Is Sony Ready To Pull The Plug On Blu-ray?

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by glocksout

I guess we can argue back and forth, but we'll all just be guessing unless Stringer clarifies what he meant. But why people have to pull one word out of an entire interview and create all kinds of rumors about it is a ridiculous thing to do.

I don't believe he was talking about the war in general as the context for that "stalemate" word was packaged media.

Well I can see if someone here wants to interview him and set it up.

That would clarify it. I already know what he meant.... because it's also PLAINLY obvious. HD DVD player sales have lead all but 3 months in the past 18 months. HD DVD lead in software sales until the PS3 was released. HD DVD sold 90,000 units in one weekend. They moved software to lower the 2:1 lead. They had a title sell more than any other title so far on either side (I don't know the Spider-Man 3 numbers). A Studio changed alliances.

Things aren't changing. No one side is pulling away. Nothing seems to work to get units packaged with HDTVs.

Obviously they're in a stalemate. There is nothing right now to show that one side will pull away this holiday. So they'll still be fighting it out, but likely in lower than expected numbers because consumers just aren't catching on.

So I'd say it was in a stalemate a quagmire, you name it. For the CEO to admit it, is well surprising. However it appears it may be a good thing. He wants to find a way to win consumers.

[akbungle]

Originally Posted by Lotus

My God, you people look for anything you can to start a fight. He is talking about the war, then says "stalemate," then follows it up with what he thinks put it in a stale mate. Then he says the war isn't that important, that Sony is more interested in Software sales (for their Studio). He also mentions that the PS3 will still be around.

He then shows he has little understanding of Blu-Ray saying things like 6 hours of movies over bandwidth...

What he is personally doing behind the scenes as I type this has nothing to do with taking gloves off.

You be cute and distort, that's fine.
People that want to actually know should read the part of the interview I first put up and draw their own conclusions and not take it from a HD-DVD fanboy. I have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray but you shouldn't take it from me either. Just read it.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by akbungle

You be cute and distort, that's fine.
People that want to actually know should read the part of the interview I first put up and draw their own conclusions and not take it from a HD-DVD fanboy. I have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray but you shouldn't take it from me either. Just read it.

I'm not an HD DVD fan boy. I don't own either. Currently I have a unit from Samsung that plays both. I'm finding that BD does have a better picture on some films at a level that HD DVD hasn't yet reached, and may not be able to.

Also I'm not the one distorting anything. Point to any other interview, statement, etc. by ANYONE at Sony that never says "We're winning, we have the best, we're happy, we expect to win." He doesn't say anything like that in there. Never has anyone from Sony ever had that attitude in an interview. That is the reason the press is jumping on this.

Do I think the title is a dangerous one to this thread? Yes. Do I think my thread titled Sony ready to raise a White Flag is as leading? No. Sony in the form of Stringer does want to find a way to entice consumers to buy into High Definition. Nothing is really working with the exception of possibly a $98 player.

For all but 3 months, Toshiba has outsold EVERY BD manufacturer combined every month. Throw in the 360 addon, and for "movie playback only," units and BD in standalone players is getting killed. The millions of PS3s are the only thing causing the 2:1 software sales lead.

Still even if you combined both HD DVD and BD standalone player sales, they both don't add up to what Sony thought they (BD Group) could sell in one year (and they're well past the one year point). Sales are not close to half of what was expected in software.

This is a real problem. This is SACD/DVD A battle all over again.

The consumers are not buying. I believe I've read that less than 3% of people buying an HDTV are buying either format. That is horrible. Consider that millions of HDTVs are sold every month, but combined the high def players are barely scratching 150,000 units. The best week any of them ever had was the 90,000 weekend by Toshiba.

Something has to be done. Is it just price that is holding them back?

If that is the case, then Sony needs a 1080i unit on shelves selling for $199.

[akbungle]

Originally Posted by Lotus

The one person at Toshiba I talked to about it laughed it off as more negative BS from the BD camp and said "it's just another layer on the disc, but I suppose the BD triple layer and quad layer BDs will work just fine right?" Then he laughed some more. He went into the technical side of it with me, and he's right there is no reason it shouldn't work fine. Just as there was no reason the BD DLs shouldn't have worked fine (but some online were saying wouldn't work with their players). It's more negativity from opposing camps because they fear losing or some nonsense.

You sure sound like a HD-DVD fan boy to me.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by Lotus View Post
The one person at Toshiba I talked to about it laughed it off as more negative BS from the BD camp and said "it's just another layer on the disc, but I suppose the BD triple layer and quad layer BDs will work just fine right?" Then he laughed some more. He went into the technical side of it with me, and he's right there is no reason it shouldn't work fine. Just as there was no reason the BD DLs shouldn't have worked fine (but some online were saying wouldn't work with their players). It's more negativity from opposing camps because they fear losing or some nonsense.

And would this "one person" you talked to at Toshiba be in marketing?

For all but 3 months, Toshiba has outsold EVERY BD manufacturer combined every month. Throw in the 360 addon, and for "movie playback only," units and BD in standalone players is getting killed.

Do you think it matters to the studios that HD-DVD has been selling more standalones than Blu-Ray or do you think it matters more that Blu-Ray movies are outselling HD-DVD movies 2-1??

The millions of PS3s are the only thing causing the 2:1 software sales lead.

Once again do you think the studios think that since the 2-1 sales advantage by Blu-Ray is just because of the PS3 so they are going to ignore it?

PS3 sales are up 300% & Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean at Worlds End, Die Hard 4, Cars, Ratatouille & others only on Blu-Ray I see the 2-1 gap in sales increasing & that is the only thing the studios care about.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by akbungle

You sure sound like a HD-DVD fan boy to me.

Go to AVS and start calling people names over there.

I'd love it if BD was priced aggressively, had all studio support, etc. I'd buy it hands down.

The problem is their is a less expensive unit out there that gives you 95% of the performance and it has some Studio support the other side doesn't have.

I'm sorry I'm pointing out how negative you sound for getting on someone for defending the fact that a triple layer disc will work just fine. You sound just as dumb and ignorant as the idiots who said BD DL discs wouldn't work.

It's just juvenile. It's like your toy must be better than the other toy. God forbid they come out with a disc with one whole GB more storage! Will that change much?

Sure, it will allow for less compression, and more data to be stored. It won't increase the bandwidth edge that BD has and is using on certain titles to provide a better image than HD DVD has yet shown.

So I don't understand why you BD backers attack the information. It's just as stupid HD DVD backers attacking facts. It's dumb.