A little late on this, but seeing as how we've followed the format war on the fringes here at Twitch, it's fitting to see what - if anything - the end means to our readers and contributors.
One supposes it was about time Sony won one of these things. Beta, Mini-Disc, UMD... Sony hasn't historically bet on the right horse when it came to home entertainment formats, so with Toshiba's announcement they'll no longer be developing HD-DVD technology, Sony has cause to celebrate. Blu-Ray will, for the foreseeable future, be the next-gen choice in physical media. Prices on players are dropping and online retailers have been offering increasingly appealing deals on BR media since late 2007. Blu-Ray's here to stay. For a while.
Does this turn have what it takes to light a fire under anyone to make the high-def jump? Who's ready out there? Who's already there?
Problem is, Sony doesn't deserve to win. All else aside, Sony has a history of user-hostile technology... CD anticopy protection in the form of a virus that infects users' computers etc. I bought a minidisk recorder to archive my music performances... but rather than make the recorder a standard USB Mass Storage so files could be dragged and dropped, Sony forced me to use their (very buggy, windows-only) software - and would only let me digitally copy recordings of MY OWN MUSIC a single time!
The aspect of particular interest to Twitch readers: Blu-ray includes region coding support whereas with HD-DVD all discs are playable anywhere.
I'm not at all happy that the next decade's format is in the hands of a company that treats their customers like crap, and mourn another decade saddled with region-coded discs.
This means little to me right now since I have no intention of replacing my collection of perfectly watchable regular DVDs, buying a new player that won't play my old discs and buying a new TV to make the difference worthwhile. In a few years when the prices for all those things are down, maybe, but certainly not anytime soon.
Region coding for DVDs is still the norm.
Then again, so is unlocking your DVD player! :cheese:
I dabble in BluRay through my PS3. I only have 2001: A Space Odyssey and Oshii's Avalon on BR so far but do they ever look pretty. I have no plans of replacing my DVD collection anytime soon but I will definitely be in the market for BRs of very pretty films. My next purchase will likely be Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence which should be quite nice to look at.
The PS3 is apparently one of the best BR players out there right now.
The Visitor I'm sick and fucking tired of it. I had a ton of VHS, then laser,now I've got a lot of DVDs.So what now a picture upgrade...then what. What happens in a few years when everyone has switched to BR and the companies reach the same point they're at now with the DVD market leveling off and the want new profits. PRESTO...a new and "improved" format that guess what...isn't compatable with existing technology and you have to start the bloody farce all over again...it's fucking ridiculous.
the ideal situation would be that consumers are single-minded and refuse to support any new formats. no demand, therefore no supply. format dies way. companies are forced to develop improvements on existing software without consumers having to buy new compatible hardware. end of story.
but that remains an idealistic fantasy, unfortunately.
sigh.
That is what I was thinking. Sony needs to address this issue if it wants to nail the J6P's of the world who don't think about this stuff.
Swarez if the HD players play older DVDs that's fine. I was going by what I read a year ago saying that the new players, red and blues lasers would NOT be able to play regular DVDs. I'm not a tech expert, I was going by what the tech experts were saying a year ago at the digitalbits.If that's changed then great and they were wrong.
But as someone who has been through a format change three times already I'll give this one more time to play out. Who knows if this will be the video version of DAT. Due to rapidly changing technology format changes may also go faster. Who knows how long this one will be the new standard or if in a few years video discs will go like music CDs are now with more people downloading. I'm just not jumping on this bandwagon anytime soon. Been there, done that.
I think a lot of what Arch said contributes to the lack of knowledge, even amongst home theatre folks (myself - yet since i have a 720p Projector, to maximize the new high-res 1080p I'd have to spend some serious $$ upgrading my projector, which I'm unwilling to do.)
Format fatigue leads to indifference which has the side-effect of ignorance. The who format-war lead to even more indifference. Now that it's more or less over, well...I'll be waiting a year or two, as stated above...
Kurt you're absolutely right, if I gave a shit ( like I did when Laser and DVD came out) about this format I'd be well versed in all it's current info. Since I don't, like I said in my first post this news of the winning format means little to me right now.
Like I also said and you have said as well I'm waiting at least a year or more to see where this goes.
VHS to Laser was a big step, Laser to DVD was another big step, this one doesn't seem as big and certainly not something I give enough of a crap about to start buying a new player and new DVDs.
My question is will HD DVD completely seize to exist. I didn't buy a new Blu-Ray or Combo player yet. A movie like "Dead Silence" put out by Universal Studios on a Combo HD DVD/DVD Combo format for example, will it be available also on Blu-Ray soon? Did Universal Studios so far only put movies in Hi Def out on HD DVD and will they soon or are already releasing their movies on Blu-Ray?
