HD Disc Format War Not Over By a Long Shot

[ScottV]

It's over, When I walked into my local BB, I noticed that the space devoted to Blu-Ray was over twice the space allocated to HD-DVD. They were equal before Christmas. Anyone contemplating buying a player will have an easy decision to make once seeing that. Also, I have my PS3 for atleast 6 months and have used it mostly as a moive player and have never had a problem with the HDMI connection. As for firmware updates, I'm glad it does it from time to time - things always have some bugs in them and with a wireless network connection, I always know I'm up to date.

Scott

[1more4HDDVD]

No, it’s not over. What makes everyone so sure there won’t be positive HD DVD studio announcements? What about the remaining studios that have yet to receive a big incentive check, you don’t think the HD DVD side is negotiating with them?

One more studio starts supporting HD DVD and then you have a $150 player with 7 free movies + 4 major supporting studios (UNI, PM, DW + another). That’s a pretty attractive platform and a low risk for many people.

Until Paramount or Universal leave HD DVD, this thing is not over.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by bootman

Need movies (studio support) to win.

Hmmm... it really looks like MS is actually buying a large portion of that chart.

It will look a lot more even and the $150 players will be that much more enticing.

Plus as Jerry stated they are also about to show Disney and MGM a whole lot of cash.

Sony owning 20% of MGM won't be enough to stop them from going either. It wasn't enough to stop MGM from using FOX to distribute their video over Sony.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by bootman

Does this article give the impression Microsoft is still 100% behind HD-DVD?

http://www.tvpredictions.com/gates010908.htm

That article is horrible. Gates states his software is neutral. He also said that HDi was HD-DVD and why HD-DVD was in his opinion better. Sure is lousy journalism or more like propoganda to leave. He also states MS has no plans to release any BD product for 360 but "the option is there for 3rd parties."

MS is not neutral in this war and they aren't backing BD.

[FinanceBuzz]

I think you are bit out of touch with reality on this one. Is the format way over? No. Is the Blu Ray taking a decided advantage? Yep. A $99 price point is great, but who cares if it will not play anything but yesterday's movie releases and ordinary DVDs? There has to be players, but there has to be content as well.

Also, you talk about mainstream buyers not looking seriously at PS3 units because they do not have a RS-232? I doubt the average user does not even know what RS-232 is nor do they have a need for it. Are you right that some people think video game first and movie player second and, as such, dismiss the PS3 for such reasons.

[MoosePond]

The war may not yet be over but I'd hate to have my future tied to HD-DVD at the moment. At CES last week it was obvious from their respective booths which format was garnering the most attention. The overly crowded Blu-ray booth was "happening" with a giant replica of a "Pirates" ship and lifesize Simpson's statues whereas the HD-DVD booth was boring and nearly deserted (despite a sign claiming that they had over 1,000 titles "worldwide").