Warner Bros. Picks Blu-Ray Over HD-DVD

kubicki2007 said:
Does anyone remember another Sony folly called BETAMAX ? How about what ended up killing the format? Porn. Adult videos were widely available on VHS. That was the difference. Well it could happen to Blu-ray. Since Disney publishes to Blu-ray only, they are trying to keep all mastering / production facilities from producing adult material on Blu-ray. There are some facilities that will produce adult material Blu-ray discs, but very few because of this. HD-DVD has embraced the adult video industry and in the end that might be the difference.
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The difference here is we now have the Internet loaded with porn. There was not much of a choice then. Now we still have VHS, DVD and the Internet (with exception of HD media)

The porn industry as well as the regular tv/movie industry is already having issues because you can see everything. What reason do they have to move to a HD format?

If you think porn is going to save HD-DVD you might want to rethink that outlook. I don't think it will be it's savior this time.
 
jmackay said:
Also how many people have their PC hooked up to a HD TV, or even a 24"+ LCD?
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That would be me- 37" of HD-TV loving hooked up to a Shuttle box via HDMI port.

Frankly in regards to HD vs Blu I'm content to wait and see how it all shakes out. IMHO as someone else pointed out that were at the point of splitting hairs in regards to quality and few consumers want to spend the big bucks for differences that "have to be pointed out by experts" in most cases.

Hell I have been let down by "re-mastered" movies on normal DVD's that look like utter crap, I expect to see more of the same on HD/Blu aside from some high profile titles.

In short- Till HD or Blu-ray players and titles start to slid in the area of normal DVD players and titles market penetration is going to be slow.

Shipping the PS3 with a Blu-ray player was a smart move.
 
Follow up-

1) Yes HD/Blu looks nicer than normal DVD, so far the best HD/Blu content I have seen though has been... demos.

I watch movies, not demos at Best Buy. Been over a friends house and watched a few movie titles on his high def player setup, I wasn't impressed. If I'm going to spend $300-$400 on a player all the movies better rock not just a few blockbusters.

2) DRM sucks, period.
 
gdonovan said:
That would be me- 37" of HD-TV loving hooked up to a Shuttle box via HDMI port.

Frankly in regards to HD vs Blu I'm content to wait and see how it all shakes out. IMHO as someone else pointed out that were at the point of splitting hairs in regards to quality and few consumers want to spend the big bucks for differences that "have to be pointed out by experts" in most cases.

Hell I have been let down by "re-mastered" movies on normal DVD's that look like utter crap, I expect to see more of the same on HD/Blu aside from some high profile titles.

In short- Till HD or Blu-ray players and titles start to slid in the area of normal DVD players and titles market penetration is going to be slow.

Shipping the PS3 with a Blu-ray player was a smart move.
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And this is what most forget, consumers don't care which one wins because as of right now most think that the current DVD's are good enough and can't justify spending the money to get a HDTV then paying more money to purchase equipment to watch HDM. With the way the economy is right now no one is gonna waste money on HD movies watching especially for titles that they probably already spent money on to see in movie theaters.

It's been little under a year and adoption rates for HDM is still below 10%. The fact is the cost is too high for the lions share of the consumer market for hardware and HD disc. The battle with the competing format is almost done but they forgot you have to convince the consumers to adopt this new technology and right now they aren't doing it. Until cost are down they will have a hell of a time trying to retire regular DVD's.
 
I love how many people want the war to be over I do too but I hate Sony. After all there DRM shit the last couple of years, normal DVDs that simply skip or wont play in computers, rootkits, etc... There isnt ONE good Bluray player out there that beats the PS3 in playback how fucking sad is that? I am a movie fan so if a PS3 or player gets to around 200.00 I will buy one, but I just purchased my Toshiba A35 for 250.00 great price btw and I am happy with it. Even if Bluray fails that means more cheap discounted discs for me to own and less I have to buy again on Bluray. Anyone want to dump there hddvds go ahead I will be buying them at discount lol
 
marcusj3000 said:
And this is what most forget, consumers don't care which one wins because as of right now most think that the current DVD's are good enough and can't justify spending the money to get a HDTV then paying more money to purchase equipment to watch HDM. With the way the economy is right now no one is gonna waste money on HD movies watching especially for titles that they probably already spent money on to see in movie theaters.

