Is It My choice, Or Is It Yours?

[aaronstout]

Considering the Warner announcement, it looks like Dale picked the winner!

It's interesting that Warner appears to have taken an objective view from their perspective of course and saw going Blu-ray the only real choice that made sense to help bolster HD Disc adoption. Too much of their media sales were slipping to let the stalemate continue.

I guess it could have gone either way, but hopefully this will put an end to the division and get us all moving forward with HD media we can own and enjoy.

I don't buy the argument that downloads will replace the market for physical media.

AaronS

[miller]

It's interesting that Warner appears to have taken an objective view from their perspective of course and saw going Blu-ray the only real choice that made sense to help bolster HD Disc adoption.

http://www.n4g.com/tech/News-97189.aspx

It may not be true, but it's damn juicy. From the link:

According to a trusted source that was close to the negotiations, Warner and FOX were working on a deal to go Exclusive to HD DVD as recent as last week. Our source tells us that Warner was only willing to go to HD DVD if FOX would go with them. Their thinking was if they just went to HD DVD by themselves, it would not end the format war. Early this week FOX was paid an undisclosed amount to remain exclusive to Blu-ray. With the FOX deal falling through, Warner had no choice but to accept the BDA

[free2speak]

You are absolutely correct. This decision has nothing to do with what is best for consumers. WB took the money and that is all. There is no inherent benefit to BD. It will cost consumers a lot more for no benefit. If all the studios had been neutral the consumers may have made a clear choice on their own by now.

[Dale]

By Dale Cripps

Aslea, OR

[free2speak]

I don't see any winners. The consumers are stuck with expensive beta players. No BD player today is ready for Profile 2.0 features. The only player that can be updated is the PS3. With less competition there will be no reason to bring the price of BD down. Sony is the only company that will make money from BD since the PS3 is 85% of the players out there. The movie industry standardized around a game machine, and the PS3 is dead last in the gaming world.

Sony BD is no were near the new standard. Two friends came to visit me last weekend. I showed them the Toshiba HD-A2 playing Transformers. Mostly I heard "Wow!" from my friends as the fantastic images and sound played out for them. I told them the whole sad story of the format war. What did they ask me? "What is Blu-Ray?", they asked. I told them it was a "Hi-Def DVD" format in the PS3. Two years on the market, and two out of three people don't know what Blu-Ray is, and they don't care. The numbers get worse when you extrapilate to the general population.

At least Sony saved me a lot of money. After my HD DVD purchases run out I won't buy anymore HD movies. I will switch to HD On Demand from my cable company. Sony can sell its products to someone else.

[Dale]

At least Sony saved me a lot of money. After my HD DVD purchases run out I won't buy anymore HD movies. I will switch to HD On Demand from my cable company. Sony can sell its products to someone else.

And we are supposed to feel bad for you? I just can't quite shed a tear for your "suffering" as long as you live in one of the most privledged societies on earth with choices for the kind and sources of luxury you want are in abundance.

I would not be surprised if Sony survives your boycot.

[free2speak]

Maybe so. There is a million suckers born every minute, and many of them are Sony fans. You wanted Blu-Ray to win all along so you are hardly unbiased in the outcome. Your simple reason boiled down to the extra space on BD (Big Deal). All the over priced beta version BD players didn't seem to bother you at all in your crusade for the consumer. Please buy many BD products so you can drive down the price to were average people will want to buy it.

