Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD

[zylander]

Originally posted by: gobucks
I'm guessing HD-DVD will win for 3 reasons:
1) Price - it looks like HD-DVD is really pulling ahead on pricing, and this looks to continue - i read somewhere that Walmart just agreed to buy a crapload of HD-DVD players from either Toshiba or LG for under $150, and given Walmart's low profit margins, I'd think they would retail for $160-170. Blu-ray, on the other hand, still has trouble releasing a player that costs less than the PS3, and the PS3 isn't selling that well even though it is basically giving blu-ray fans a top of the line game console for free!

2) Production - HD-DVD media and players are very similar to regular DVDs, so it should be simpler for existing producers of DVD media to convert over to mass production of HD-DVD media, which should bring down the cost of media rather quickly. This is especially important for those of us looking forward to HD-DVD burners. Blu-ray is expensive because it is complicated, but the complicated nature doesn't really give it any advantages - since a full 1080p movie fits on an HD-DVD just fine, the capacity advantage is usually wasted.

3) Availability of rental titles - as far as I know, blockbuster and netflix both offer HD-DVD titles through their subscription service, but not Blu-Ray. This is really important to people like me. I have a pretty extensive DVD collection, but I'm sure as hell not going to re-buy all my favorite movies in a new format, especially if I don't know if the format will still be around in a few years. As long as there is a format war going on, rental/subscription availability is going to be key to a format's success, especially when the cost of the players gets within mass market range (~$100).

Dont know about blockbuster online, but netflix does offer some movies in blu-ray.

 

[MoobyTheGoldenCalf]

Originally posted by: fern420

Originally posted by: SKoprowski
You can now buy a 1080i Toshiba HD-A2 HD-DVD player for $242.00 plus you get 5 free HD-DVDs. Blu-ray can't even touch that right now. Forget the computer add-on- just get a stand alone player.

do you happen to have a link to the deal that includes the 5 free movies? ive seen that player as low as $209 but i never saw the deal that includes movies.

You get 5 free movies with purchase of any HD-DVD player from anywhere via mail-in rebate from Toshiba through 7/31/07.

http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/hddvd/data/pdf/Toshiba_Online_Rebate_R08.pdf

 

[newb54]

Blockbuster Online lets you get Blu Ray too.

 

[Deinonych]

The only winners are the content providers. :|

 

[newb54]

I saw LG showing their combo Blu-Ray HD DVD player at the Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas, so I know combos players are possible. It may turn out to be like DVD+ and DVD- where both formats survive because of dual players.

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: newb54
I saw LG showing their combo Blu-Ray HD DVD player at the Consumer Electronic Show in Vegas, so I know combos players are possible. It may turn out to be like DVD+ and DVD- where both formats survive because of dual players.

As interesting as that possibility may be, I don't think it will fly.

Reasons :

(1)- Shelf space. This is like gold to the retailers, so when one format begins utterly dominating the other in sales, the loser will lose shelf space until it gets yanked. I can't see a prolonged battle in this area. In some ways, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc, will have a very real hand in determining this battle, in the aspect of choosing how much space each format gets and for how long.

(2)- Licensing. To make a combo player, you have to pay double the fees, which translates in a higher cost to the consumer. While potentially lucrative for the short term for savvy buyers wanting to ensure the best chance for current and future compatibility, once a format becomes dominant it will become unrealistic to charge a premium to support a dead/dying format as well.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: doggyfromplanetwoof
When every one is buying $30 HDDVD/BDVD discs, ill be searching the old DVD bins for 5 dolla' each. Take em home to my 42 plasma and upscale them to 1080p.

Whoever wins, I win more lol.

you're not getting a 1080p production...you're missing ALOT of the content including TrueHD sound and DTS HD.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: hans030390
On paper, Blu-Ray looks like it would win. It has the most space, most support (last time I checked), etc. Still, HD-DVD beats it with lower prices.

According to sales, Blu-Ray is currently winning by a good bit. Whether or not HD-DVD will "die", I doubt it.

If either "had" to win (as in the other died), I'd put my bets on Blu-Ray. I don't see that happening, or at least any time soon.

What sales are you looking at? Everywhere I look shows HD-DVD winning in actual sales of players vs Blue-Ray. You can say that people are buying PS3s but if nobody is buying 3rd party players they will drop out.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
HD-DVD will win. why? for the same reason VHS won way back when: the cost of the players, and maybe even more importantly, pornography. there's no way around the fact that sex sells, and (unless something changes) it won't be selling on blu-ray.

as with the betamax, sony turned their nose up to the adult film industry, which is being forced to adopt hd-dvd, regardless of their preference for the different technologies. as hd-dvd players continue to drop and hold a cost advantage, and porn starts turning up on hd-dvd, it will gain marketshare - to the point that blue-ray becomes insignificant and eventually goes the way of the betamax.