It's been little under a year and adoption rates for HDM is still below 10%. The fact is the cost is too high for the lions share of the consumer market for hardware and HD disc. The battle with the competing format is almost done but they forgot you have to convince the consumers to adopt this new technology and right now they aren't doing it. Until cost are down they will have a hell of a time trying to retire regular DVD's.
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They don't expect to surplant the regular dvd market immediately. Its an ongoing process...HD is ahead of where SD dvd was after the same amount of time. Thats the gauge.
 
nightwalker said:
ur right there are.... but he said 'cheap' lol. i think its gonna be a long time before we see a cheap blu-ray burner, yet alone the blank media :p
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Ethug said:
eh, it'll get there. the bd-rom drives are reasonable at $200 right now. Prices will continue to settle down. In a year it'll be $50 roms and $100 burners.
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Ethug said:
there are already BD and BDR drives for the computer..
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HD-DVD was flat out too little too late in this department. There is no consumer HD-DVD burner, and at this rate there never will be.

Newegg has three different desktop BD writers in stock. There are already laptops with Blu-Ray writers as well.
 
aFive said:
Exactly, boycotts do not do shit anymore. I like to se folk like you try, making 0 difference, just punishing themselfes and missing out on awesome products. Sony isn't perfect, they are in the business for the money and they do bring awesome products. Take PS3 for example, even if you don't game..awesome DVD player on it's own.

I saw somebody mention Blu Ray loading times, Pirates of the Carribean takes 1 second to load on my ps3, it is flawsless in that department.

Seriously though, boycott all you want, in the end, you are the one missing out. Just my two cents.
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I almost didn't respond, because I thought it wasn't worth it. You really need to figure out how to stand up for what you believe in without just bending over. I don't give a fuck what other people to do, I believe what I believe in, and that is all their is to it. Boycotts don't work because people hold YOUR mentality. /rant.
 
defuseme2k said:
I almost didn't respond, because I thought it wasn't worth it. You really need to figure out how to stand up for what you believe in without just bending over. I don't give a fuck what other people to do, I believe what I believe in, and that is all their is to it. Boycotts don't work because people hold YOUR mentality. /rant.
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LOL. The sheer irony of you stating that you stand up for what you believe, etc etc, then saying other people have a certain "mentality" is laughable. Hello?
 
Sixthsense said:
I'm sorry, did you say more expensive Blu-Ray movies? hold on while I clean the soda off my monitor. Blu-ray movies can be had as cheap as $9.00 with B1G1 for $14 from various B&M and ecommerce sites. On a side note since I'm so nice :p it's not a total loss for the HD camp as both sides utilize VC-1. As far I'm concerned this silly format war is over, ( actually it was over when Blockbuster decided to rent out BR exclusively via their B&M outlets)
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Opps sorry, I just had to wipe the soft drink from my monitor. :D And since I'm being nice, I'll let you in on the secret; I'm in Australia. :) ;)

Yep, the land where we get screwed and prop up your cheap prices. :D So please forgive me if I seem to be "poor". It's just all a waste of money to me considering how strong our dollar is to yours (the difference right now is pretty much neglible).

We should be having $12-$18 bluray movies in comparison to what you quoted, but no, they are frigging $40-$50.

So yea, I'm not leaving dvd anytime soon.
 
marcusj3000 said:
I don't really care myself I don't own either and don't plan on buying anytime soon. This isn't a big jump past current DVD's and the xtra cost isnt even justified.
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It's funny that people say that HD Formats aren't a big jump beyond DVD. Does anyone say that gaming at 1600x1200 is no better than 800x600 or 1024x728? None that I know would say that, yet nay sayers make that argument about HD vs DVD, even though the former has 6x as many pixels as the latter.

Then there are the better colors, as well as fewer compression artifacts, which you get with the increased space and better compression schemes.

HD is better, so long as you have a decent HDTV to watch it on.

As for cost, I agree with you completely. I think that movies are perceived as too high. And while there have been lots of online promotions, the perception of the public is driven more by what they see at Retail than Amazon and other etailers.
 
