Blu-ray Vs. HD DVD not as close as expected... (Official- HD-DVD Dead)

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Kobatuzzied

Wow K-Mart is the turning point? i should just donate my ps3 to the electronics recycling program. hehe.

Maybe if walmart stopped carrying blu ray players it might have more of an impact.

Oh and kmart is still carrying bluray dvds. just not the players. actually that is false too they are still selling ps3s.

Anyone want to goto Woolco with me tonite?

No, but when a major retailer does something like this because they feel blu-ray is too expensive then it can't be a good thing for blu-ray.

This thread was started with the announcement that Blockbuster wasn't going to carry HD-DVD movies. That turned out not to be true.

And Walmart is selling some HD-DVD players for less than $100. There has been a lot of press about HD-DVD lately, what with Paramount and Dreamworks going HD-DVD exclusive, sub $100 HD-DVD deals, K-mart not stocking Blu-ray. There hasn't been much positive Blu-ray news lately. I while people buying a PS3 are definitely using them as blu-ray players, I'm not sure how many people going out and looking for a high-def player are considering a PS3. That's something Sony should leverage more in their advertising.

I don't own either format (yet). I'm just watching what is going on.

[The Yen Man]

In a biased way, I want Blu-ray to win, just because I'll be buying PS3 regardless of which one wins. But in the end, it won't really matter that much to me, as worst case scenario, I'll buy an HD DVD player to along with my PS3. No biggie.

[llama64]

While I don't really care either way since it will be a few years till I buy a HD capable TV, I'd like to see Sony bite the dust again. I'd rather they didn't have much say over the media in which content is distributed. As a company they have demonstrated they are decidedly against consumer liberties.

[Cerebral]

Originally Posted by llama64

While I don't really care either way since it will be a few years till I buy a HD capable TV, I'd like to see Sony bite the dust again. I'd rather they didn't have much say over the media in which content is distributed. As a company they have demonstrated they are decidedly against consumer liberties.

So you would rather support Microsoft and their involvement with HD DVD?

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

No, but when a major retailer does something like this because they feel blu-ray is too expensive then it can't be a good thing for blu-ray.

This thread was started with the announcement that Blockbuster wasn't going to carry HD-DVD movies. That turned out not to be true.

And Walmart is selling some HD-DVD players for less than $100. There has been a lot of press about HD-DVD lately, what with Paramount and Dreamworks going HD-DVD exclusive, sub $100 HD-DVD deals, K-mart not stocking Blu-ray. There hasn't been much positive Blu-ray news lately. I while people buying a PS3 are definitely using them as blu-ray players, I'm not sure how many people going out and looking for a high-def player are considering a PS3. That's something Sony should leverage more in their advertising.

I don't own either format (yet). I'm just watching what is going on.

I highly doubt Kmart is considered a major reatailer. How many of their customers are actually going to buy a $200 hddvd player? i think 99.9% would be buying the $29 china brand dvd player.

Besides they are still selling a blu ray player(PS3) and they are still selling blu ray movies also. Just not the $500 sony blu ray stand alone

The Blu-ray Disc camp still had one foot in the door of Kmart, however, as the retailer stocks and sells the PlayStation 3. Kmart also sells the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360.

I don't really care who wins as I bought my ps3 to play dynasty warriors and to watch my videos in hd from my camcorder.

My friend is all into this bluray/hddvd war, so i went to his house last week to watch transformers. hahahahahaha His xbox360 hddvd player is incompatible with his amp so we had an awesome picture but the sound was horrid. it was all crackly and low. It was like watching one of those downloaded camcorder movies! too funny.

hmmm he still owes me $50 on the wii couldn't beat xbox360 sales by the end of the year. hehe

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Cerebral

So you would rather support Microsoft and their involvement with HD DVD?

hahahaha no kidding. do you like the redsox or the yankees?

[Draug]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

No, but when a major retailer does something like this because they feel blu-ray is too expensive then it can't be a good thing for blu-ray.

This thread was started with the announcement that Blockbuster wasn't going to carry HD-DVD movies. That turned out not to be true.

And Walmart is selling some HD-DVD players for less than $100. There has been a lot of press about HD-DVD lately, what with Paramount and Dreamworks going HD-DVD exclusive, sub $100 HD-DVD deals, K-mart not stocking Blu-ray.There hasn't been much positive Blu-ray news lately. I while people buying a PS3 are definitely using them as blu-ray players, I'm not sure how many people going out and looking for a high-def player are considering a PS3. That's something Sony should leverage more in their advertising.