This is true. Regardless of the fact that people can go online and get HD porn, the DVD porn industry is probably the largest area of DVD sales. This will only continue into the HD era. People don't have to even buy as many HD DVD Pornographic videos as they do DVDs currently, the fact that every single Girls Gone Wild release and that every studio will be buying HD DVD equipment and NOT Blue-Ray will nail the coffin right there.

Personally I'm going to go with both for now and buy the movies I want regardless of format. I am somewhat of a collector so having to use HD DVD instead of Blue-Ray for a specific movie does not bother me. Then when either format comes out on top and the other fades away, I will already be in line for the new movies being released on the winning format. I have the Xbox360 HD DVD player and am going to be buying a BD-Rom drive soon(ish). I'm just waiting on a video card that can output to my TV and supports all the major encoding formats with a decoder. I also need that card to be good for gaming. I was hoping the HD2900xt would do it, but I'm still playing wait and see.

 

[bloodthirster]

Sony has never had a winning format... SO if the trend continues....???????

 

[Deinonych]

Originally posted by: bloodthirster
Sony has never had a winning format... SO if the trend continues....???????

It's not just Sony's format. The format was developed by a consortium that includes many manufacturers, including Philips, Samsung, Apple and HP (among others).

Link

 

[vhx]

Bluray will probably win, only a few companies are still HD-DVD only. PS3 still promotes Bluray quite well and Bluray movies are outselling HD-DVD.

Also porn will be coming to Bluray... there was an article on it some months ago. When Bluray starts dropping in price and burners come available, even if HD-DVD wins, I will be using Bluray to store my comp data. 50GB is beyond awesome, and when they start adding more layers... even better.

 

[deeznuts]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
HD-DVD will win. why? for the same reason VHS won way back when: the cost of the players, and maybe even more importantly, pornography. there's no way around the fact that sex sells, and (unless something changes) it won't be selling on blu-ray.

as with the betamax, sony turned their nose up to the adult film industry, which is being forced to adopt hd-dvd, regardless of their preference for the different technologies. as hd-dvd players continue to drop and hold a cost advantage, and porn starts turning up on hd-dvd, it will gain marketshare - to the point that blue-ray becomes insignificant and eventually goes the way of the betamax.

The porn argument is so repeated so often but isn't relevant anymore. It's not going to decide this format war. First, when VHS came out, there was no way possible to watch porn at home. You had to go to the theater or various Sex shops. So when it came out on VHS, the masses gobbled it up since it allowed them to *ahem* watch it at home. As of now, you still have VHS, DVD, and most importantly free porn on the internet for download. It is not going to decide this format war, not even going to factor in it I bet.

Your second paragraph is factually false as well so I'm not even going to bother.

 

[UnklSnappy]

HD DVD will win.
Blu ray will be the new UMD.

 

[deeznuts]

Originally posted by: bloodthirster
Sony has never had a winning format... SO if the trend continues....???????

Hmm, I don't know the compact disc turned out OK.

 

[newb54]

Originally posted by: deeznuts

The porn argument is so repeated so often but isn't relevant anymore. It's not going to decide this format war. First, when VHS came out, there was no way possible to watch porn at home. You had to go to the theater or various Sex shops. So when it came out on VHS, the masses gobbled it up since it allowed them to *ahem* watch it at home. As of now, you still have VHS, DVD, and most importantly free porn on the internet for download. It is not going to decide this format war, not even going to factor in it I bet.

Your second paragraph is factually false as well so I'm not even going to bother.

Exactly. The porn market, while still a factor, won't be a deciding factor in this format war. There are too many other ways to get porn now.

 

[lopri]

Blu-Ray for the same reason that vhx has. Being able to backup data to 50GB/100GB (in the future) optical medium would be awesome and can even make external HDD obsolete in certain area. Even with 50GB disks, I can backup my whole documents in one disk, and music in another, and pictures for another. All this for 3 very light/small-profile disks. I'll definitely buy one when price drops below $200. It beats external hard disks in my case.

 

[CaiNaM]

Originally posted by: deeznuts

Your second paragraph is factually false as well so I'm not even going to bother.

really? so blu-ray has the cost advantage?

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: gobucks
I'm guessing HD-DVD will win for 3 reasons:
1) Price - it looks like HD-DVD is really pulling ahead on pricing, and this looks to continue - i read somewhere that Walmart just agreed to buy a crapload of HD-DVD players from either Toshiba or LG for under $150, and given Walmart's low profit margins, I'd think they would retail for $160-170. Blu-ray, on the other hand, still has trouble releasing a player that costs less than the PS3, and the PS3 isn't selling that well even though it is basically giving blu-ray fans a top of the line game console for free!

