HD-DVD discussion

[Draesk]

Heh: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7187179.stm

[TC]

so... WB got paid off?

As you all know, Warner Brothers went Blu-Ray, but rumor has it that the WB was rewarded with a fat stack ($500 million!!) of cash money for their choice.

The story goes like this: Warner was seeing its DVD sales slump because of the format war and wanted to end it quickly. They preferred HD-DVD, but going Blu would end it sooner. They gave Toshiba a chance if they could get another Blu-Ray studio to switch.

FOX was apparently lined up, but dropped at the last minute due to a reported $120 million payout by Sony.

This lead Warner to go Blu-Ray as well. If true, this is $620 million of payouts by Sony.

Tough luck, Toshiba. You win this game with your checkbook, not lower prices.

[darkness]

Warner has denied any payoff of cash, and I certainly doubt it would be that much. More likely they got a bit of cash and a lot of "marketing incentives." So yeah, they were paid off. But Toshiba was trying to do the same, so there's no real reason to get outraged. Warner just decided blu was the way to go to end the format war and took Sony's money instead of Toshiba's.

[Draesk]

I wonder what this place would've been like if it had been around for the VHS/Betamax wars.

[darkness]

I wonder what this place would've been like if it had been around for the VHS/Betamax wars.

No need to wonder. Just take these same posts, insert "Beta" where you see "HD-DVD" and "VHS" where you see "Blu-ray."
Personally, I never touched VHS if I could help it. I was a laserdisc person.

[Draesk]

No need to wonder. Just take these same posts, insert "Beta" where you see "HD-DVD" and "VHS" where you see "Blu-ray."
Personally, I never touched VHS if I could help it. I was a laserdisc person.

Interesting that you should pair them in that order.

[darkness]

Interesting that you should pair them in that order.

Well beta and hd-dvd are both the losing formats, and vhs and blu-ray are the winning ones. Personally I consider hd-dvd slightly superior in that blu-ray is still playing catch up on stuff like secondard video decoders and online interactivity. Though the difference between hd-dvd and blu-ray are not quite as big as it was with beta and vhs.

[O-dot]

IMDb:

People Happy With DVD, Not Likely To Switch to Hi-Def, Says Study

Relatively few consumers are planning to make the transition from DVDs to high-definition HD DVD or Blu-ray, according to a survey by NPD Group. The researchers said that among owners of HDTV sets, seven out of 10 say they see no need to purchase high-definition players, maintaining that they are satisfied with the quality of their current players. "one of the main challenges for the next-generation" format, NPD Group senior entertainment industry analyst Russ Crupnick told Bloomberg News, "is you have a product out there that is pretty darn good in consumers' eyes."

[Draesk]

Gotta agree with them. As far as joe punter is concerned, this is just more cost for very little gain.

[TC]

Gotta agree with them. As far as joe punter is concerned, this is just more cost for very little gain.

nah, the same football fans that rushed out to buy HD-TVs because of the picture will be the same guys to rush out and buy an HD DVD player of one format or the other as soon as they realize they exist, and/or as soon as sports DVDs come out in that format. i don't buy this at all. it's the same BS they spewed when DVDs came out regarding laserdisc players and VHS players, or when CDs came out regarding vinyl sources.

[darkness]

Naw, the football fans are a more zealos bunch than movie folks. I think we'll see a slower adoption. More likely what will happen is that manufacturers will slowly phase out SD dvd players as the prices on blu-ray players drop, thus next time J6P goes to buy a new dvd player they'll end up getting a blu-ray player by default. Since all blu-ray players play SD dvds as well, it won't make much difference to them. But as prices on blu-ray discs drop as well to SD dvd levels, people will start buying the HD discs instead since they already have a player. So you won't see as many people replacing their existing dvd collection, but they'll start buying new releases in the hd format.

[Draesk]

What Mike said.

[klimov]

So... I've ended up stuck with my HD-DVD player

I had a batch of discs on order and, bizarelly, most of them worked. Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut and The Wild Bunch played fine. Blade Runner seized up a couple of times and I had to restart, but was still watchable I guess. And then even the Zidane disc sort of started half-working, if I skip forward a chapeter and start from there. Which leaves the only total non-player to be my scratched-to-fuck Miami Vice disc. Not sure how this happened, quite a temperamental bit of technology.

I'm now very torn on whether to buy any more discs, however. I wouldn't mind the remaining Kubricks + Mutiny on the Bounty and I hear that There Will Be Blood may be an HD-DVD release. But it sort of feels like I'll be stuck with a bunch of unplayable discs in a year ot so's time...

For now I've just put the thing aside, tbh. Maybe I'll conme back to it when I've got more time, maybe I'll get an extra disc or two. Or maybe I'll just pick up a Japanese PS3 along with the Blu-Ray
of Assassination of Jesse James if the funds eventually allow it.

Full Metal Jacket in HD fucking rocks, btw. Sigh.

[darkness]

Miami Vice is a more problematic disc because it has a lot of interactive features which require more of the player. Most of the Warner titles you mention are pretty much straight forward play the film and extras are seperate, so less is required of the player.

There Will Be Blood would be an hd-dvd release here in the US anyway as Paramount owns the home video rights.

I'm actually thinking of picking of a A35 once they go on sale a bit cheaper. I figure I already have about 100 hd-dvd discs, I might as well get a newer player for them in case my A1 dies one day.

[Draesk]

Aaaand another one goes Blu-Ray - this time, it's Netflix's turn to jump ship.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... -winner-hd

[darkness]

Best Buy is going to start pushing blu-ray heavily, and Wal-mart just went blu-ray exclusive. Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Toshiba is going to call it quits on hd-dvd soon, possibily within a few weeks. Lots of indie studios have been lining up behind blu-ray in the last few weeks. At this point, HD-DVD is pretty much dead. It just doesn't seem to know it yet.

[Draesk]

Best Buy is going to start pushing blu-ray heavily, and Wal-mart just went blu-ray exclusive. Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Toshiba is going to call it quits on hd-dvd soon, possibily within a few weeks. Lots of indie studios have been lining up behind blu-ray in the last few weeks. At this point, HD-DVD is pretty much dead. It just doesn't seem to know it yet.

Hmm, indeed.

Also, http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... er-blu-ray

[chainsaw]

R.I.P. HD DVD - The fat lady has sung.
http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=67053

Toshiba planning "withdrawal" from HD DVD
Japanese broadcaster NHK has just announced Toshiba's intention to withdraw from the HD DVD format. NHK says that Toshiba's factory has already ceased production of HD DVD equipment, although it will still be available on sale for the time being. This is the final blow to the ailing format, which has been on a downward slide since being dropped by Warner Bros earlier this year.

The news has now been confirmed by Reuters:

"We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business," said the source, who asked not to be identified. He added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.

This withdrawal will bring about the long-overdue conclusion of a single high definition disc format, and will mean "losses running to tens of billions of yen" for Toshiba. Unnamed officials from the company suggest poor marketing as the reason behind the format's demise.

[darkness]

Looks like the official press conference where Toshiba puts the nail in the hd-dvd coffin is coming later today (5 pm Tokyo time on Tuesday). Maybe now I can pick up a A35 cheap. They're already down to $225 on Amazon, hopefully they'll drop even lower.

[Draesk]

I'd hate to be a Toshiba exec right around now.