Time Warner CEO: PlayStation 3 Won't Help Blu-ray

He knows what is about to happen. If you have cable, and are watching some of the local threads, you know there is a ramp up in internet speeds, more channels, more DVRs, etc on the horizon(next month). Downloading is about to really take off. I do think Blu-Ray will survive long term as a storage medium, but long term. Not yet.

I don't care what this guy said about Sony but for me I don't buy any blueray disc from his company, Time Warner because they do not include any high quality audio track like Uncompressed audio or DTS HD lossless. So screw that!

Did you stop to think that they haven't included them for a REASON... not just to spite Blu-ray?

All of the titles I have seen use HD30 and are released on BD25, which means that have to remove SOMETHING for them to fit. The alternative is to use a BD50 for 30gigs of data, which probably isn't the most cost effective solution since BD50's are more expensive to produce. There's also the issue of the layer switch, which could be part of the reason... but who knows?

Nobody has released a BD with a Dolby TrueHD track yet.

No I don't think there's any other reason, especially after that remark.


And you don't see this as "spiting" BD at all? What Warner is doing is doing the HD-DVD encode first and then porting over to BD. The VC-1 video encode doesn't have be redone but they could at least add more features and lossless tracks either TrueHD or LPCM. But they chose not to. Case in point : Superman Returns on BD50.

Both BD and HD-DVD players have added memory, unlike DVD players, mandated by their individual associations to prevent such a bump when switching layers.


Legends of Jazz Showcase. So far the only BD disc with TrueHD.

The rest are either Dolby Digital 640 kpbs (Warner), LPCM (Sony & Disney), DTS (Lionsgate) and DTS HDMA (Fox).


fuad

To some extent, this is very true. PS3 will definitely help Blu-ray, no doubt about that, but it probably won't play a significant role in the long run. People buy game consoles to play games, it has always been that way and it will always stay that way. Everything else is just spin and wishful thinking.

the dude needs to be more thankful to the PS3 fans, I bought his BR Superman Returns though the movie sucks ass .....the story, not the graphic

This guy has more to lose than just about anyone if any of the HD Disc formats take off. He is crossing his fingers that they fail so that his company can step in with downloads and on-demand type delivery systems. This is nothing but pure posturing and spin.

Petra you cracked me up hehehe

Drsiebling: I totally agreed. This guy should take care of his own business and add some lossless soundtrack in there. Or he will sell none

This could be more of a problem for HD-DVD, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. If blu-ray has problems then the same applies for HD-DVD.

What people want is a way to record what they watch, now if we can get cable card, for the DIY market, let people record without restrictions, then yes I see cable doing a good thing. But most cable DVR's have major problems, and DRM as it is, some are storage restricted, software is buggy and not to mention some do not allow fast forward.

Then you have to worry about DRM, can I stream my download to other computers, or take it to a friends house. Downloading will be a good thing, but the restrictions and DRM might give it a crib death. Saying it will cause DOA of a format is just not realistic.

In other words another clueless CEO!

If WB wanted to "spite" BD....they wouldn't release in the format.

...almost nobody. There are however far more BD releases with lossless audio; nearly all of them in fact. There are only a handful of HD DVD discs with lossess audio.

But surely if Warner put same movie and a TrueHD track on a BD50 and charged more for it, you'd accuse them of "spiting" BD with their outrageous pricing.

PS3 will definately help BR. If it wasn't for the PS3, I would have never thought about buying the BR players, at leats not for a long time. That the PS3 can play BR movies is a HUGE bonus, and I will use it a lot. Same thing happened when the PS2 releases, and I started buying DVD's like crazy. I'm doing the same with BR. I know that DVD didn't have competition, but the sales increased a lot. Once sony starts keeping the shipments up with the demand, BR sales are guaranteed to go up.

Kingdom of Heaven is over 42 GB on Blu-ray, and the bitrate is at 24 mpeg2, compared to shandard HD satellite/cable bitrates that run from 12 to 16, and current 4-7GB HD movie files that can be downloaded to X-Box 360 over a timespan of 10 hours, only at 720p. Downloading is getting better, but it's nowhere near competitive with the disc-based HD formats. The worst titles on HD DVD or Blu-ray are still better than broadcast, and how do you expect an HD movie file to look that great when it's smaller than the SD DVD version? Things may change far into the future, but for now depending on downloads or even DVRs is misguided.

It's obvious HD-DVD is the better format and will be cheaper for everyone in the long run. People need to stop having a hard-on about 20 extra gigs of storage.

Why is it a better format. PLEASE explain. I have both, and would love to hear what you have to say.