ServerKing said:
There isnt ONE good Bluray player out there that beats the PS3 in playback how fucking sad is that?
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Let me know when you can find a $400 HD-DVD player that has the same feature set as the PS3.

nilepez said:
It's funny that people say that HD Formats aren't a big jump beyond DVD. Does anyone say that gaming at 1600x1200 is no better than 800x600 or 1024x728? None that I know would say that, yet nay sayers make that argument about HD vs DVD, even though the former has 6x as many pixels as the latter.
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No joke. By the DVD logic, 1600x1200 is no better than 800x600 because we're not going to be able to run CoD4 and UT3 very well at 1600x1200 using Pentium 4's, but at 800x600 it'll run fantastic (hypothetically; I haven't tried).

But yeah, I generally go Netflicks for movies. I rent all the titles I can in hi-def, but I hardly buy DVDs, HD-DVDs, or BRDs.
 
you say that and still the two formats are identical looking, and still neither looks much better than upconverted DVD to the average person. I personally can see the difference and its apparent, but most can't tell when I'm playing an upconverted DVD vs a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.
 
If it wasn't already clear that companies are following the bottom line (e.g., the money trail), it would baffle me as to why companies would choose Blu-Ray over HD-DVD at this point. Not only is HD-DVD based on a current manufacturing process, hence relatively easy (and cheap) to adopt, but HD-DVD's also would offer a great bridge from SD to HD - especially considering that every HD-DVD includes the SD version of the same movie on the other side of the disk (a fact that sadly, most consumers are not aware of). As a consumer, this allows me to take said movie and bring it to grandma's house without having to purchase an HD player for grandma.

As a few posters have already alluded to, I honestly don't consider this HD migration (generation) to be a true next step to HD but instead a "1.5" step towards a completely new medium for mainstream consumers; quite a few other industry trends prove this "1.5" mentality (especially television technology). But again, it all comes down to the bottom line and the bottom line is that Blu-Ray is a new format, does not offer SD options and requires a new player. Before you stop reading to reply, I also realize that HD-DVD format requires a new player as well; however again, the fact that HD-DVD's do have an SD option allows consumers to use current technology without forcing them to purchase new equipment... but where's the profit for companies in that?

I think that in the end the bottom line will ultimately cost the consumer. Instead of using HD-DVD as a bridge to a true HD medium, companies are choosing to go with a format that in a few years will most-likely be completely replaced, hence forcing the consumer to upgrade and profiting the industry. Part of me wants to blame the industry and another the consumer for being so short-sighted. Either way, it's definitely not looking good for HD-DVD and I for one am very sad to see this happening.

- James
 
James54321 said:
- especially considering that every HD-DVD includes the SD version of the same movie on the other side of the disk (a fact that sadly, most consumers are not aware of).
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Actually, not every HD DVD disc has the SD version included (aka Combo discs).
 
James54321 said:
If it wasn't already clear that companies are following the bottom line (e.g., the money trail), it would baffle me as to why companies would choose Blu-Ray over HD-DVD at this point. Not only is HD-DVD based on a current manufacturing process, hence relatively easy (and cheap) to adopt, but HD-DVD's also would offer a great bridge from SD to HD - especially considering that every HD-DVD includes the SD version of the same movie on the other side of the disk (a fact that sadly, most consumers are not aware of). As a consumer, this allows me to take said movie and bring it to grandma's house without having to purchase an HD player for grandma.

As a few posters have already alluded to, I honestly don't consider this HD migration (generation) to be a true next step to HD but instead a "1.5" step towards a completely new medium for mainstream consumers; quite a few other industry trends prove this "1.5" mentality (especially television technology). But again, it all comes down to the bottom line and the bottom line is that Blu-Ray is a new format, does not offer SD options and requires a new player. Before you stop reading to reply, I also realize that HD-DVD format requires a new player as well; however again, the fact that HD-DVD's do have an SD option allows consumers to use current technology without forcing them to purchase new equipment... but where's the profit for companies in that?