2) Production - HD-DVD media and players are very similar to regular DVDs, so it should be simpler for existing producers of DVD media to convert over to mass production of HD-DVD media, which should bring down the cost of media rather quickly. This is especially important for those of us looking forward to HD-DVD burners. Blu-ray is expensive because it is complicated, but the complicated nature doesn't really give it any advantages - since a full 1080p movie fits on an HD-DVD just fine, the capacity advantage is usually wasted.

3) Availability of rental titles - as far as I know, blockbuster and netflix both offer HD-DVD titles through their subscription service, but not Blu-Ray. This is really important to people like me. I have a pretty extensive DVD collection, but I'm sure as hell not going to re-buy all my favorite movies in a new format, especially if I don't know if the format will still be around in a few years. As long as there is a format war going on, rental/subscription availability is going to be key to a format's success, especially when the cost of the players gets within mass market range (~$100).

Unfortunately, these arguments are out-dated.

1) The Wal*Mart deal is only rumor, and there's an equally credible rumor that cheap blu-ray players are coming to Wal*Mart from Funai (equally credible meaning both are still rumor and nothing more, neither are even close to being confirmed).

2) The startup costs of blu-ray have mostly been covered already. The extra space on blu-ray can allow for higher bit-rates during encoding, more special features, more audio tracks, more episodes of a tv show. If the extra space is not needed, they can use a single sided 25gb disc.

3) I rent blu-ray movies through Netflix all the time.


And for everyone else - pron is currently available for purchase on blu-ray, I'd link to it if it didn't get me banned.


As to what format will win, based on the current outlook, I give it a 40% chance blu-ray wins, 30% both formats co-exist through combo players, 5% chance hd dvd wins, and 25% neither format wins. The PS3 is too great in numbers to have Blu-ray lose before combo players are affordable. Translation? People on both sides of the fence are disappointed with their present situations.

Whoever's looking to buy now, just pick either format, enjoy it for now, and just expect to upgrade to a combo player in a year.

 

[R3MF]

much to the annoyance of a legion of anti-sony trolls found in these forums, it would appear that if anyone will will the HD format wars it will be sony. *

* disclaimer - i don't own any consoles.

 

[tigersty1e]

People still buy porn?

There are so many free sites out there nowadays.

 

[oronis]

Originally posted by: tigersty1e
People still buy porn?

There are so many free sites out there nowadays.

If by free you mean, only costs you computer viruses and spyware, then yes, there are plenty of 'free' porn sites out there.

And if porn doesn't still sell, then tell me how girls gone wild is so damn big. I think you all are underestimating the power of the social deviants.

 

[Owls]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
HD-DVD will win. why? for the same reason VHS won way back when: the cost of the players, and maybe even more importantly, pornography. there's no way around the fact that sex sells, and (unless something changes) it won't be selling on blu-ray.

as with the betamax, sony turned their nose up to the adult film industry, which is being forced to adopt hd-dvd, regardless of their preference for the different technologies. as hd-dvd players continue to drop and hold a cost advantage, and porn starts turning up on hd-dvd, it will gain marketshare - to the point that blue-ray becomes insignificant and eventually goes the way of the betamax.

Who buys porno DVDs? No one. It's all about downloads. Back then DVDs were a paradigm shift in media, now it is not. You're betting on porno winning this war? You're probably a wal-mart shopper.

Blu-Ray will win, why? CONTENT. HD-DVD has tired re-releases while BR gets new exclusives. I HAD both, but I returned the 360 HD-DVD add on.

 

[Genx87]

Whichever company delivers the lowest price which will gain the highest volume will win.
It will take a few years or longer for this to play out. But I think HD-DVD has the inside track for cheap players and cheap media.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: CaiNaM
HD-DVD will win. why? for the same reason VHS won way back when: the cost of the players, and maybe even more importantly, pornography. there's no way around the fact that sex sells, and (unless something changes) it won't be selling on blu-ray.

as with the betamax, sony turned their nose up to the adult film industry, which is being forced to adopt hd-dvd, regardless of their preference for the different technologies. as hd-dvd players continue to drop and hold a cost advantage, and porn starts turning up on hd-dvd, it will gain marketshare - to the point that blue-ray becomes insignificant and eventually goes the way of the betamax.

Hahaha the pr0n industry is forced onto HD-DVD? Sony is one arrogant and stupid company. Pr0n and lower prices killed their beta max. Jesus this is like a replay of 20 years ago hahahaha.