Sony CEO Talks Blu-ray, PS3

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Sony CEO Howard Stringer isn’t one for saying crazy things but his rather straight-shooting comments regarding his own products seem to be stirring up just as much controversy. This time around Mr. Stringer’s comments that Blu-ray players won’t sink much below $400 and the PS3’s “momentum” is the same as the PS2 has fans and detractors alike in a buzz.

"It isn't the cheaper format, but it is the better format," Stringer said. He added that while HD DVD might have made inroads with price cuts on both hardware and software, Blu-ray hardware prices probably won't sink much below $400.
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Which means nobody will be buying them, studios will find it unreasonable to make BlueRay movies since the PS3 crowd doesn't buy many anyway and the format will die as far as movies go. As with UMD, it will remain a medium on which games will comes...nothing more.
 
Meh what does he know? He's just the CEO. It's the people that work for him that knows where the technology is going.
 
I think he is wrong about the 400 price mark. I am sure Fox will pressure them to lower prices when sales start to slump this season because people bought HD-DVD players and movies. Who cares really. I plan on getting both. HD-DVD now and then BD when the prices come down. Who knows though. Fox might leave BD anyways. The HD-DVD camp gets more press and hype. My family knows what an HD-DVD is. Most don't know what a Bluray is and what the difference might be.
 
Well for most Americans step 1 is getting a HDTV.

There's still some time for blu-ray to come back, but if I was shelling out 500-1000+ for a new TV I'm not so sure I'd be willing to shell out another 300 bucks for blu-ray when I could get a HD-DVD player instead.
 
Buh by BlueRay. It was a pain-in-the-ass to know you...
 
DesertCat said:
And now Consumer Reports reports hardly any difference between the output of Blu-ray and HD DVD. The top models of Blu-Ray and HD DVD players received identical scores. Amongst the rest, the biggest differences are in how well individual players upconvert SD content (and the HD A2 is 1080i while the rest tested are 1080p)

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/consumer-reports-blu-ray-hd-dvd-equal
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QFT. That's going to be my dealbreaker for me right there. My dad and I own a crapton of DVDs. Whichever one can upconvert to 1080p and do it well is going to sell us.
 
That is the most vapid and lacking article on the subject yet. Out of one side of his mouth he's saying "Blu Ray better! People will pay 4x more" out of the other he defeats himself with "Sony was waiting to see if the price reduction of the PS3 would be key to boosting sales, and indeed it was". This idiot's PR team should either perform ritual suicide or terminate him.


Blu Ray players will sell for under $400 all right, far under.
 
Too true Fooshink, how are you going to say "Buy my product at $400 not the competitors equivalent at $100" and expect sales to go up? It's almost as if he just doesnt think before he speaks.
 
endfro said:
Too true Fooshink, how are you going to say "Buy my product at $400 not the competitors equivalent at $100" and expect sales to go up? It's almost as if he just doesnt think before he speaks.
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NO ONE at sony thinks be for they speak
its like there PR department is run by Baghdad Bob
 
This is great news. If prices aren't going to get better than $400, I don't have to put off not buying one. I can not buy one today instead of waiting 6 more months to not buy one.
 
Price of the player is the first major turning point of this battle. I think the deciding factor will be who comes out with an affordable burner first, with affordable media. Pirates will decide the fate of this battle not movie studios.
 
if they arent going below $400, then they lost my business as well as that of mainstream America.

My Plasma only displays 1080i to begin with.

Oh and re: upconvert SD to 1080p...

I sincerely doubt you could tell the difference between a player upconverting a DVD to 1080i or 1080p for one simple reason:

the source content does not have enough data to fully flesh out 1080i much less 1080p. It will look identical; goto Best Buy and ahve them put it on two HDTVs side by side.

so that aspect is pointless

Blu-Ray is the superior technical format, no question. However price will do more to win this battle than anything else. The PS3/Hi Def aficionados are few and far between, personally I pity anyone who bought into Sony's marketing hype exepcting to buy the next PS2.
 
How did he get the job of CEO when he doesn't realize that price is one of the first aspects of concern to ANY consumer (rich or poor)

"It's better" -- if it was $300 dollars better I would not have any argument, but guess what.... its not. I personally didn't care about HD till I saw the Xbox360 HD drive for cheap, I was blown away by the quality for that price.

