Truth Serum – Format Wars
What kind of movies could you possibly create with 50 gigs (Blu-ray) that is so magical it can’t be done with 30 gigs (HD DVD)? Trying to push storage as the foremost advantage is Ludacris and not mention it’s even ludicrous. I know PC people and perhaps those in the development field will argue how much it matters, but I’m a regular Joe who just wants to watch his damn movie. I don’t need all the extra fluff.
So why are they fighting? Studios are no different than high school athletes out to get the cheerleader with the biggest bra size. In this case, the consumer and our pockets are the cheerleader but what they fail to realize is that some of us are sporting very small bras. The worst of these in my opinion reside in the Blu-ray camp considering the high cost in production and the lack of feature support. Do any of you realize the end result when or if Blu-ray is the choice for high definition DVD? Someone will have to recoup the costs for producing these discs. PlayStation 3 owners should be well aware of what Blu-ray does to costs.
HD DVD has always been and will continue to be a more feasible option for the consumer and bra size. There are more features included in an HD DVD movie on top of a lower cost. Those who have sided with Blu-ray (Warner Bros.) aren’t interested in seeing the market saturated with consumer-friendly players so they opted for the higher cost while trying to pull some shenanigans with the “benefits of Blu-ray”. You need only look to the Blu-ray FAQ to weed through the ridiculous list of benefits.
The unfortunate reality though is that Blu-ray has an offensive line that will soon overpower HD DVD’s defense late in the fourth quarter. The studio support and subsequent movie catalog of Blu-ray is a definite blow to its rival. It makes me wonder what this battle would have been had the Xbox 360 included an HD DVD drive from the beginning considering the fact that Blu-ray numbers are what they are because of the PlayStation 3. Yes, it’s a Blu-ray player that just so happens to also play games.
What’s the point in all of this? It’s a little truth for you to let you know that format wars suck and Blu-ray costs too much! (at least right now) I’d imagine though that none of this is going to really matter until maybe 3 years from now because standard DVD will continue to dominate both Blu-ray and HD DVD. So my suggestion is to wait until there is but one high definition DVD format. It makes no sense to get into them now if you’re a less-than-videophile like myself.
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January 8th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
See what I mean about the industry moving to digital distrubution. At CES today Comcast CEO announced that they have new technology that works with their exsiting infrastructure to allow users to have 160 mb speeds via Comcast’s broadband service. They are rolling out this year and hope to have it everywhere by 2009.
Thats amazing. The guy is even demoing it at CES today to download HD version of Spiderman 3 in 4 minutes.
Comcast talking about it.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/08/ces.comcast.ap/index.html
Technology behind it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS
January 8th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
@GameSkills,
right on spot with that man.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
if the Video Marketplace EVER managed a download of a movie in 4 minutes, i’d trash my Blockbuster card and Netflix free trial. man that’s crazy…4 minutes?
January 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
If size doesn’t matter, then why did Paramount not offer a Dolby TrueHD or uncompressed PCM on the Transformers HD DVD (instead, they provided a Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 which is probably fine for most, but HD folks imho)? They did not because they choose to offer supplements over the best audio.
Also, HD DVD discs are not cheaper. Just go to any Best Buy and compare the prices of HD DVDs versus Blu-ray.
HD DVD pimping downloadable movie trailers and the ability to purchase movie tickets online is the stupidest idea ever. That is not a feature. I would rather jump on the computer and do that all by myself, not from my TV.
I agree prices for Blu-ray players need to come down. That will happen; its just a matter of time.
HD DVD does not have the studio support; I want Predator; I want Pixar; the list goes on. If HD DVD cannot offer these, then it is all their fault and consumers will choose Blu-ray.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Im still using good ol DVD’s
and probably will continue to do so for the next year or 2. HD-DVD’s and Blueray movies are too friggin expensive for me. A movie is a movie IMO, quality is just a bonus.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
@Shamrock
Overly-compressed Marketplace movies (in HD) are not HD. Microsoft has simply compressed them too much. It is a scam. I mean honestly … 6.5 GB for a so-called HD movie versus 9 GB-ish for a regular DVD.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I’ve downloaded one HD movie off MP and I thought it looked very good (300). You guys need to understand that HD-Discs may never take off at all.
The jump in quality from VHS to DVD was amazing. Not to mention the convience of skip, chapter select, never having to rewind, etc..
This time it’s different. You have upconverting DVD players that look extremely good. Hell the 360 when setup with HDMI makes regular DVD’s (upscaled to 720p) look amazing on my 42′ HDTV.
I’m a tech guy and I can’t even justify buying Blue-Ray or HD-DVD, imagine what casual mainstream America is thinking.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Well my brother bought the hd-dvd player for the xbox 360 and it actually works great (besides the fact that i keeps on disappearing from my dashboard). The quality definetly is nicer but i can’t really see the difference between hd-dvd and blu-ray at the moment so not much point in buying a blu-ray player. But personally i don’t really care who wins the format wars because even if blu-ray wins it just justifies our family to go out and buy a ps3 =D
January 8th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I’m not buying till they make a decision and someone wins out. I don’t want to invest in a player only to find its not available for future products. I also perfer my HD player of choice to be enternal and not apart of my gaming setup. The HD addon or a possible Blu-Ray addon for the Xbox 360 is not out of the question, but one better be the victor for sure, when that time comes.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
By the time there is a clear-cut winner, and many have just finished replacing their DVD collections with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD collections, streaming digital media will be all the rage and broadly available. Don’t buy either!
January 8th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Sadly, HD DVD is the best choice for the masses (the less-than-videophiles like yourself), but will probably not be available due to their wait and see approach. Believe me…I understand it, but have to be saddened that HD DVD won’t get the support it deserves because their consumer base is sitting back to watch Blu-Ray take over the market.
Good report though.
January 9th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Comcast can say what they want… and yes maybe their technology is improving… I bet the broadband cost on enduser will be substantial. To me cable internet should have dropped in price, much like modem access, but that isn’t happening when you have a monopoly(They are the only ones I can choose) on the technology.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:24 am
it appears as if HBO and New Line Cinema have switched to Blu-ray.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Deacon, fan-ta-stic-mother-freaking-post. Seriously, what a great read. It’s sad but it appears that like with the PS2, Sony might be using it’s numbers to blind the un-educated and studios that just want more money (which is what they are in the business for) I guess for me it’s just hard to watch happen (again) and possibly give Sony another foothold in a market they have total control over. I’m glad I waited and will still be waiting for sometime now. Again, great post Deacon.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
February 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am
[...] in studio support that just about signal a premature demise of the format. Make sure you read my Truth Serum on format wars discussing a bit about [...]
February 19th, 2008 at 8:07 am
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