I think that in the end the bottom line will ultimately cost the consumer. Instead of using HD-DVD as a bridge to a true HD medium, companies are choosing to go with a format that in a few years will most-likely be completely replaced, hence forcing the consumer to upgrade and profiting the industry. Part of me wants to blame the industry and another the consumer for being so short-sighted. Either way, it's definitely not looking good for HD-DVD and I for one am very sad to see this happening.

- James
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While we all know HD disc sales are selling far fewer units than their DVD counterparts. HD disc adoption is happening at a far faster pace than DVD adoption took place. Lots of people fail to realize that. So with this news it effectivfely eliminates HDDVD as a major player and makes blu-ray the standard, which in turn will make this generation indeed very significant. Quicker standardization will lead to quicker adoption and a format that will last a while. It really isnt right to say this generation will be skipped over.
 
James54321 said:
If it wasn't already clear that companies are following the bottom line (e.g., the money trail), it would baffle me as to why companies would choose Blu-Ray over HD-DVD at this point. Not only is HD-DVD based on a current manufacturing process, hence relatively easy (and cheap) to adopt, but HD-DVD's also would offer a great bridge from SD to HD - especially considering that every HD-DVD includes the SD version of the same movie on the other side of the disk (a fact that sadly, most consumers are not aware of). As a consumer, this allows me to take said movie and bring it to grandma's house without having to purchase an HD player for grandma.

As a few posters have already alluded to, I honestly don't consider this HD migration (generation) to be a true next step to HD but instead a "1.5" step towards a completely new medium for mainstream consumers; quite a few other industry trends prove this "1.5" mentality (especially television technology). But again, it all comes down to the bottom line and the bottom line is that Blu-Ray is a new format, does not offer SD options and requires a new player. Before you stop reading to reply, I also realize that HD-DVD format requires a new player as well; however again, the fact that HD-DVD's do have an SD option allows consumers to use current technology without forcing them to purchase new equipment... but where's the profit for companies in that?

I think that in the end the bottom line will ultimately cost the consumer. Instead of using HD-DVD as a bridge to a true HD medium, companies are choosing to go with a format that in a few years will most-likely be completely replaced, hence forcing the consumer to upgrade and profiting the industry. Part of me wants to blame the industry and another the consumer for being so short-sighted. Either way, it's definitely not looking good for HD-DVD and I for one am very sad to see this happening.

- James
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Such is the expected rhetoric from any HD-DVD fans who stands to lose at least some amount of money from this. The truth has been suggested to these people many times, but they were swayed either by owning a 360 or by the lower player price of HD-DVD. Blu-ray had so many more things going for it, and more important things than slight DRM, initial price, or region differences. Its victory assures us 25gb single layer recordables, eventually as cheap as DVD-R media is today. It offers the potential for higher bitrates and less disc-swapping on episodic tv material. For a format that is supposed to last us fifteen years and in which many of us will be investing a hefty sum for titles, there is no reason to choose the less technologically capable format in order to save $100 today. That is a terrible tradeoff and everyone with a brain knew it.

One of the great fallacies perpetuated by HD-DVD fans was the concept that it was the more consumer friendly format simply because it has temporarily cheaper players. If DVD had had a competitor at 2.7gb and more aggresive algorithms that was initially cheaper to make and sell, HD-DVD fans probably would have sided with it citing affordability and faster adoption. But DVD didn't have a cheaper competitor. There never was a competing format to give DVD the perception the comparitive distinction of being "too expensive." People therefore waited until they were affordable like everything else they buy, and life went on as usual.

Another great fallacy was the comparison of Sony to betamax. The logic was passed around that because Sony had lost a format war thirty years ago, that it would lose this one. This was an atrocious prediction. It does not matter who was backing what back then. What mattered was the industry support, sales success, and recording capacity between the two. And in those regards, HD-DVD was actually shared more characteristics with betamax than Blu-Ray did.

