Format war over? Target refuses to sell HD-DVD players

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Sony Pictures owns a lot of studios.

But a lot of other studios have adopted Blu-ray in addition to HD-DVD (and with the former selling more than the latter), while a number are Blu-ray exclusive.

The only studio carrying HD-DVD exclusively is Universal.

[Flagg]

They're somewhat less nice if you don't feel like spending $1,500 for a TV capable of actually handling them.

...or maybe they're more for people that already have these TVs and want to utilize them to their potential... and HD quality kicks ass.

Not a very good way to gain market saturation and replace DVD as a viable format when only a few people are actually capable of making full use of their features, though.

Yeah, except that as far as I know there are no plans to phase out DVD's any time soon. HDDVD and Blu Ray are not there for people to buy HDTV's, they are there for people who already own or are already going to purchase HDTV's and want to get the best quality picture and sound they can. The fact is that all HDDVD and Blu Ray players can still play DVD's, and some claim to play them with better quality.

Of course, they still get a giant "meh" from me, since I don't notice a huge difference in image quality for my size HDTV.

[Isil`Zha]

Not a very good way to gain market saturation and replace DVD as a viable format when only a few people are actually capable of making full use of their features, though.

...yet.

[apocolypse]

Hmm... indeed... Aside from that bloody relic of region coding it does indeed seem significantly better...

It at least clarifies why Sony made it the PS3's reader... Thank you.

As far as storage goes, yeah the Blu Ray disc holds more. However, actual picture quality between the two is pretty much the same, at least from what I've seen.


And I don't think either side can really "afford" the current price/format skirmish. Toshiba is slashing prices, but Sony's right behind them as well. However, Sony is in the better position at the moment as most studios are either HD neutral (Paramount & WB) or pro Blu Ray.

[atg]

As far as storage goes, yeah the Blu Ray disc holds more. However, actual picture quality between the two is pretty much the same, at least from what I've seen.

I believe that the two formats actually use the same video codec to store the video, so yeah, no major difference.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

BD-R is likely to be dominant for optical drives on PC's, assuming it's given enough time as king of optical storage before the various holographic technologies can cost reduce and blow it away, but the difference between 3 and 5 hours of HD content just isn't significant. I don't think the storage disparity will make any difference in deciding the winner for video. The only way it could make a difference is for TV shows, and content producers like to have 4 to 6 discs for those even if they could easily fit them on less so that people feel justified plunking down $40 or more for a season.

[Praxis]

Interestingly, I'm being told that HD-DVD is selling significantly better in the UK.

What if HD-DVD becomes the winner in the UK and Blu-ray in US and Japan (due to PS3)?

[Xisiqomelir]

Sony Pictures owns a lot of studios.

But a lot of other studios have adopted Blu-ray in addition to HD-DVD (and with the former selling more than the latter), while a number are Blu-ray exclusive.

The only studio carrying HD-DVD exclusively is Universal.

Particularly relevant to this board is the fact that Star Wars is BRD-exclusive.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Relevant to the discussion is that typically, for studios that release films in both formats, it's almost always the Blu-ray version that sells best.

[apocolypse]

Interestingly, I'm being told that HD-DVD is selling significantly better in the UK.

What if HD-DVD becomes the winner in the UK and Blu-ray in US and Japan (due to PS3)?

To be honest, I don't think too much would change for the moment. I've heard some analysts predicting both formats surviving until at least 2010, and by then they'll probably be researching new and improved formats to rip us of with by then anyway.

[Uraniun235]

Interestingly, I'm being told that HD-DVD is selling significantly better in the UK.

What if HD-DVD becomes the winner in the UK and Blu-ray in US and Japan (due to PS3)?

To be honest, I don't think too much would change for the moment. I've heard some analysts predicting both formats surviving until at least 2010, and by then they'll probably be researching new and improved formats to rip us of with by then anyway.

yeah man we'll never need anything better than DVD

[Shogoki]

yeah man we'll never need anything better than DVD

It's not about whether or not it's better than DVD, it's about the marginal improvements it offers, most of which your average Joe doesn't understand, care about and can't distinguish. He's also is much more likely to pick up any POS $20 DVD player which will work on any TV made in the last 20 years and which at this point is almost as good as any one from the big brands, than spend 2k's on the displays, home theater systems and players required to appreciate the difference (which most people hardly notice).

And since none of them will ever even come close to DVD outside a few rich countries, they can't pretend to kill DVD cause it will remain to be a much bigger format when you count in the rest of the world.

Whatever replaces DVD it wont be either of these.

[Xisiqomelir]

Whatever replaces DVD it wont be either of these.

I disagree. I think there's a good chance for one to supplant DVD, provided the format war doesn't drag too far into 2008.

[Uraniun235]

yeah man we'll never need anything better than DVD

It's not about whether or not it's better than DVD, it's about the marginal improvements it offers, most of which your average Joe doesn't understand, care about and can't distinguish. He's also is much more likely to pick up any POS $20 DVD player which will work on any TV made in the last 20 years and which at this point is almost as good as any one from the big brands, than spend 2k's on the displays, home theater systems and players required to appreciate the difference (which most people hardly notice).

And since none of them will ever even come close to DVD outside a few rich countries, they can't pretend to kill DVD cause it will remain to be a much bigger format when you count in the rest of the world.

Whatever replaces DVD it wont be either of these.

I think that 'people won't spend $2000 on a nice "home theater" setup' is a dumb statement to make; people have been buying multi-thousand dollar big-screen TVs since the 80s, TVs which had the same crappy resolution as smaller TVs and (from what I remember of my grandfather's old big-screen, anyway) even had problems with looking really dim at the wrong viewing angle. The same sorts of people that bought those big-screens will continue to buy big-screen TVs, only now that same money will buy them a high-definition screen, and there is a difference between 420i and 720p once you get big enough. (It doesn't even take an obscenely large television to get to that point.)

Will the next HD format completely supplant DVD? Probably not, because there's going to be millions of people content to watch movies on some shitty $90 20" TV from fifteen feet away. But to label high definition as an inherently worthless scam is disingenuous, because there is a market for it among people who can tell and appreciate the difference between DVD resolution and 1280x720, and that's what I was getting at in my response to apocolypse.

[apocolypse]

Interestingly, I'm being told that HD-DVD is selling significantly better in the UK.

What if HD-DVD becomes the winner in the UK and Blu-ray in US and Japan (due to PS3)?

To be honest, I don't think too much would change for the moment. I've heard some analysts predicting both formats surviving until at least 2010, and by then they'll probably be researching new and improved formats to rip us of with by then anyway.

yeah man we'll never need anything better than DVD

I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

I'm saying that many are anticipating both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats surviving at least the next couple of years in response to Praxis's question. Not that DVD's are going to be around forever.