[Dale]

There is no reason for you to resort now to false accusations when I have been fully transparent in this entire challenge from day one. The bias in me has always been for coming to one format rather than multiple formats, which is where we were heading. I was far more than willing to see that format be the HD DVD and said in one of my posts that my choice in selecting Blu-ray could cause a backlash and kick HD DVD into the lead, and I was completely happy with that possibility. My responsibility to my readers, however, is to look out past the immediate salesmanship and offerings in order to see what most benefits the long term. It's all a calculated guess and some of us are better at making them then others. My track record is pretty good so some people follow it. Many people look only to the advantage that beacons them in the here and now. I respect that, but it can lead you into a blind alley, such as where many find themselves today. You are right in that I had taken the feature of low cost added capacity as the one to tip the scale, but that is no secret and is found repeatedly in all of my writings. I see no good sense in fighting this format selection. Enjoy your life. The older I get the more I realize how brief this life is and we can choose to embrace what it throws us when we can do nothing more to alter the course of history. You boycotting of Sony is not going to change history, except for yours.

[akirby]

I don't see any winners. The consumers are stuck with expensive beta players. No BD player today is ready for Profile 2.0 features. The only player that can be updated is the PS3. With less competition there will be no reason to bring the price of BD down. Sony is the only company that will make money from BD since the PS3 is 85% of the players out there. The movie industry standardized around a game machine, and the PS3 is dead last in the gaming world.

PS3 sales were up 28% in January and outsold Xbox for the first time (although Xbox supposedly had a console shortage). I think now that the 40 gb model is out at $399 and the format war is over the PS3 will surpass the Xbox for the year.

And I thought the big advantage of HD DVD players were that they were cheap, so how can you be stuck with an expensive cheap player?

Two friends came to visit me last weekend. I showed them the Toshiba HD-A2 playing Transformers. Mostly I heard "Wow!" from my friends as the fantastic images and sound played out for them. I told them the whole sad story of the format war. What did they ask me? "What is Blu-Ray?", they asked. I told them it was a "Hi-Def DVD" format in the PS3. Two years on the market, and two out of three people don't know what Blu-Ray is, and they don't care. The numbers get worse when you extrapilate to the general population.

If they didn't know about Blu-Ray then they didn't know about HD DVD, either. HD DVD is simply a more descriptive name and since people already know what HD and DVD mean separately it's not hard to put them together.

You obviously hate Sony and clearly resent Blu-Ray just because of that regardless of any technical issues.

[free2speak]

PS3 sales were up 28% in January and outsold Xbox for the first time (although Xbox supposedly had a console shortage). I think now that the 40 gb model is out at $399 and the format war is over the PS3 will surpass the Xbox for the year.

And I thought the big advantage of HD DVD players were that they were cheap, so how can you be stuck with an expensive cheap player?

The PS3 won one month it doesn't mean they are now winning. PS3 is behind by millions of machines. Xbox 360 has the stronger game lineup by far. I know a lot of Xbox 360 owners, but I only know one PS3 owner which isn't exactly a revolution. You said yourself the Wii and Xbox 360 had hardware shortages after the holidays. I am sure that some BD fans gave the format a bounce after the Warner announcement.

I didn't write "expensive cheap player", and I wasn't referring to HD DVD. I was referring to all the BD Profile 1 players soon to be followed by the BD Profile 1.1 players which will again be replaced by BD Profile 2 players. Profile 2 will add capabilities already available on HD DVD. Samsung is currently facing a lawsuit for its early BD players which had problems after the BD disks were changed that is what I meant by "expensive beta players". Beta 1, Beta 1.1, and Beta 2. I am a computer professional, and beta software and hardware is not intended for general consumption, and it carries strong warnings to inform users. Maybe Profile 2 will move beyond Beta status.

I don't hate Sony anymore than I love Toshiba. I own a couple Sony products. However, I have witnessed first hand as a gamer and now as a HD DVD owner the damage Sony creates with their "exclusive" contracts. BD didn't win because it was better; it won because Sony paid Warner $400 million dollars to make it happen.

Of course my friends didn't know about BD or HD DVD because I hadn't showed them yet, but my friends are average consumers. I have made a habit of introducing my friends and family to cutting edge technology for decades now. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose, but I always find useful technology. The point is BD won only exclusive entry into the DVD market so it isn't a guaranteed win. DVD is the standard by far. High prices for BD will keep it that way for the foreseeable future.