I don't own either format (yet). I'm just watching what is going on.

It is actually FALSE that K-Mart is not stocking Blu-Ray. They are, in fact, selling both formats through the holiday season.

"There have been numerous statements in the media today, attributed to Toshiba, indicating exclusive support for the HD DVD format in Kmart stores. These statements are false. Kmart intends to support both the HD DVD and Blu-ray platforms, and has no plans to support either platform exclusively."

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...re_Purple/1137




Also, Sony has shifted their marketing campaign to show the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player AND a game console. As you suggested, I too think this is the right move.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh..._Campaign/1133

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Cerebral

So you would rather support Microsoft and their involvement with HD DVD?

Yes.

Sony installs root kits on my computer without either gaining my permission or even notifying me. Microsoft tries to patch insecurities on my computer. While MS might be a fairly shady business in the way it licenses Windows, to the average customer they are fairly positive. Sony seems to treat me like a jerk.

Sony is also a content producer and distributer. It bothers me that other studios would have to be paying royalties to their competitors to distribute their content on the Blue-Ray standard.

Personally, I think these things should be governed by an independent body so that the lame "format wars" go away.

Still, as has been pointed out, DVD isn't going way any time soon. I'm forecasting that HD-DVD will edge out due to adoption as a data archival format, but in terms of movies both will suffer a similar fate to the Laser Disc.

[Dr. Evil]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

No, but when a major retailer does something like this because they feel blu-ray is too expensive then it can't be a good thing for blu-ray.

This thread was started with the announcement that Blockbuster wasn't going to carry HD-DVD movies. That turned out not to be true.

And Walmart is selling some HD-DVD players for less than $100. There has been a lot of press about HD-DVD lately, what with Paramount and Dreamworks going HD-DVD exclusive, sub $100 HD-DVD deals, K-mart not stocking Blu-ray. There hasn't been much positive Blu-ray news lately. I while people buying a PS3 are definitely using them as blu-ray players, I'm not sure how many people going out and looking for a high-def player are considering a PS3. That's something Sony should leverage more in their advertising.

I don't own either format (yet). I'm just watching what is going on.

Paramount was given $150 million to drop BR-D. "That makes sense that your format is being outsold by the competition so you fork out a huge sum of money to try and counted some of those sales. How are you running a viable business in doing so?

K-Mart is not dropping BR-D at all. BluRay will be making an advertising push (considering the number of movies coming only to BR-D recently and soon) and will get stronger into the 4th quarter. HD-DVD has had to drop their pants just to try and get a head start, but without the huge titles (Shrek aside) and when all the HD-A2's are gone where will HD-DVD be? $300 machines that don't play a third of the movies out there. Infact HD-DVD has been doing themselves a number of disfavours in anouncing exclusive titles which are not actualy coming, namely Speilberg films. Funny that the first and only Speilberg film coming out before x-mas is exclusive to BluRay, coming from Sony. The fact that there is not a single other of his films coming out shows this as a test in the waters of BluRay and the lack of anything on HD-DVD doesn't show any confidence in that format.

Of course right now the majority of BR-D players out there are PS3's. Trying to use that argument is rediculous as well because Microsoft would be touting how many HD-DVD players are out if they actualy built them into every Xbox360. Instead you have to pay more to get HD and then it's not as good as the PS3's BR-D player in comparrison to a stand-alone unit. The HD-A2 firesale is a move to further boost the stand-alone HD player numbers which to Toshiba is good in the eyes of retailers. Sony will counter with their own deal soon enough.

Also, trying to put down BR-D because it's Sony is as stupid as supporting HD-DVD because it's not. You are supporting Microsoft over Sony, which makes either argument mute.

[Canada 02]

Spider-Man 3 sets record for Sony Blu-ray

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34764/118/

[ernie]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

Spider-Man 3 sets record for Sony Blu-ray

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34764/118/

The Transformers HD-DVD sold 190k it's first week.

But the real number is how many millions did Spiderman 3 sell on regular old DVD.

For comparison the Transformers DVD sold 8.3 mil that first week. That's 97.7% of the market and I'm guessing that the market share for regular old DVD increases as time goes on (High def videophiles buy week of).

As I said, very few people care about either format at this time.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by ernie

The Transformers HD-DVD sold 190k it's first week.

