Battle of high-definition DVDs predicted for holidays - Page 2

That is hardly the same thing.

Getting labled as treasonous or anti-american is a bit more intimidating than getting labled as anti-HD DVD or anti-BD.

I am guessing they either don't know or they assume (correctly imho) that the consumer doesn't care.

edit - One thing that does generally apply to the news as a whole is a lack of depth in coverage on an issue.

So here we have the myth based Chinese players again. Along with a speculation on the S300 going from $499 to $299. Could happen. S300 is as basic a BD player as you can get. If this happens I speculate the A3 will go to $149.00.

Sony was never really in a position to kill HDDVD off. They came to the market after hddvd, and unlike Toshiba that is the only manufacturer of hddvd players, Sony has to consider that if they slash their prices, it could cause problems for their partners.

The article seems to take stuff out of thin air. As you say though, anything is possible.

The MSRP of the A3 is 299.99$, of course it will street better...

The A30 is 399.99$ 1080p 24hz, still no Analog out but you get the whole package still.

I don't think we'll see a MSRP of 199.99 this year.. street price is another thing..

Market in reverse:

Buy 5 HD DVD movies, get the X-Box add-on player for free.

Then you put the X-Box demographic against the PS3, albeit after giving it a huge head start.

You do realize the A3 is cheaper to manufacturer than the A2? And the last 5 weeks of 2007 are a make or break time for HD DVD. This whole year has been a buildup to these 5 weeks - THE prime selling time for CE products. $199 MSRP . . . take it to the bank.

I amounts t the same thing, pandering to a readers sensibilities. I always see the studio support issue mention, but seldom follow-up as to how many real-world releases it has amounted to, likewise I see the GD disparity mentioned, but seldom mention that odds are your going to get less features at present with BD.

Maybe the article is forward looking, not rearward. To not mention how many releases that studio support has yielded is smart. The bottom line is that support could be ramped up in a single announcement which makes your article dated in a single moment.

As far as features, well that doesn't sell players or discs. HD DVD has had all of these features since day one, and it hasn't really moved anything, so what's the point? In the end, studio support is going to reign supreme, and shortly BR will have all of the features that HD DVD has plus the studio and CE support. How do you sell your format then, cheap price and limited support?

Define "shortly" please.

You know what? I just want to watch movies in HD with quality surround sound. I don't even care who wins the format war. I don't care that a format war exists. Today I can view HD-DVD because of the existence of the ubiquitous $199 Xbox 360 add-on drive for my HTPC. If I could get an add-on BD drive for a decent price, I would have that too.

It is apparent that because there are exclusive movies in each format, that one really needs players for both formats, to avoid being forced to watch some movie content at SD resolutions.

In truth I seldom view Special Features even on conventional DVD. Interactive Special Features for the most part are good for a yawn. So that aspect of the Format War just doesn't matter to me. My experience is that many Special Features are upconverted 4:3 SD resolution video anyway.

I am delighted that it will be possible to purchase HD-DVD and Blu-Ray standalone players both for less than half of what one pays for a combo player today, if that indeed comes to pass. The HD on HTPC is a pain in the posterior anyway. I'll add two inexpensive players to my Home Theater and be done with it.

Because in the big picture, the only war we should be paying any attention to is over in the Middle East.

Gary

Because it's completely irrelevant to the average guy on the street.

The expressaion is "Ignorance is bliss . . but it doesn't hold up in court."

The man on the street is not aware of the limitation. Tell me and see how he reacts.

At dual format prices, I would have guessed about 3/10% or less . You can get an A2 and a PS3 or one of the BD standalones for a lot less money than a dual.

For as long as I have been a member in this forum, I have always tried to avoid all the heated arguments that go back and forth between HD-DVD and Blu-ray supporters, and have been extremely careful as not to post any question and/or comment that might incite inflammatory comments from either side of the fence, but I have always been meaning to ask an honest question:

Suppose we see sub-$200 HD-DVD players released during the Holidays...wouldn't the buyer want to enjoy most of the available HD movie selection? I mean I completely understand that there will be some Universal exclusives (that I would love to buy myself), but most of the potential Holiday big sellers will be Blu-ray exclusives.

Without getting into numbers or complicated statistics, wouldn't the average consumer want to go where the most movies will be, regardless of price?

Again, if this post seems offensive, I apologize in advance.