Once again Sony is an arrogant piece of shit company who thinks they can do no wrong... maybe Sony might have had a chance if they went back in time, made the PS3 play GAMES and not force people to buy something they don't give a crap about. Made a BluRay player that was cheap, standalone, and did its job with out all the PS3 crap integrated. Then they could sell it for a LOT LOT less.

I'm not ever the first to jump on new technology for consoles, so I wanted for a 360 to come down in price on its own, but I know if that if the HD DVD drive would have been bundled with it, i would have NOT bought one and coughed up the extra 200 bones. Why? because I wasn't ready for it at the time.

That is one dimension of the market I think a lot of people ignore is the fact that while bundles might be more economical consumers (like myself) react adversely to having something they don't know about or don't care about shoved down their throats because a company thinks its best. *I* know what's best for me damn it.

Sony - stick to making awesome LCD, Plasma, and SLR cameras... because you suck ass at video games and movies.
 
In researching the bargain HD DVD players, I've consistently run into the point that 1080i content fed into a 1080p TV will essentially be 1080p. Any decent 1080p TV has a de-interlacer that will remove any interlacing from the source material (e.g. a 1080i HD DVD or over-the-air broadcast). Since the input material is at the same resolution, there is no scaling or loss of data. The official HDTV over-the-air broadcast specs end at 1080i anyway, so people that have 1080p TVs are probably already used to content delivered in this way.

The only significant difference occurs for those that have a player and a TV that can do 1080p/24. Since movies are shot at 24 fps, the best display mode is to run the movie at 1080p and 24 Hz (or a multiple thereof). That requires one of the high end players (e.g. Toshiba XA2) and a TV that can run at 72 Hz (3:3 pulldown) or 120 Hz (5:5 pulldown). Only a few TVs actually support that and they tend to be the pricey models. The benefit is a little smoother motion in movies, but some may not even be able to note much difference.
 
"My family knows what an HD-DVD is. Most don't know what a Bluray is and what the difference might be."

That's the biggest problem right there. HD DVD? Well, uhh, it's DVD in HD. Bluray? No clue.

Second will be the price.

Third will be the content, but all distributors will eventually either do both or move to one camp and abandon the other. Sadly for Bluray, this trend is quite obviously towards HD DVD so far.

Fourth...technical merit. Honestly, when it comes to a standard format that you're trying to get people to adopt, technical merit is of lesser concern. Laserdisc vs cd? Other than geeks and engineers, no one really GAF.
 
DesertCat said:
In researching the bargain HD DVD players, I've consistently run into the point that 1080i content fed into a 1080p TV will essentially be 1080p. QUOTE]

he was discussing SD< standard definition content, being upconverted.

Read where he mentions his colleciton of DVDs, which are a high version of SD, 480p AT BEST (frequently 480i).

1080i upconverted to 1080p might make a small difference; the difference between upconvertaing a DVD into either 1080i or 1080p is non-existent b/c 1080is is so far above the 480i/p of a standard DVD that the content simply cannot be improved much more and in fact, will never look as good as a 720p or 1080i content source.
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HD-DVD is cheaper but only 1080i. Hard to find HD-DVD burner for the computer. I less titles in HD-DVD. Rumour has it that next gen will have 51 gigs per disk. 30 gigs at present.


BluRay More available on the computer level, more expensive but more of big corporations are supporting it. Also can get BluRay recorder for the computer. 1080P! 50 Gigs per disk max.

Way I see it depends on how many companies get behind either format and who has ability to record. For now for me its mixed bag. I rather have a recorder for BluRay and HD-DVD and compatibility as well to burn to either. More of advantage if they combine both.

For me its compatibility, price and features.

I can buy a recorder for BluRay but not one for HD-DVD and price of HD-DVD is cheaper but BluRay allows more widespread recorders.


My opi
 
Yep. 1080p v 1080i is a function of the player, not the format. All of the cheap Toshiba HD-DVD players sold recently were 1080i (1st gen and perhaps 2nd gen). The A30 and A35 do 1080p as well as the older XA2.
 
people should learn from history cause it repeats itself. when has sony won a format war with the consumers? beta max mini disc udm memory stick BR?
 
Night_Hawk-19 said:
HD-DVD is cheaper but only 1080i. Hard to find HD-DVD burner for the computer. I less titles in HD-DVD. Rumour has it that next gen will have 51 gigs per disk. 30 gigs at present.

