Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?

One of the main reasons Blu-ray won is quite simple, IMO. Just look at the CES2008 picture I posted earlier.

At the Blu-ray booth, take a look at the companies associated with BR: Sony, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Pioneer, Panasonic, Disney, Dell, Matsushita, Samsung, Philips, TDK, Apple, Hitachi, Hewlett Packard ... basically, the majority of big brand names out there.

Now do the same for the HD DVD side. Er ..... Toshiba. One could argue that Microsoft backed HD DVD too, but what have they really done for HD DVD, except for a few speeches here and there? Rumour has it that Microsoft only sided with HD DVD to oppose the mass-adoption of a high-def format, so that they could have time to push their own agenda, while the two formats fought it out to a stalemate. That agenda being: downloadable media.

Sounds far fetched? Not really. They're already planning on pushing downloadable HD content on the Xbox Live service.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/...leID=205210258

I too have heard that MS only backed HD-DVD to hold off Blu-Ray for a bit, as their main target is going for downloaded content.

Problem is (for us in the UK) that our networks aren't good enough for that sort of thing really.

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Originally Posted by Harrison

And do you realise something? Since the Walkman, Sony have tried to invent new storage formats but have failed. Mini-Disc, UMD and Memory Stick to name just three have all been great, but have only ever been used in Sony's own products. Sony have finally invented a disc format that has been embraced by the industry and has taken off as the format of choice for the next generation! I bet they are feeling really happy after so many attempts and failures to capture the main market, and this could really be a new turning point for the fortunes of Sony.

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Sony did have a major role in creating the CD though along with Phillips which apparently had been a bit of a success. But as you say, UMD,MD,Atrac3,Memory Stick have all been examples of Sony going it alone and failing to an extent.

And then, just to make things worse... This happened

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Toshiba fights bad news with lower prices

http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/6957_hda3.jpg

DailyTech brought you steady coverage over the past week concerning the latest news in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray wars. Unless you've been living under a rock, you by now already know that Warner Bros. made the decision to back Blu-ray exclusively.
The move by Warner Bros. was followed by similar actions from New Line Home Entertainment and HBO Home Video. Recent stories have even suggested that Paramount is also tossing around the idea of supporting the Blu-ray disc standard.
Toshiba apparently doesn't want to go down without a fight and is instead slashing the prices on its HD DVD players. Toshiba's second generation HD-A2 players previously dipped down to the sub-$100 mark during November -- but that was during the traditional holiday buying season and not truly indicative of regular retail pricing.
Now, Toshiba's third generation 1080i-capable HD-A3 is selling for a mere $139.98 on Amazon.com. The 1080p-capable HD-A30 is not much more expensive at $179.98. For the price of an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on, consumers can now purchase a fully-fledged set top box with 1080p support.
Amazon isn't the only retailer with the discounted pricing, however. Tiger Direct is selling the HD-A3 for $129.99 and the HD-A30 for $179.99. There are also reports that Sam’s Club and Costco are selling the HD-A3 for as little as $128.
In addition to the lower prices, customers who purchase Toshiba's HD DVD players are still eligible to receive five free movies via a mail-in rebate -- this is in addition to the two movies, 300 and The Bourne Identity, which come in the box.
It remains to be seen if this move by Toshiba is simply an act of desperation, but the tides are definitely changing and a haze of "Blu" can be seen drifting in from the distance.
For all we know, this could be the last hurrah for HD DVD, so it looks as though Toshiba wants to go out with a bang.

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Bah. They should just admit defeat and move forward with a single HDM format instead of misleading more people into buying a product that will inevitably be obsolete within a year. If the $99 fire sale of last year couldn't secure them a turnaround in the format war, how on earth can it change anything now with all the bad press going on and minus the support of a couple of studios?

Toshiba is just holding back the mass-adoption of HDM now, and no one gains anything from it ... certainly not the consumer.


Anyway, here's something for a good laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

It's sad to see Blu-Ray winning (already won?) the format war. I guess people like copy protection, region coding, and paying premiums for a product that is no better than lower priced alternatives.

Umm... one fact you forgot to mention is one of the reasons Sony had so many on board the Blu-Ray train right from the start. In total 84% of all film studios were signed up to the format at the beginning!

The reason was mainly royalty fees. The DVD Forum stung the film industry with DVD, losing billions of dollars in royalties, and this was set to continue with HD-DVD. Blu-Ray offered them an alternative solution to get away from the DVD Forum and their practices.
Toshiba did have a good start with HD-DVD because their format was based on the existing DVD technology, so production plants didn't need to retool in order to begin manufacture, and this also made the drives cheaper. But without the major support of the film industry it wasn't going anywhere. Blu-Ray on the other hand is a different technology so plants did need to buy in the new equipment and drives were more expensive to make, but once the PS3 production began it was only a matter of time before the formats manufacturing costs began to drop.

As for region encoding. To date around 2/3 of all BR discs are not region encoded.

That may be about the region coding, but you can bet if BR does become the standard, that will cahnge. I'm just not a fan of Sony and hate to see them succeed and control media because that's no good for anyone. Just my own crazy opinion.

I'm completely the opposite and am a Sony fan. I've got lots of Sony hardware including all their consoles through the years, one of their top of the line DVD players and an AV Receiver. All great products.

I personally don't mind if a large company such as Sony does well. OK they do have the money to enforce certain things, but equally they have the money for continued support and development of a technology. Something that is often not the case with small companies fighting to stay alive.

Sony doesn't make bad products, I just have found that other competing companies make equal or better products for the same price or less. Toshiba isn't exactly a small company either and HD DVD, in my opinion, has a bit of an edge over BR in picture quality. A friend of mine who is a home theatre-phile has quite an amazing set up and has both products and has shown me comparisons between the two. Maybe it was just my biased opinion but I thought that the HD DVD releases looked better than their BR counterparts.