HD-DVD players will be sold until their stock runs out; same with software. You should see some decent deals in the future (they're already clearancing players at some big brick-and-mortar stores in the US like Circuit City).
Without backing from Toshiba, I don't see anyone producing new HD-DVD players or software, but... you never know. People are still making new Sega Dreamcast games, and as of a year or two ago you could buy a new Saturn console from Brazil I think. People may continue to support the HD-DVD technology, but it won't be in the race for consumer dominance anymore.
Does this mean Celestial will release the remaining Shaw Brothers films in BlueRay and will Cathay have more releases??? hmmmm...probably not, so I don't see any reason to upgrade or buy blueray since most if not all korean and HK movies are released under the normal DVD format..BTW is HOFD and Hero edited on BlueRay? If so it's just another reason it's a waste?? Congrats Sony..
It's astounding how many people do not know that HD-players will also accept DVD's, even people related to movie-business!
I remember Harry Knowles loudly proclaiming to have bought a HD-DVD player because it could also play his DVD's (blissfully unaware that Blu-ray could do the same).
So Stormrider, a Blu-ray player will play the DVD-part of a DVD/HD-DVD combo, but not the HD-DVD part. I never understood why they made those combos to be honest.
Oh, and a tip for all you people who already have an HD-television but aren't considering switching to Blu-ray soon.
In the next few weeks you'll notice HD-DVD players will become ultra, ultra cheap. Like, maybe even free. Try to get one!
Here's why:
You can use it to play your regular DVDs, but the HD-DVD player will upscale the image to 1080 !!
And you WILL marvel at how good your old DVDs suddenly look on your new TV!!!
also, some R1 and R3 DVDs over here have become very affordable. just when the prices are right, now i might have to fork out more money for the more expensive BR discs, if BR completely phases out regular DVDs. probably in a few more years, the same thing will happen to BR once another hot new format comes along. it's a vicious cycle.
May go to BR eventually, but in the short term I'll go ahead and pick up a HD player (for convenience sake ie. size, probably the xbox 360 addon) - since I'm getting the Appleseed 2 version by default in the LE and because I really want to watch Lynch's "Dune" (Road Warrior and others are also on the list).
I believe the way it works is that HD-DVD players were required to be backwards compatible to be compliant with the HD-DVD standard. Blu-ray doesn't have the same requirement, though there's nothing preventing manufacturers from making their players DVD compatible, as all of them have done thus far. But when the hardware company is also the software company, there's a very real incentive to turn off compatibility at some point down the road to "stimulate" software sales.
Visitor.
It just bugs me that people who ought to know better are complaining about the same thing that didn't seem to bother them when DVD came on the scene, price, new hardware and such.
And the best plan is to wait for the prices to come down and they will. I'm sure that within a year you will see bargain bin BR titles.
You don't need to upgrade your hardware right away. The vast majority of people don't give two shits about HD and are perfectly fine with SD DVDs. That is why the BD people need to marked this product towards them if they want this thing to take off. Right now it's a fraction of DVD sales so there is a long way to go. They need to marked it as a product that will play regular DVDs and that you don't need to upgrade all your shit if you don't want to but it has the advantage of being able to play the next generation format.
I don't have a HD TV yet simply because they are too expensive where I live. I'm waiting for them to come down. If I hadn't gotten that PS3 for free because of my job reviewing computer games I wouldn't have gotten in to this "war" in the first place because I was planing to wait it out. The reason being new technology is always expensive at first and then comes down in price when it's entered the mainstream.
And I've been working with Sony for quite some time now and get a fat paycheck every time I convince someone to buy their stuff.
Swarez, I agree with you that most people are currently satisfied with SD DVDs. When DVDs came out against VHS, there were many reasons to go digital. Better quality, easier access to special features, new things like audio commentaries, being able to rent online with affordable shipping (as opposed to renting VHS, which was expensive and would typically damage the tapes). With BR, it's really only about better quality. That's it. (And I maintain that the majority of consumers preferred BluRay because it was easier to say than HD DVD.)
VHS to DVD was like masturbation to sex. Masturabation is fun, but hey, sex is even better. But DVD to BR is like sex with a slightly better looking chick, and why would you pay a lot more for that? Plus, you've grown to love your DVDs, so it's no longer about how they look. You love spending time with them, taking them out on dates, and walking on the beach... I've completely lost track of my analogy, but hopefully you see my point.