Here is the synopsis of the last 18 months.
HD DVD = Price > Interactivity > internet conectivity > Software (movies)
Blu-Ray = Software (movies) All other issues present or announced secondary

After lagging in standalone sales the various CE supporters are finally reducing the prices however they are still higher than Toshibas. (Toshiba is the HD DVD CE) They manufacture the XBOX addon, and are the basis for the recently announced Onkyo.

The most popular Blu-Ray player appears to be the PS3

Current S/W sales favor Blu-Ray about 2:1

As of Right now, from August to End of Decembre.

Blu-Ray Exclusive

4 million miles to earth (Sony)
A Few good Men (Sony)
Are We*Done Yet? (Sony)
Arlington Road (Sony)
Badder Santa : Unrated (Buena)
Beowulf & Grendel (Starz)
Black Book (Sony)
Bram Stoker : Dracula (Sony)
Bug (Lionsgate)
Cars (Disney)
Close encounter of the 3rd kind : 30th anniversary edition (Sony)
Dawn of the Dead (Starz)
Day of the Dead (Starz)
Delta Farce (Lionsgate)
Doctor Strange (Lionsgate)
DragonBall : Broly Collection (FUNimation)
Elizabeth (1998) (Paramount)
Evil Dead 2 (Starz)
Final Fantasy : Spirit Within (Sony)
Halloween (Starz)
Hollow Man : Director's cut (Sony)
Hostel (Sony)
Hostel 2 (Sony)
House of 1000 corpses (Lionsgate)
Immortal Beloved (Sony)
Jeepers Creepers 2 (MGM)
King of New York (Lionsgate)
Lost : Season 3 (Buena)
Master of Horror - Season 1, Volume 1 (Starz)
Master of Horror - Season 1, Volume 2 (Starz)
Master of Horror - Season 1, Volume 3 (Starz)
Master of Horror - Season 1, Volume 4 (Starz)
Meet the Robinsons (Disney)
Memoirs of a Geisha (Sony)
National Lampoon's Van Wilder: Unrated (Lionsgate)
Old Boy (Tartan US)
Perfect Stranget (Sony)
Pirate of the Caribean : At World End's (Buena)
Ratatouille (Disney)
Remember the Titans (Buena)
Spiderman 3 : 2 disc set (Sony)
Spiderman Trilogy (Sony)
Surf Up (Sony)
The Company Miniseries (Sony)
The Condemned (Lionsgate)
The Invisible (Buena)
The Lives of Others (Sony)
The Lookout (Miramax)
The Pixar Shorts (Disney)
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (Buena Vista)
Underworld (Sony)
Vacancy (Sony)
Wild Hogs (Sony)

HD DVD Exclusive

About a Boy(Universal)
Carlito's Way (Universal)
Carlito's Way : Rise to Power (Universal)
Cat People (Universal)
Dawn of the Dead (2004) : Unrated (Universal)
Elizabeth (1998) (Universal)
Erin Brockovich (Universal)
Evan Almighty (Universal)
Family Man (Universal)
For the Love of The Game (Universal)
Heroes : Season 1 (Universal)
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (Universal)
Inside Man (Universal)
Mecury Rising (Universal)
Meet the Fockers (Universal)
Mr. Bean's Holiday (Universal)
Nottin Hill (Universal)
Patch Adam (Universal)
Pride and Prejudice (Universal)
Seed of Chuky (Universal)
Strangers (Universal)
Talk to Me (Universal)
The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal)
The Gateway (1994)(Universal)
The Hurricane (Universal)
The Last Starfighter (Universal)
The River Wild (Universal)
Timecop (Universal)
Tremors (Universal)
Weird Science (Universal)
What Dreams May Come (Universal)
White Noise (Universal)

Dual Format

2001 : A Space Odyssey (Warner)
A Room with a View (Warner)
Blade Runner : 5 disc set (Warner)
Blade Runner : Ultimate Coll. Case Edition (Warner)
Blades of Glory (Paramount)
Deliverance (Warner)
Disturbia (Paramount)
Eyes Wide Shut (Warner)
Face/Off : Spec Ed. (Paramount)
Full Metal Jacket : SE (Warner)
Galapagos (Warner)
Gods and Generals (Warner)
Gothika (Warner)
Jailhouse Rock (Warner)
Led Zeppelin's : The song remain the same (Warner)
NEXT (Paramount)
Nip/Tuck : Season 4 (Warner)
Saturday Night Fever (Paramount)
Smallville : Season 6 (Warner)
The Jack Ryan Collection (The Sum of All Fears,' 'Clear and Present Danger,' 'The Hunt For Red October,' and 'Patriot Games)(Paramount)
The Reaping (Warner)
The Shining (Warner)
TMNT : The Movie (2007) (Warner)
Top Gun (Paramount)
Troy : Director's Cut (Warner)
Twilight Zone : The Movie (Warner)
Viva Las Vegas (Warner)
Warner Best Of Volume 1 (Lethal Weapon, Max Max 2, Swordfish et Training Day)(Warner)
Warner Best Of Volume 2 (The Last Samurai, Phantom of the Opera et Unforgiven)(Warner)
Warner Best Of Volume 3 (Blazing Saddles, The Departed, Goodfellas et Superman: The Movie)(Warner)
We are Marshall (Warner)
Wild Bunchs (Warner)
Wings of Honneamise (Bandai)
Wyatt Earp (Warner)
Zodiac (Paramount)