Sony has a terrible PR department and everyone knows it. But MS-loving detractors flooded forums everywhere with excessive viral anti-Sony campaigns, with really no understanding of history or the benefits that they have enjoyed courtesy of Sony. They brought up only the mistakes, often ones that had no relevance to the current war or were poor analogies. They brought up the rootkit fiasco, UMD, betamax, and memory card (of all things). The idea was that Sony does not bring formats to the market to compete for royalties like everyone else or let the consumer decide, but that they bring them to the market to "force them upon us." Despite UMD movies never intending to compete with DVD, it was portrayed as such an attempt. Despite memory stick serving a niche purpose as well, it was portrayed as a conspiracy to replace all storage formats. Despite Blu-ray being jointly developed by many major companies, it was often referred to as a "Sony" product. I could go on and on. Meanwhile, the same people who benefited from 3.5" floppy drives and the CD-ROM (both Sony developments) flock to the more "saintly" format vying for the same royalties.

To understand how HD-DVD was seen in a negative light by Blu-ray fans with requires an understanding of what took place during the development of this next-gen format at the consortium. The forum was, to put it lightly, incompetent. They wanted to undercut the next format as much as possible in order to save money by retrofitting old manufacturing equipment. In fact, many companies were pushing for a red laser format at the SAME TIME that the BDA was pushing for its blue laser spec (blu-ray). Eventually, that fell through, but instead of agreeing with the blu-ray spec, Toshiba and co created their own blue-laser format, still undercutting its potential in order to keep using ancient manufacturing equipment. Understandably, the BDA took off and brought their product to market, got industry-wide support, let the consumer decide, and won.

Now that HD-DVD has lost, many are claiming that we will see dual format take over. This is not the case. Perpetual dual format was the worst thing that could happen, as it would be so confusing to customers that it would never become mainstream. When the remaining HD-DVD studios realize that it is within their power to create a second era of DVD profitability, they will switch and end this. HD-DVD exclusives will be released on Blu-Ray, media will disappear from shelves, and expensive dual format players will cease made as though it were the opposite. Since most HD-DVD owners already own an HD-DVD player, and with eventual mainstream consumers seeing no reason to pay more to play a format that isn't even on shelves, it will be a big loser in sales and a waste of resources for manufacturers. Someone like Toshiba may offer a player, but HD-DVD will trickle away the same way that betamax did with no persistent backwards compatility. The formats are too different and require different lens apertures. DVD+R/DVD-R were not only nearly identical in structure and not valued for their exclusive content, neither format's media disappeared from store shelves. It would be a poor analogy to make and I've already heard it from sad HD-DVD fans.
 
I should also mention that HD-DVD's chances of winning outright were effectively eliminated when MS decided to cut it out of the 360 and get a 1-year headstart on the PS3. The PS3 has been able to push a niche format into people's homes by the millions as a bonus. It also made the PS3 a safer buy as a player, because even if blu-ray had failed, it would not have affected the PS3's resale value since it is a game console as well. The real losers in this are now the people who bought that $200 add-on for the 360. While they can still play current titles, all current and future exclusives to the winning format will not work with it, and its resale value will plummet.
 
londonandlawson said:
Hey don't ditch those hd-dvd players just yet, a killer new use!
8fowktwmr4.jpg
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what i'm more concerned about is your choice in beer... instead of your choice in HD players. geeze!
 
FitzRoy said:
, there is no reason to choose the less technologically capable format in order to save $100 today. That is a terrible tradeoff and everyone with a brain knew it.

Another great fallacy was the comparison of Sony to betamax. The logic was passed around that because Sony had lost a format war thirty years ago, that it would lose this one. This was an atrocious prediction. It does not matter who was backing what back then. What mattered was the industry support, sales success, and recording capacity between the two. And in those regards, HD-DVD was actually shared more characteristics with betamax than Blu-Ray did.
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Agree. For a number of us, HD-DVD seemed obviously doomed from the start. The lower cost of HD-DVD is largely driven by desperation more than an easier to manufacture player. I also agree HD-DVD is more like betamax than Blu Ray is.

Look at the CES hardware announcements. Almost everyone is releasing a Blu Ray player. Anyone besides Toshiba with an HD-DVD player? This is really Toshiba vs the world, not Toshiba vs Sony.

Both the Hardware and Content industry are lining up behind Blu Ray, so it finally may be more obvious for the average consumer that HD-DVD is doomed, but for many of us, it has long been obvious.

