Expect Two Winners in the HD Disc Format War

[kennyt]

HiDefBob,

Awesome TV you are getting. I saw it @ CEDIA and almost replaced my bedroom plasma with it on the spot!

[DaViD Boulet]

Regardless of how long this format war takes to emerge with a single "winner", the video gaming paradigm and its ability to foster multiple incompatible formats/systems has abasolutely NOTHING to do with movie-entertainment media or consumers.

NOTHING.

To use the gaming model to support the argument that dual-HD formats can co-exists is a false construct. Even *if* two movie HD formats can co-exist, the gaming model is not the arguement to build upon.

[Tristan]

This continual whining about "you have to buy" one of the formats (or more ridiculously both)on this site is starting to take on the tone of desperation. Which manufacterer do you own stock in (or work for)? How stupid do they think consumers are? Certainly the backers of two formats insult the consumer. Some of you may have unlimited funds to spend on multiple formats--fine, go to it. For my part, I will not buy until the price is where DVD players are now (one format and still multiple options and low prices from competition) for dual format players. Barring that, I hope the players and the movies sit on the shelves.

[AJones]

Hopefully everyone will not take the position of Tristan. We might still be in the age of Laser Discs and VHS. I for one hope that both formats succeed especially since I own both an HD DVD player and a Blu Ray. It is hard for me to watch standard definition DVD's anymore after having watch HD for six months now. However both my Toshiba XA2 and Sony BDP-1 are very good at upconverting SD discs. I own over 70 HD discs now (out of a collection of over 2000) and have gotten to the position on new movies that if it is not being released in HD I will rent and wait for the HD release before I buy. I was happy to see Pan's Labyrinth will be out this yeari n HD. My advice to anyone with an HDTV, especially a 1080P set to take the plunge. You won't regret it, because if everyone sits on the sidelines waiting for a winner we may all be losers.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by Tristan

This continual whining about "you have to buy" one of the formats (or more ridiculously both)on this site is starting to take on the tone of desperation. Which manufacterer do you own stock in (or work for)? How stupid do they think consumers are? Certainly the backers of two formats insult the consumer. Some of you may have unlimited funds to spend on multiple formats--fine, go to it. For my part, I will not buy until the price is where DVD players are now (one format and still multiple options and low prices from competition) for dual format players. Barring that, I hope the players and the movies sit on the shelves.

Wow!
I see what is being said here not as "desperation or whining" but as helping to drive people to get the most out of their HDTV's, While between OTA & DirecTV I finally have a good choice of HD content none of it compares to a pure uncompressed 1080p signal from a Blu-Ray disc!.
In case you haven't noticed there are a lot of "early Adopters" on these forums & early adopters are what drive evolution in the CE business.
The market share of HD-DVD & Blu-Ray are just a tiny fraction of DVD, but 10 years ago DVD was just a small fraction of VHS.
Sure not everyone can afford the newest & greatest gear but a lot of them will get in on that tech sooner rather than later, those same people look to the early adopters to see what they might get in the future.

I'm a Firefighter so I'm a long way from having "unlimited funds" but I picked up my PS3 in November of 06 & I didn't buy a single game with it (but have several now), I bought several Blu-Ray movies instead & I'm glad I did, I'm enjoying the best HD picture possible now, not a couple of years from now.

You can get a DVD player now for $50, if you wait till the high def players get that cheap you are going to miss out on a lot of great content.
If as you say "I hope the players and the movies sit on the shelves" then you may never have the chance to see just how good of a picture your HDTV can really have because instead of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD you will be buying compressed HD downloads from Microsoft, and that won't be good for anyone but Microsoft!

As for your question "How stupid do they think consumers are"? well they can obviously be quite stupid!
From a poll I saw not long ago 25% or more of people who have HDTV's do not have an HD signal going to them But think that since it's a HDTV everything on it is in HD!
So Yea consumers can be pretty stupid!

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by AJones

Hopefully everyone will not take the position of Tristan. We might still be in the age of Laser Discs and VHS. I for one hope that both formats succeed especially since I own both an HD DVD player and a Blu Ray. It is hard for me to watch standard definition DVD's anymore after having watch HD for six months now. However both my Toshiba XA2 and Sony BDP-1 are very good at upconverting SD discs. I own over 70 HD discs now (out of a collection of over 2000) and have gotten to the position on new movies that if it is not being released in HD I will rent and wait for the HD release before I buy. I was happy to see Pan's Labyrinth will be out this yeari n HD. My advice to anyone with an HDTV, especially a 1080P set to take the plunge. You won't regret it, because if everyone sits on the sidelines waiting for a winner we may all be losers.

I'm the same way, I haven't bought a DVD since I got my PS3, I'll wait till I can get it in HD!