Comments on: What Comes Next?

By: Pravin

Pravin — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:02:20 +0000

Hi Bret — I thought many of the same things you did about Blu-ray being a shoe-in, and completely expected to be a PS3 guy myself. However it turns out that a lot of the supposed technical advantages about extra storage, etc. have not materialized into anything appreciably better yet, and that HD DVD is a perfectly fine medium.

The offer for a unified format happened a long, long time ago, but the two sides did not see eye-to-eye and thus the first HD DVD player came out, followed by the PS3 some months later. Though Toshiba and Sony have worked together on other projects, the disc format is something where they couldn’t find common ground.

To me, this format war is similar to the DVD-R and DVD+R battle. DVD+R came from a heavier weight group of companies than DVD-R, and they used their marketing and distribution muscle to establish themselves. Today, all DVD burners handle both formats, regardless of which side the manufacturers were originally on.

I fully expect the same kind of thing to happen with DVDs, and I’m glad I got to enter the whole thing from the less expensive side by getting HD DVD first. Just as I did with DVD-R.

By: Bret

Bret — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:02:04 +0000

I’m just curious, but what do you think about Toshiba’s offer for a unified format, or making the two formats compatible with one another? I’m sort of new to this whole debate, but what I’ve gathered is that at present Sony and Blu Ray are winning this little war. While HD DVD got out there first to get a quick lead, Blu Ray is fought back and took that lead with a better product. What does the HD DVD player offer besides a cheaper price? I mean, when I sit down to think about it, aren’t we in the end thinking of storage space? More space for more data, uncompressed sound and audio? I’ll admit that I am biased, being a PS3 owner, and having owned all the playstations before that. If Microsoft did not loosely back HD DVD and put it standard in the XBox 360, I think we’d be witnessing a different battle here. But seeing as Sony owns much of media for distribution, i.e. the Playstation 3, Sony Pictures, and Blu Ray, this war with an electronical giant leading and the whole corporation backing a single product to ensure their future, I just don’t see how it can lose.

By: Pravin

Pravin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:44:06 +0000

I posted about Blockbuster's move back when it happened and presented a few points in their favor. The numbers they presented were all true, however they completely ignored the business sense about waiting for a Christmas survivor. Advice about waiting for Christmas sales results abounds on the web, but a retail/rental place choosing a side so early into the game smells a little fishy. Obviously, I'm on the side that had something to lose, so it smells fishier to me than for someone on the side that clearly benefits from that news. Vin: I've checked on Firefox and IE7, and the only way the "Recent Comments" crowds the comments is if I size my window too skinny. If it persists for you, please email me directly (check the About page) and I'll get some more information about the problem. UPDATE: A couple of sites have picked up on this PC World interview with Paramount CTO, Alan Bell, which makes for interesting reading. He points out plenty of positive things about the HD DVD format which make this a good decision for Paramount.

By: Vin

Vin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:04:48 +0000

OGSCORPION, please try to refrain from the mindless fanboyism. BRD did not always sell “waay more than HDDVD movies”. This whole upswing is a rather recent event, that mainly happens to nicely coincide with the mandatory inclusion of a BR player in the PS3. Don’t get me wrong, Sony is free to create their product in such a manner. But you seem to be playing a bit fast and loose with your history there. Further, as no one knows what the next 18 months will give us, to make a blanket statement that they “WILL come back” after 18 months and perhaps even less (which would go against their contract) is rather presumptuous.

BTW, is anyone else having an issue with the “Recent Comments” section running into and hiding part of the comments section?

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:56:55 +0000

Pravin -The blockbuster announcement came at a time when 70% of their rentals were bluray. There is only so much shelf space for an early technology that not too many people have adopted yet. Therefore it makes perfect sense to have a format that is selling more in their stores and only sell both formats online. They still allow consumers to have an option of online HDDVD sales, which is not a total shaft to the HDDVD format. Blockbuster intelligently decided that the Bluray format was the consumer preferred in their stores and made a decision based on that. It would be totally different if it was the other way around and HDDVD accounted for 70% of their HD rentals, but that wasnt the case. The Blockbuster announcement is irrelevent to my argument above and is an honest business decision based on good information and trends.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/tvs/news/2007/06/19/HD-DVD-Trouble-Blockbuster-Picks-Blu-ray/p1

By: Pravin

Pravin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:25:15 +0000

Even if the evidence stared at you directly in the face, as this Paramount deal does for HD DVD — and I’m blatantly acknowledging it — a staunch Blu-ray supporter would still find a way to discount that information.

Both of our reactions in this matter are predictable.

By: Rwarner174

Rwarner174 — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:12:47 +0000

But they have no evidence, if they had eveidence than the case would be settled.
And if they can’t win in europe they will not win anywhere.
Show me the evidence that it has occured, not hearsay.

By: Pravin

Pravin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:01:12 +0000

I provided a link to the EU investigation over the Blu-ray exclusivity. That’s a real government body that thinks something fishy is going on over in Europe, and conducting a real investigation into those business practices.

Exclusivity deals usually means that palms were greased, or that there’s a parent company involved.

Unless I’m wrong, Disney, Sony, Fox, etc. are all their own parent companies.

By: Rwarner174

Rwarner174 — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:46:11 +0000

Please show me a link to a similar blu-ray deal?
I would love to see a link where blu-ray paid a stuido off?
Good luck in your search.

By: OGSCORPION

OGSCORPION — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:27:32 +0000

As an addition to my previous post. Don’t get me wrong. I do also believe in what Bay has said that let the consumers decide on what format to choose. I am, too, are in favor of equality (it’s just one way of keeping the war interesting). It just sucks that the consumers are being cought in between this format war while all the studio corporate peeps gets rich.