BluRay More available on the computer level, more expensive but more of big corporations are supporting it. Also can get BluRay recorder for the computer. 1080P! 50 Gigs per disk max.

Way I see it depends on how many companies get behind either format and who has ability to record. For now for me its mixed bag. I rather have a recorder for BluRay and HD-DVD and compatibility as well to burn to either. More of advantage if they combine both.

For me its compatibility, price and features.

I can buy a recorder for BluRay but not one for HD-DVD and price of HD-DVD is cheaper but BluRay allows more widespread recorders.
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Even though you can buy a recorder for blu-ray, the disks are absurdly expensive. Blanks typically cost more than actual blu-ray movies at retail stores. The same can be said for any new proprietary format. It's possible that we won't see any widespread high-capacity media for a long time, you can't even find Dual-Layer DVDs for a decent price these days.

Right now you can get an xbox360 HD-DVD drive for $180 maximum, and a blu-ray BD-ROM for your PC for just $200 at Newegg. I think the best solution this holiday season is to buy both :D
 
Moofasa~ said:
I wonder who will win this fight, HD DVD at $100 vs Blu-ray at $400. :D
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I guess he just admitted to who is going to win this format war. Sony strikes out again just like Betamax.
You would think that Sony would have learned their lesson by now....
First the PS3 is way overpriced and falls to third place in the console wars and now they are basically doing the exact same mistake with Blue Ray. :rolleyes:
 
Roberty said:
I guess he just admitted to who is going to win this format war. Sony strikes out again just like Betamax.
You would think that Sony would have learned their lesson by now....
First the PS3 is way overpriced and falls to third place in the console wars and now they are basically doing the exact same mistake with Blue Ray. :rolleyes:
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Exactly. Lowering PS3 price was too little too late (If history shows us anything, it's that initial hype is everything).

Most everything that built their company has failed. Must be off their Camera/TV/Home Theater electronics is what keeps them alive.
 
Dvd-r and dvd+r are in all players now practically. I don't see why we can't have them all supported into one player. Bluray is just too expensive anyways.
 
DesertCat said:
And now Consumer Reports reports hardly any difference between the output of Blu-ray and HD DVD. The top models of Blu-Ray and HD DVD players received identical scores. Amongst the rest, the biggest differences are in how well individual players upconvert SD content (and the HD A2 is 1080i while the rest tested are 1080p)

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/consumer-reports-blu-ray-hd-dvd-equal
Click to expand...

Any 1080p HDTV will take that 1080i signal and output it as 1080p so its not really an advantage. If you have a 720p TV 1080i or p means nothing and if you have a 1080p TV the upconverted DVDs on the HD dvd player will be output at 1080p so the 1080i HD a2 doesn't really mean anything.
 
Of course BD will fall below $400. He's trying to sell up the PS3. Jesus some people are dense. Doesn't anyone remember when DVD first came over in around '97 ? They were over $500 the first year. I didn't get one until '99 and it was a no frills non progressive single disc pioneer player that cost $300. Our first VHS VCR was a grand 20 years ago ! :eek:

The format war as well as the console war has a long time to play out. Sony is behind there is no doubt about it. But people are delusional if they believe the PS3 is going under DC style. ROFL :p
 
Stereophile said:
Of course BD will fall below $400. He's trying to sell up the PS3. Jesus some people are dense. Doesn't anyone remember when DVD first came over in around '97 ? They were over $500 the first year. I didn't get one until '99 and it was a no frills non progressive single disc pioneer player that cost $300. Our first VHS VCR was a grand 20 years ago ! :eek:

The format war as well as the console war has a long time to play out. Sony is behind there is no doubt about it. But people are delusional if they believe the PS3 is going under DC style. ROFL :p
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Why would he sabotage BluRay for the sake of the PS3? The PS3 is here today, but gone tomorrow when compared the BluRay format. I would think that BluRay's sucess is more critical to Sony than one console generation, which looks pretty lost at this point.

I do agree with you that its hard to conceive how BluRay players won't become cheap commodities like any tech good.

The other part of this is the cost of high-def content. The cost of the player isn't that big of a deal. When the cost of high-def content is in line with DVD9, I'll bite, but not till that moment.

Yes, high-def content looks better, but not $10 better per pop, at least for me, and I think that I'm not alone.
 
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