This is the same company whose stupidity managed to run Atari's monopoly into the ground

And he's far more interested in selling HD on their cable networks than on home video,

I think this quote was almost as stupid as Parsons's quote. Times change, and Sony was smart to embrace the change and see it coming. I think Blu-ray will ultimately help the PS3 AND help blu-ray. There are plenty of 20-30 yr olds who grew up on video games that will use the ps3 as more than a game console (they probably watch movies besides just play video games.. duh..). This is just a case of an old man not seeing the times changing.. afterall, this is Time Warner...

EDIT: To add.. look at what's happened to AOL since the merger. They sure know their stuff when it comes to technology..

I bought my PS3 expressly for Blu-Ray. I don't think I'll ever play a game on it.

I will however, transfer HD Mpegs that I record with my PC over the network to it's hard drive so it will also serve double-duty as a HDPVR of sorts.

-Brian

I have heard HD DVD has the transfer rate to handle high-bitrate video and uncompressed audio.

The issue for BD is that there's an additional licensing cost associated with TrueHD tracks. So, the studio is saving a few cents on each disc. Sad, but true.

With the relatively poor marketing these formats are getting (the big Thanksgiving ads didn't mention HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs/players once!) and the fact that many are bare bones or titles of spotty interest at best one may come to the conclusion that the studios don't want or don't care if these formats really succeed.

The real money, they see, is in VOD. You then own nothing, and they control everything. Quality and convenience be damned.

I bought mine mainly for Blu-ray, though there's an ulterior motive. I bought a Samsung for $499 a couple months ago and realized that I can get a PS3 for the same price with the added benefit of playing games here and there. The downside to the PS3 is the lack of a remote (which will be remedied sooner than later) and the fact that it's a little noiser than a typical BD player. The lack of an LCD on the front is a small loss, but I can deal with that thanks to the nice OSD.

Since the Sammy and PS3 are equally adept at Blu-ray playback, this was an easy decision.

This seems to be backwards. It is Blu-ray with the higher bitrate limitations. Handling full lossless (like 24/48) for HD DVD without affecting the video is difficult in some cases.

Are you saying that TrueHD has an extra cost on BD that it doesn't have on HD DVD? My impression is that PCM should be cheaper to put on than TrueHD from a licensing standpoint for both formats, but I haven't heard anybody confirm that.

--Darin

Here's my 2 cents based on the current state of the format war... of course, things can and will change...

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Storage: Score 1 for Blu-ray.

Reason:
HD DVD discs are typically 30gigs. Blu-ray discs are mostly 25gig, though we're seeing a few 50gig discs emerging over the last couple months.

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Durability: Score 1 for Blu-ray

Reason:
HD DVD discs are more scratch prone. Blu-ray discs have a scratch resistant coating, which means they're more durable. On the flipside, HD DVD's are manufactured using time-tested materials. It is unknown whether Blu-ray discs could suffer from "laser-rot" or things of that nature.

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Manufacturing Cost: Score 2 for HD DVD (yes, two)

Reason:
HD DVD's are MUCH cheaper to manufacture due to the fact that existing DVD replication equipment can be upgraded to mfr HD DVD. If there was a price war between the two formats, HD DVD could maintain a profit at a lower price point.

In the race to win the mass-market, it's all about price/performance. DVD players took off once they reached $299. DVD sales soared once the average disc was $15.

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Hardware: Score 0.5 for Blu-ray (yes, half a point)

Reason:
Blu-ray players are currently available in 4 flavors (Sony, Samsung, PS3, Panasonic) from 3 mfr's (with 1 more, Pioneer, coming onboard any day now). HD DVD players are available in 3 flavors (Xbox360 add-on, Toshiba, RCA) from 3 mfr's. While the hardware is superior on the Blu-ray side, it's also FAR more expensive. PS3 doesn't yet count as a competitor to the $499 HD DVD player due to extremely limited supply. The $199 Xbox360 HD DVD add-on counter balances the PS3's BD playback somewhat.

Additional CE's on the HD DVD side and/or price drops from the Blu-ray side can and will cause this score to change.

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Authoring Tools (Cost and learning curve): Score 1 for HD DVD

Reason:
HD DVD's authoring tools are FAR superior to BD in terms of ease-of-use. Search for info regarding iHD vs BD-J and you'll see what I mean. BD-J is capable of more tricks, but it costs money to develop and test.

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Sustained Transfer Rates: Score 1 for Blu-ray.