I think BD will obvious trickle into everyones homes. Since a BD player is also excellent upscaling DVD player why not, so I do think HD will take, but I don't think it will inspire collection replacements the way DVD did as upscaling continues the viability of your old library. People will probably just get new movies in BD and replace a few favorites in HD, say like the latest Blade Runner package or your LOTR box set.

It will be interesting to see what Toshiba does here, because at some point, they have to answer to share holders and continuing to pour money into a losing standard can't go over too well.
 
Thanks to the movie studios and the misguided Blu-Ray supporters who can't see past their "tech" e-penis we will now be stuck with yet another anti-consumer DRM scheme. Now with no competition, I can't wait to see the prices go back up on BR players as well as no change in the cost of movies. I mean honestly would we have seen the prices we have now if it wasn't for the competition?

Oh and I'm sure the next revision to the DRM will be without a hint of "Managed Copy" since during the original format discussions between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, BR didn't want it at all. It pretty much boils down to a format that the Movie studios wanted vs. Toshiba and Microsoft, who in this case wanted the consumer to have the option to be able to transfer your movies to whatever media we chose (at studios discretion), This is like having the RIAA decide the next CD format. So now we are back to the fox not just watching the hen house but owning it too.

I wonder how long it will take to get us to the point to were we are now with mp3's finally (non-DRM).

We just took a giant step backwards in digital media folks, hope your happy.
 
griff30 said:
Why do the Microsoft shills all say "The porno industry picked HD-DVD so it's a done deal" ect when there are numerous plces that say the opposite http://www.gamespot.com/news/6142519.html http://dvd.ign.com/articles/842/842800p1.html :)
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Because they know how to read. The first link is a two year old story. The second is about just one movie. Digital Playgrounds put their best selling movie on Blu-ray, so what? Look how many titles they've put out on HD-DVD.

Someone else linked this, http://wiki.digital-digest.com/index.php/High_Definition_Studios and they list as producing HD-DVDs...

Producing HD-DVDs are:
Bang Bros
ClubJenna
Digital Playground
Pink Visual
Wicked Pictures

Checking an adult site, which I don't think I'm allowed to link to:
These adult studio are also producing in HD-DVD:
3rd Degree
Hustler
Mantra
Metro
Studio IVD
SexZ Pictures
Gay Pulse (see there's even something for you)
Vivid
Zero Tolerance

Looking for Blu-ray, I could only find 5 movies total.

For anyone who ever watches adult movies the choice is clear. The money for adult entertainment is speculated to be in the billions, so it is a big deal.
 
AARGH! said:
Thanks to the movie studios and the misguided Blu-Ray supporters who can't see past their "tech" e-penis we will now be stuck with yet another anti-consumer DRM scheme. Now with no competition, I can't wait to see the prices go back up on BR players as well as no change in the cost of movies. I mean honestly would we have seen the prices we have now if it wasn't for the competition?
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If HD-DVD won, we would be stuck with an inferior piece of shit backed by Microsoft.

Oh and I'm sure the next revision to the DRM will be without a hint of "Managed Copy" since during the original format discussions between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, BR didn't want it at all. It pretty much boils down to a format that the Movie studios wanted vs. Toshiba and Microsoft, who in this case wanted the consumer to have the option to be able to transfer your movies to whatever media we chose (at studios discretion), This is like having the RIAA decide the next CD format. So now we are back to the fox not just watching the hen house but owning it too.
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Microsoft wants to help consumers??? LOL! I love how you add "at studios discretion" which pretty much wipes out your whole argument.
I wonder how long it will take to get us to the point to were we are now with mp3's finally (non-DRM).
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Most people use iTunes..... hmmm.
We just took a giant step backwards in digital media folks, hope your happy.
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Very happy that Microsoft and their shrinky-dink discs did not win. The better format is what I wanted and that's what I will get.
 
PRIME1 said:
If HD-DVD won, we would be stuck with an inferior piece of shit backed by Microsoft.
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lulz, Microsoft doesn't back it as much as you are making it sound. Toshiba is the major backer. If Microsoft was pushing HD DVD that much, we would have seen HD DVD drives integrated into the 360 long ago.

