HD Disc Format War Not Over By a Long Shot

[JerryDelColliano]

Originally Posted by richard1976

hd and blu_ray are fighting for a market that might not possibly be around in the next couple of year because of downloadable content, but just remember there are some of us that appreciate the quality of 1080p picture and lossless sound. just because some of us can get by on the mediocre doesn't mean that it's the general standard accepted by everyone. It seems that we live in a time that just viewing a movie is good enough regardles of how it's showing , take downloading the latest blockbuster from bitcomet recorded using a camcorder for instance.
Quality.Quality.Quality, thats all i'm interested in, I don't want near dvd quality when i can have dvd quality, I don't want near hi def quality when i can have hi def quality. I'm sure you wouldn't buy a car that can get you 3/4 the way to work so you can walk the rest.

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Richard,

Welcome to AVRevForum.com!

Downloadable video is here and its big business. Look at Apple's stock price. Its not all laptops and iPods. They sell music and movies too. More movies than HD DVD and Blu-ray say some sources.

The problem IS - Apple doesn't care about high resolution anything. 120,000,000 iPods sold and they are claiming 1/4 CD resolution audio is somehow "HD" and only SOME of their tracks have that level of resolution. Ease of use is the name of the game and mainstream consumers EAT IT UP and that is what you should be afraid of.

HD DVD and Blu-ray offer a high-end, HD experience NOW. Early adopters need to embrace them now and make them a success or people like you and I who LOVE HD will be left out in the COLD with HD download movies just like we were with DVD-Audio and SACD. Trust me, when bandwidth is the issue - picture quality will suffer on a downloaded movie. Yes - it might be easy for people to download but when you want the best - a download won't be that until there is a MAJOR increase in bandwidth on the Internet.

[1more4HDDVD]

Originally Posted by bootman

If that was my weakest point against the title of this thread, then so be it.
The Warner decision has mortally wounded HD-DVD.
Threads like this splashed on the front page of a popular HT website IMO are misleading the public to think otherwise.

Has anyone seen the latest Nielsen sales numbers yet?
Or are they too "old news"?

In all fairness, the 85:15 week also had an Amazon sale for Blu-ray and the new release “day and dates” were also heavily in Blu-ray’s favor. There were a lot of things going against HD DVD that week, in addition to the Warner announcement. I look on Amazon today and I see two HD DVD players ranked before any Blu-ray players and I also see Planet Earth HD DVD creeping back up to pre Warner announcement levels.

But that’s all beside the point. If you read the original posting, Jerry was not implying the war is still anyone’s game under current conditions. He was saying there are still moves to be made and until those moves are made, this thing is not over.

If next week we learn that two more studios are going to start supporting HD DVD, then not only are they back in the game, but HD DVD (with $150 players) might actually be the favorite to win the format war. Things can change that quickly. You can bet the HD DVD companies are doing whatever they can for studio support, let’s see what happens…

[Robinson_A]

Originally Posted by JerryDelColliano

The problem IS - Apple doesn't care about high resolution anything. 120,000,000 iPods sold and they are claiming 1/4 CD resolution audio is somehow "HD" and only SOME of their tracks have that level of resolution. Ease of use is the name of the game and mainstream consumers EAT IT UP and that is what you should be afraid of.

HD DVD and Blu-ray offer a high-end, HD experience NOW. Early adopters need to embrace them now and make them a success or people like you and I who LOVE HD will be left out in the COLD with HD download movies just like we were with DVD-Audio and SACD. Trust me, when bandwidth is the issue - picture quality will suffer on a downloaded movie. Yes - it might be easy for people to download but when you want the best - a download won't be that until there is a MAJOR increase in bandwidth on the Internet.

Apple does care about HD and is taking the necessary steps to ensure they are in the HD game plus, Apple is the only company with complete studio support for their efforts. While we can bicker back and forth about HD DVD vs Blu-ray Apple has gone and done with neither of the two camps can do and that is get everyone on board with this new iTunes video roll out. Yes it's only 720p and it's going to be a gradual roll out but it is HD and as soon as those iPod viewing consumers get their hands on it, they're going to change the video market place just as they did with music.

