both formats are very good, as for movies there is not really a difference, blu-ray has always had that size advantage (which was going to be leveled anyway) but if anything when they were initially released, HD DVD was better because of the finalized specs, cheaper production costs, etc. Studio support obviously was in favor of blu-ray however.

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It's just 1080p VOD? This is fantastic! If the movies are reasonably priced, and enough studios sign on, what's there not to like? No $500 players, no concerns about profiles, no supporting Sony's antics, plus the movies are instantly delivered.

Imagine being able to browse a catalog of thousands of movies, picking one to watch, and instantly watching it in 1080p. What's there not to like?

The reason many ex-HD-DVD fans are pushing this is because it has the potential to be cheaper and a better model of movie distribution than Sony's expensive Blu-Ray.

Firstly, you have no idea whether their player will be cheaper than a Blu-Ray player when the service is released. Secondly, You don't know if the movies will be delivered "instantly". From their site it sounds like you'll have to download the movies to a hard drive first. Third, as pointed out earlier, since there are no extras, you don't have to concern yourself about profiles on Blu-Ray either if you don't intend to watch the extras. Fourth, no supporting Sony's antics? Have you looked at their site? there's a big "SONY Pictures" logo in one of their video's and a PS3 in another. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony had some support for this company.

Lastly the price, You have no idea if this will be cheaper than Blu-Ray movies when it is released. On top of the price they charge for movies, you're going to have to pay for a whole lot of Hard Drives if you're planning on keeping your movies. Assuming 25GB movies, and a 500GB Hard Drive for $100, every movies is going to cost you an extra $5 on top of whatever price they charge for the movie.

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Glad to hear this finally looks to be over. Good thing I returned my HD-DVD player yesterday. Only bad thing is, I have 2 movies I couldn't return. Thats $40 I won't get back, but atleast I got the $200 for the player back.

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lets keep in mind that a vhs tape and be encoded in 1080p. 1080p will probably have insane compression which will certainly result in image quality loss. And when it comes to HD content that would likely be counter productive since most people who buy HD are video and audio-philes. The nice thing about Blu-ray is that it has lossless audio and excellent picture quality.

It's just 1080p VOD? This is fantastic! If the movies are reasonably priced, and enough studios sign on, what's there not to like? No $500 players, no concerns about profiles, no supporting Sony's antics, plus the movies are instantly delivered.

Imagine being able to browse a catalog of thousands of movies, picking one to watch, and instantly watching it in 1080p. What's there not to like?

The reason many ex-HD-DVD fans are pushing this is because it has the potential to be cheaper and a better model of movie distribution than Sony's expensive Blu-Ray.

y

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if you check their site http://www.xstreamhd.com/ theres some info about it and some demos of how it works. kinda funny at some parts that they use the ps3 as a method for watching the downloaded movies

regardless, until this is final, and available to the general public - not just in a test in select areas - it cannot compete with an actual optical disc format. we've got no idea about final prices. maybe a unit at $400? then subscription fee? rental/ownership fees for movies downloaded?

i think it would best as a rental type service for HD movies. monthly fee of something like 25 to watch so many movies a month maybe? i wouldnt mind having that and being able to use a disc format to purchase movies that i enjoy more or would like to collect

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This is not good, about a month or so ago it was looking quite positive for HD-DVD, especially with sales of players

I just hope the movie companies change their mind eventually but i do get the feeling sony/the bluray assotiation paid off a lot of the movie companies to go blu exclusive

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Note that I'm not saying XstreamHD is the answer, as it definitely has flaws the more I look into it. Ideally I'd like to be able to pick a movie in a list and instantly watch it with no lag and no dependence on Internet speeds. If they can overcome some flaws, it (or a similar product) has the potential of being a serious competitor to HD optical formats. Right now, I'm just looking for cheaper alternatives to Blu-Ray, as it looks like the prices won't come down for a long time. The idea of XstreamHD is fantastic.

Oh, and to those wondering about the bitrate, it can supposedly stream up to 80Mbs, thus compression artifacts won't be an issue.

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2:00 pm ET January 10, 2008 -- The HD DVD Promotional Group is expected to release a statement this afternoon refuting claims that Universal is jumping ship to Blu-ray.

While it's not clear what the statement will say, HD DVD indicated at CES that it still had full support from Paramount and Universal -- the last two major Hollywood studios to be backing the format exclusively.

However, without actual exclusive contracts in place, Universal could still decide to switch allegiances in the future.

It's not clear what led to the Variety claims, but they follow similar rumors reported by the Financial Times -- and later disputed by the studio -- that Paramount would go Blu-ray only.

Sources close to the matter say that neither Variety or the Financial Times bothered to contact HD DVD for confirmation before publishing the rumors.

UPDATE:

5:00 pm ET January 10, 2008 -- Universal Studios has officially dispelled the rumors from Variety that it will drop HD DVD and switch to Blu-ray.

"Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment and also co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group.

The response would have come sooner, but many HD DVD executives were on flights home from CES when the story from Variety broke.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Universal_..._DVD/1199974983

Edited by Boz
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IMO I would not be suprised if they opted to try to get hd media as more of a data storage solution rather than film. given the events of the past week...

could be some kind of deal with the BDA, who knows?

as with universal and paramount, if one goes bd, the other will follow suit.

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The HD-DVD group really needs to take offensive action in this war if they intend to keep fighting. It's kind of like chess - if you always stay on the defensive and fail to take offensive action, you will probably lose.

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Please just let HD-DVD die and this war end. People have invested so much money into both formats and to have one die out later rather than now would be more of a huge loss than it already is.

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Please just let HD-DVD die and this war end. People have invested so much money into both formats and to have one die out later rather than now would be more of a huge loss than it already is.

Agreed. It's the customer who is losing money in this war, not knowing what is safe to buy.

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