Reason:
Blu-ray has a higher sustained transfer rate than HD DVD. This isn't really an issue unless you're using MPEG2 for video on BD50 (we've seen how poorly MPEG2 seems to fare on BD25). It does give studios in advantage, since they can use uncompressed multi-channel LPCM tracks which saves them the cost of licensing advanced audio codecs.


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Recordable/Rewritable discs and hardware: Score 1 for Blu-ray.

Reason:
Recordable and rewritable drives and media are fairly easy to come by, though still pricey. Recordable/Rewritable HD DVD drives and media are practically MIA.

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Marketing: Tie

Reason:
HD DVD has an advantage in terms of marketing since people know what "HD" and "DVD are. On the flip side, the Blu-ray camp has spent a lot more money on advertising. Thus far, HD DVD is winning based on "word of mouth" and familiarity, but that could change in 2007 depending on how the two camps play their cards.

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Game consoles: Tie

Reason: Xbox360 has a HD DVD add-on, while PS3 has Blu-ray built-in. Typical accessory sales for a console is 10% on the upper end. People who buy the HD DVD add-on are buying it for one purpose: MOVIES. PS3 has Blu-ray built-in, though people won't necessarily buy it FOR movies.

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Video codecs/quality: Score 1 for HD DVD (for the time being)

Reason:
Studios are using the inferior MPEG2 codec for releases on Blu-ray. Almost all HD DVD's are using VC-1. VC-1 on HD30 still leaves room for supplements on most discs. MPEG2 on BD50 can be a tight fit if the bitrates of the feature are high enough to create a stable image.

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Audio codecs/quality: Tie

Reason:
A number of "multi-platform" titles are using Dolby Digital or DTS tracks, while exclusives are using LPCM (on Blu-ray) and Dolby TrueHD (on HD DVD). The quality of these these audio presentations are all fantastic. Thus far, there isn't a clear winner.

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Quality of Films (themselves, NOT PQ): Score 1 for HD DVD (for the forseeable future...)

Reason:
The launch lineup for Blu-ray is lackluster at best. Many films border on lame (i.e. XXX), while others are titles that have been rereleased on SD DVD a zillion times (i.e. T2, Stargate). HD DVD, on the other hand, has a great selection that appeals to a broad spectrum of viewers, including: Cascablanca, Goodfellas, The Fast and the Furious, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Batman Begins, Riddick, Serenity, Apollo 13, etc.

No studio seems as gung-ho about HD as Universal. If Sony and Co would spend a little less on traditional marketing and put that towards releasing some of their most prized films (i.e. Bond) on Blu-ray using top-flight codecs, things would look much different.

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So, the tally of the tape right now (IMHO) stacks up as follows:
- HD DVD: 5
- Blu-ray: 4.5


Both have their pros and cons and it's far too early in the game to declare a winner. There are things I like about both formats. Sadly, the two sides couldn't find common ground and us consumers are stuck in the middle. As such, I am careful not to invest too much of my hard-earned cash into either format. I'm going to stick to "must-haves" in HD. Everything else will be spent on SD DVD.

Let's hope that the status quo doesn't remain, else BOTH HD formats turn out like SACD and DVD-Audio.

"I will however, transfer HD Mpegs that I record with my PC over the network to it's hard drive so it will also serve double-duty as a HDPVR of sorts."

With the puny HD's in the consoles, you wont be transferring for long and will soon fill up that teeny-tiny hard drive.

Good thing you can upgrade the hard drive with little effort.

Do you guys have any kind of reading comprehension skills before posting a misleading title or more FUD.


The game console. Not PS3, but PS3 and XBox add-on. Neither will drive the conversion to HD. Not enable one format to one up another.


This article is not making any case against Blu-ray. It is about acceptance of an HD successor to DVD. The vast majority of PS3 users will buy movies for the player because they can. In most cases, PS3 owners are going to realize that they have a high-def player before they even care to look for one.

Talk about some crazy math, but Ok.
How many points for software(exclusive studio support)????

I honestly don't think ps3 owners are going to be investing in BD just because they can. Sure, people might check it out and for those who bought one specifically to watch Blu-ray then yeah it makes sense. However, Parsons is absolutely correct that most people will buy a ps3 to play games. BD will probably go the way of UMD as far as the ps3 is concerned, maybe not as badly but I will definitely be surprised if the ps3's BD factor lives up to its potential. You have to remember that a majority of the general public are perfectly content with DVD and simply having a player isn't going to change that. It's like having a small, fuel-efficient car along with a Hummer, people aren't just going to dump the compact simply because it's more practical. Maybe not the best analogy but you get the point.