If HD DVD won, we would be stuck with a technology that looks and sound the same as Blu-ray, and we'd have less DRM with region free movies.
 
We will probably see a decrease in DRM in the next few years. Sony has dropped it from their music, and so have some other major music sellers.
 
Hopefully, but it isn't up to them. It is up to the studios and what they want protecting their movies.
 
AARGH! said:
Now with no competition, I can't wait to see the prices go back up on BR players as well as no change in the cost of movies. I mean honestly would we have seen the prices we have now if it wasn't for the competition?
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Positively absurd. Player manufacturers will continue to compete for your dollar. By your rationale, DVD should not have seen such steady price reductions because there was no ycompeting format. The free movie bundles may dry up in a few years, but then the plaers will be cheaper. In a persistent slugfest scenario, neither format achieves mainstream adoption.

AARGH! said:
Oh and I'm sure the next revision to the DRM will be without a hint of "Managed Copy" since during the original format discussions between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, BR didn't want it at all. It pretty much boils down to a format that the Movie studios wanted vs. Toshiba and Microsoft, who in this case wanted the consumer to have the option to be able to transfer your movies to whatever media we chose (at studios discretion), This is like having the RIAA decide the next CD format. So now we are back to the fox not just watching the hen house but owning it too.

I wonder how long it will take to get us to the point to were we are now with mp3's finally (non-DRM).

We just took a giant step backwards in digital media folks, hope your happy.
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Gravy, now I have to explain the DRM difference. Just can't seem to write an essay long enough to prevent another argument.

People were saying the exact same thing back when DVD was introduced. The DRM on the discs was "unacceptable." Then what happened? It got cracked. And so will the DRM on Blu-ray. I think managed copy is the biggest joke in the business. You claim to hate DRM, but you accept DRM with a single-copy limitation internet callback as a rallying point? That makes no sense. Unless the stuff is intrusive, it's a totally moot issue, and it won't become instrusive with any success. Consumers have shown no tolerance for this kind of DRM in the past and it has resulted in bad press and bad sales. They do it again, and it just won't last, so your fears are irrational.
 
w1retap said:
If HD DVD won, we would be stuck with a technology that looks and sound the same as Blu-ray, and we'd have less DRM with region free movies.
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Except you'd have a drastically inferior recordable format, particulary when it came to backing up HD movies. If a typical movie is around 25gb, you can store it on a single BD-R disc at no or minimal quality loss. For HD-DVD at 15gb per layer, you will always need two single layer discs. Dual layer recordables are your only hope, and as we saw with DVD, they're many times more expensive, they burn with less quality, they have more issues with players, and they are less resistant to scratches.
 
BladeVenom said:
Gay Pulse (see there's even something for you)
The money for adult entertainment is speculated to be in the billions, so it is a big deal.
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Sorry sugar britches I don't run in that direction.

yes this is a big deal and its over. BD won. ;)
 
why does this "war" have such passionate sides? If any own a combo drive or both like I do, you'd know the difference is unidentifyable to human eyeballs.
 
w1retap said:
lulz, Microsoft doesn't back it as much as you are making it sound. Toshiba is the major backer. If Microsoft was pushing HD DVD that much, we would have seen HD DVD drives integrated into the 360 long ago.
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In addition to th 360 add on, all the key software behind HD-DVD is Microsoft (VC-1 and HDi)
If HD DVD won, we would be stuck with a technology that looks and sound the same as Blu-ray, and we'd have less DRM with region free movies.
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We would be stuck with smaller crappier discs and a far more limited experience. Very few people even no what region codes and DRM are and even fewer care. But I bet they know the difference between 50 and 30.

If Toshiba knew the difference they would not have lost so quickly. I mean hell, even Beta hung on longer than this.
 
PRIME1 said:
Most people use iTunes..... hmmm.
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Care to back that up with some data?

I have no use for DRM music or video, iTunes has never been installed on one of my PC's nor will I buy a player that forces me to buy from one supplier.
 
gdonovan said:
Care to back that up with some data?

I have no use for DRM music or video, iTunes has never been installed on one of my PC's nor will I buy a player that forces me to buy from one supplier.
Click to expand...

Well you can buy an iPod if you want, since it doesn't.
 
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