Didn't paramount overstat their numbers for the Transformers hd?

Hmmm imagine if Spiderman 3 was actually a good movie... hehe

Watched Rataouille on blu ray last nite. Pixar movies convert over really good. Best picture i have ever seen. A lot better then Bell or Shaw HD.

[czure32]

one thing that is being missed with the whole "$99" HD-DVD player though is that both the HD-A2 and HD-A3 can "only" display up to 1080I
now while im no videophile and couldnt choose a 1080p from a 1080i signal in a side to side comparision it is somethign that may be important enough to some


personally Im happy with my PS3

[ernie]

Originally Posted by Kobatuzzied

Didn't paramount overstat their numbers for the Transformers hd?

Hmmm imagine if Spiderman 3 was actually a good movie... hehe

Watched Rataouille on blu ray last nite. Pixar movies convert over really good. Best picture i have ever seen. A lot better then Bell or Shaw HD.

Not sure it was overstated or not. It was what the manufacturer shipped I think so to them it is sold. Same number Blu-ray will report. Either way the main point to the post was the 8.3 mil regular DVD sold in comparison.

[SarichFan]

I have both formats and Think Blu-Ray will win based on library and Visual quality. Transformers HD-DVD is really nice but Spiderman 3 blows it away visually.

Ratetouille.. don't even get my started.. my god it looks amazing. You're pretty much getting the pure source almost on a single layer 50gb Blu-Ray disc.

I hope both formats stay alive because I have both players. PS3 and 360 HD DVD.

I think Ratatouille will sell in the millions on Blu-Ray

[ernie]

Originally Posted by SarichFan

I have both formats and Think Blu-Ray will win based on library and Visual quality. Transformers HD-DVD is really nice but Spiderman 3 blows it away visually.

Ratetouille.. don't even get my started.. my god it looks amazing. You're pretty much getting the pure source almost on a single layer 50gb Blu-Ray disc.

I hope both formats stay alive because I have both players. PS3 and 360 HD DVD.

I think Ratatouille will sell in the millions on Blu-Ray

Ratatouille will not sell millions on Blu_ray. There are barely millions of Blu-Ray players and most of them are not used for movie viewing.

On visual quality...has nothing to do with the format. Only production.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by ernie

Ratatouille will not sell millions on Blu_ray. There are barely millions of Blu-Ray players and most of them are not used for movie viewing.

On visual quality...has nothing to do with the format. Only production.

yeah i have to agree with the rattooie sales. For such an awesome movie it sure did crappy at the box office.

I don't know why people are jumping all over high def dvds? The quality in incomparable to regular dvds. But then again i bought my 1st dvd player for $800 and movies back then were $25-$25.

I bought like 10 blu ray movies from amazon.com a couple of weeks back for $12us each.

Hitachi just released a 100 gig blu ray disc and said that they can go as high as 200 gigs and 8 layers on 1 disc.

[Draug]

Just an update with recent sales numbers... All sales numbers seem to favor Blu-ray at this point. I thought that Paramount going exclusively HDDVD would have evened out the disc sales numbers, but it seems to have had very little effect.

"Counting standalone players and the PS3, a total of 2.7 million Blu-ray players have now been sold through to consumers.

That's the word from the Blu-ray Disc Association, in what seems to be a clear response to the HD DVD camp's recent announcement that it had sold over 750,000 "dedicated" players (including standalones and the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on).

The BDA went on to tout recently-releases Nielsen VideoScan numbers, which gave Blu-ray a resounding lead in software sales Thanksgiving week, boasting 72.6% of all discs sold (compared to 27.4% for HD DVD)."

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...yers_Sold/1228

[corporatejay]

I think the most telling number here is that 98% of the market is still on regular old DVD. The truth is even the "above average" person isn't going to fork out loads of cash for better picture quality. The main reason I switched to DVD (as did my parents) was because of functionality. It was easier to use, no more rewinding fast forwarding, degradation of the tape, added bonus features, the availability of tv shows etc...

The problem is that HDDVD and Blu-ray only offer one upgrade and it's from "pretty good quality" to "amazing quality". I just don't see it happening any time soon.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I think the most telling number here is that 98% of the market is still on regular old DVD. The truth is even the "above average" person isn't going to fork out loads of cash for better picture quality.

And that's the bottom line. $ as usual. Regular DVD is cheapest. HD DVD can win if they continue to pump out the cheapest players.