Love it or hate it, iTunes and Apple are here to stay and maybe, just maybe, snuck into this little format war through the back door while the rest of the industry was fighting over bragging rights and who's d*#k is bigger. With complete studio support and with 20th Century beginning to include digital playback files (copies of the movie you can drag into iTunes for viewing without the disc) on all new releases, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we woke up one day and went where did HD DVD and Blu-ray go?

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by Robinson_A

Apple does care about HD and is taking the necessary steps to ensure they are in the HD game plus, Apple is the only company with complete studio support for their efforts. While we can bicker back and forth about HD DVD vs Blu-ray Apple has gone and done with neither of the two camps can do and that is get everyone on board with this new iTunes video roll out. Yes it's only 720p and it's going to be a gradual roll out but it is HD and as soon as those iPod viewing consumers get their hands on it, they're going to change the video market place just as they did with music.

Love it or hate it, iTunes and Apple are here to stay and maybe, just maybe, snuck into this little format war through the back door while the rest of the industry was fighting over bragging rights and who's d*#k is bigger. With complete studio support and with 20th Century beginning to include digital playback files (copies of the movie you can drag into iTunes for viewing without the disc) on all new releases, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we woke up one day and went where did HD DVD and Blu-ray go?

What is getting ready to happen is another war, this one between download formats between Apple & Microsoft.
I imagine the discussions have ended in Redmond on how to beat Blu-Ray & is now focused on rolling out their own download format.

This "distraction" of HDVD's sugar daddy is an opportunity to end the HDM war & let Blu-Ray build up it's base & become fully entrenched while the download formats fight it out over who has the bigger D*#k!

I'm still convinced that the majority of people prefer a physical format & if HDM strikes now they still have a chance to be a real format & not die a slow death like SACD & DVD-A.

[bootman]

Originally Posted by 1more4HDDVD

In all fairness, the 85:15 week also had an Amazon sale for Blu-ray and the new release “day and dates” were also heavily in Blu-ray’s favor. There were a lot of things going against HD DVD that week, in addition to the Warner announcement. I look on Amazon today and I see two HD DVD players ranked before any Blu-ray players and I also see Planet Earth HD DVD creeping back up to pre Warner announcement levels.

But that’s all beside the point. If you read the original posting, Jerry was not implying the war is still anyone’s game under current conditions. He was saying there are still moves to be made and until those moves are made, this thing is not over.

If next week we learn that two more studios are going to start supporting HD DVD, then not only are they back in the game, but HD DVD (with $150 players) might actually be the favorite to win the format war. Things can change that quickly. You can bet the HD DVD companies are doing whatever they can for studio support, let’s see what happens…

The way I see it the drop dead date is June 1 2008 since that is when Warner will no longer be releasing HD-DVDs.

You are right in that there is still time for Toshiba and company to try and make a move.
But the clock is ticking.....

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

What is getting ready to happen is another war, this one between download formats between Apple & Microsoft.
I imagine the discussions have ended in Redmond on how to beat Blu-Ray & is now focused on rolling out their own download format.

This "distraction" of HDVD's sugar daddy is an opportunity to end the HDM war & let Blu-Ray build up it's base & become fully entrenched while the download formats fight it out over who has the bigger D*#k!

I'm still convinced that the majority of people prefer a physical format & if HDM strikes now they still have a chance to be a real format & not die a slow death like SACD & DVD-A.

MS' LIVE service provided over 10,000,000 downloads last year in 720p.

So they already have the service and it's already being used more than HD-DVD and BD combined.

Also you're just repeating a conspiracy theory that some paranoid gits have. Michael Bay is very much Oliver Stone-like. It's a conspiracy with little grounding it to reality.

DLC is here already and is growing (faster than HDM). There are however two viable markets. Both can easily co-exist for a long, long, long time and be profitable.

So MS does care about HDM.