Due to the announcements by Paramount and Dreamworks today it is becoming apparent that studio affiliation is becoming less of a deciding factor on when the format war will end. It appears that the format wars won't end with studios or software sales rations. No, I think we are faced with a couple possibilities now:

1) Dual Format Players. Once the single format players reach $99 and below the dual format players will begin to drop in price too. The prices of the dual format players may drop over the next few years, and that drop may happen faster and have more effect on the format wars than which studio is in which camp and who is winning in sales ratios.

2) No winner. If you want high def movies from all studios then you buy two players. Sure that's not ideal but that might be the solution. If both are in the $99-$300 range it's possible that people can afford two at some point. When you think of it, people are getting their media from many places now, such as itunes, netflix, Xbox Live download service, retail, etc... (and not all of these places give you EVERY studio and ALL movies). Perhaps Blu-ray and HD DVD at retail are just two more choices.

3) Triple format discs. Discs that play DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray formats could end this. Of course it's unlikely due to technical and expense reasons. It could end the war though.

4) HD DVD studios release only DVD/HD DVD combo discs. Price HD DVD Combo discs at standard DVD prices. THis could end the war quickly. If a combo disc was close to DVD prices and you DON'T release a standard DVD then you really are knocking out two birds with one stone. On the one hand you are selling DVD, which people will buy now to play with their DVD player. You are also selling an HD DVD discs that over time will grow in people's libraries. Then as people are ready to go high def they realize they already have a library and thus an aliance to HD DVD. No double dipping for them. This method also adds valueable sales figures to the HD DVD camp for software units sold. You wipe out any sales lead overnight that blu-ray had by selling one single DVD that dwarfs the sales of all Blu-rays sold in 2007! Blu-ray becomes irrelevant.

Just some thoughts.

fritzilla

PS. By the way I have a Blu-ray and HD DVD player and movies on both formats. I am ok with option #2 if that's what it takes since I am obviously getting the high def movies I want and don't care if J6P is in on this.

Discs go away entirely.

I hate the idea of disk going away entirely. You are probably right though.
I want 1080p PCM sound not over compressed 720p.
I want instant gratification. I do not want to have to have my internet connection up and running to watch a movie. I want to be able to take my movies to a friends house, or let them borrow my copy. I want to sell my old movies on EBAY.

/Boycott the digital downloads and keep your rights as a consumer to use your media any way you decide to.

Discs go away entirely.

Long live the DIVX model!

Discs go away entirely.

This scares the beejesus out of me. Call me old fashioned, call me old school, but I prefer a tangible media.

I have an HTPC with a library of media on it, but that library is all saved on disc as well.

I like having a hard copy for safety reasons. If you store everything on a hard drive, and that hard drive fails, you lose ALL your library. If you ruin a disc, you only lose that one movie.

For right now though, downloadable movies are just rentals and delete themselves. Until the movie industry finds a way of selling them with some type of DRM that makes them feel secure, I have a feeling they'll be "rentals" for quite a while.

Long live the DIVX model!

This is what the studios want. A pay per view model with no physical media in the hands of the consumers. Sell us the same thing over and over again every time you want to view it.

If this becomes the norm, I am have other interests to spend money on.

Hollywood will never get a direct link to my wallet for an entire pay-per-play model.

Hmmm, Paramount was one of the original DIVX studios. I can see now why they don't want a unified format.

Discs go away entirely.

Exactly what I think. Bigger and bigger HDD.

Exactly what I think. Bigger and bigger HDD.



This may happen someday, but we are talking DECADES not years away. Remember that 95 % of the market is still buying DVD and has little or no interest in high def. Also, the majority of the market does not have a broadband internet connection. Yes, maybe some year discs go away completely, but not with this generation of media, not by a long shot. Doing so would alienate too much of the buying market.

A side note that proves my point : I work in retail and I have customers that ask me worriedly if the requirement for all T.V.'s to accept digital signals by 2009 (?) will make it so they can't watch T.V. anymore. I've been asked this dozens of times. This points to the fact that the majority of U.S. consumers dont have a HD TV yet, and probably they won't for a year or 2 more. Now talking about the MAJORITY of U.S. consumers having broadband and a HDD for downloading movies, and understanding that technology enough not to be wary of it? Years and years, if not a decade +. We at AVS are the tiny minority remember.

Option #4 requires a $5-7 cost reduction and BANG it can be done.

Discs go away entirely.

1) Won't be feasible for quite some time still.

2) Won't ever happen because movie collectors need something tangible to have, look at and display. It'll always be this way.

1. Not this year. We're talking 2008 fall when they become viable.

2. Well for 2007 Blu-ray wins the battle. For 2008 don’t forget that PS3 (a killer game schedule) would have gain its traction and were talking millions of Blu-ray players in peoples home. (Remeber that the PS3 was the major push that lifted Blu-ray from the get go)

3. Not possible at this stage.

4. Wrong. It will take more than this and most of the other format is in blu-ray.

What studio carries Paramount titles in Japan?