Strange how studios are so enamored with them, when the consumers to which they're marketing, couldn't care less.

If Warner wanted to play hardball they could withold/stop all sales of their BD titles ala FOX until BD studios make disc for HD DVD.

I appreciate the fact Warner is releasing on Blu-ray. However, I wish they would do separate encodes to take advantage of Blu-ray's 20GB of extra space.

The movie is compressed down by 95%. You really believe 20GB will do something?

And lose 2/3 of its sales? Brilliant!

The war has stretched on too long. Only the consumer has lost:

HD DVD:
Total Titles - 282
HD-DVD Exclusives - 169

Blu-ray:
Total Titles - 285
Blu-Ray Exclusives - 176

Sources:
http://www.hddvdstats.com/index.php
http://www.blu-raystats.com/index.php

It doesn't matter which format you pick, if you only have one of the two, you lose access to almost 40% of the available HD media. Note that in spite of optimistic forecasts, the actual rate of media released has been pretty even in both formats all along.

They are predicting sub-$200 HD-DVD and sub-$300 Blu-Ray entry level standalone players by Christmas 2007, and there is no apparent end to the format war in sight. At least that removes from us the burden of choosing - because you must own both if you are any kind of videophile.

The studios have only hurt themselves with this war. I have classicly bought between two and three dozen DVD films per year since starting this hobby in 1999. However this year I have bought NONE, instead I have been saving my money for two pretty pricey HD players, and hoping that a good company like OPPO will enter the HD arena. So NetFlix has gotten my $17/month and I have held off buying any HD or SD media while I waited for the war to end. Meanwhile I am renting standard DVD and HD-DVD from NetFlix.

Well it is indeed over for all practical purposes. The consumers lost. There are many "must have" films exclusive to both formats. I'll be adding a Blu-Ray player, then replacing my cranky HTPC with a standalone HD-DVD player. (I don't want to potentially lose access to BOTH HD formats by owning a dual format player.) Then by next year I may start buying media again.

Gary

Universal: Format war is good for consumers

Movie studio Universal wants the high definition format war raging between Blu ray and HD DVD to continue, in spite of the fact that it is hampering consumer adoption.

Speaking to Hollywood in Hi-Def, the company's president Craig Kornblau said the long-term vision of Universal was to commit to the consumer in the long term.

He said that the format war has been "the very best thing that ever happened for consumers, retailers and, frankly, studios", because it has forced manufacturers to drive down the cost of the HD players.

Without the war the players would still cost in excess of USD1,000, he says, and would only drop by USD100 or USD200 over the next year or so.

Universal is the only movie studio that exclusively backs the HD DVD format, while Blu ray has several studios as exclusive backers. Therefore, if it decides to release movies on Blu ray it will have to factor in the potential demise of HD DVD.

http://www.flattelly.co.uk/news/2007...for-consumers/

IMHO the only "winner" in the format war has been Standard Definition DVDs. Plenty of my friends have been buying all standard DVDs because it is still unclear if one HD format will kill the other. Well, now it is apparent that this will not happen soon, if it ever does.

Nice going, studios. Your format war has relegated all HD media to niche market status.

Gary

I think this article is quoting another questionable article.

I disagree. I and many others on here have stopped buying SDs completely wether or not that movie is making an appearance in High Definition. After seeing so many movies in Hi def its hard to watch SD anymore.

Doesn't matter. Either you agree with what Universal has said or you don't. Agree - war IS good for the consumer. Don't agree - war is BAD for the consumer.

Why not just post the original article for which that was based? The original article came out three days ago. It gets much more in depth.

Does it say anything different than the short version I posted? Or does it just add?