i think I wet myself with the blu-ray release of Ronin

Quote :

"yeah they are outselling them 2:1 but thats because of all the ps3s in the market"

that's like 8 track saying "yeah cassettes are out selling us, but that's just because of all the cassette decks out there"


[Edited on August 20, 2007 at 6:20 PM. Reason : .]

8/20/2007 6:17:20 PM

Quote :

"But porn aside, Blu-Ray will end up just like betamax."

hehe...looks like the opposite is happening.

My personal take is that both would continue to co-exist until superceded by IPTV.

None of the formats is going to be even half as big as the DVD.

8/20/2007 6:34:22 PM

Quote :

"that's like 8 track saying "yeah cassettes are out selling us, but that's just because of all the cassette decks out there"

bad analogy moron... how about the record industry get pissed @ cds.

8/20/2007 6:44:46 PM

If Blu-Ray keeps selling discs 2:1 but HD-DVD players are outselling Blu-Ray players, what else makes up for the difference? I don't think combos are the only reason for keeping HD-DVDs down in sales.

8/20/2007 9:53:55 PM

how is that a bad analogy? they are similar mediums released at nearly exactly the same time. it's the same shit as betamax and VHS...similar mediums released at the same time...one survived because more people bought into the systems that supported them

Quote :

"So by now you've heard that Paramount has dropped support for Blu-ray right? Good, so has a notable Hollywood director. Michael Bay -- the man behind "Transformers," "Bad Boys," "Pear Harbor," etc. -- just threw down with Paramount in his personal blog. In a forum post titled "Paramount pisses me off!", he states, "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!" That's right Mike, aim your PS3 right at their coffers! "

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/21/michael-bay-responds-to-paramounts-abandonment-of-blu-ray-no-t/

Haha - oops...guess they didn't think of that one when they grabbed for cash



[Edited on August 21, 2007 at 10:19 AM. Reason : tinyurl is blocked at work]

8/21/2007 10:16:23 AM

Quote :

"Haha - oops...guess they didn't think of that one when they grabbed for cash"

The countdown until Bay grabs for cash and mysteriously stops caring starts... now.

8/21/2007 10:28:00 AM

Quote :

"release of Ronin "

ronin

8/21/2007 11:08:24 AM

^that's funny...I could have sworn you were a guy...guess I was wrong

8/21/2007 11:49:35 AM

It's funny, because Sony was criticized for possibly influencing the Blu-ray exclusive studios with a suitcase full of cash (as if Disney and Fox need money from Sony), and even officially investigated for unfair business practices in the EU. Yet here we have Microsoft, with the most blatant buyout of a major movie studio yet.

8/21/2007 12:30:55 PM

it's not Microsoft, it's the HD-DVD consortium

8/21/2007 12:39:46 PM

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/ was mentioned early on in this thread. it's worth revisiting now

8/21/2007 12:49:38 PM

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/21/007220

Quote :

"JM78 writes to tell us The New York Times is reporting that Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation will be dropping support for Blu-ray Disc and going solely with HD-DVD for their next gen DVDs. " Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, said consumers seeking to switch to high-definition DVDs will be enticed by the movies available for HD-DVD players. He added the lower price for the Toshiba devices will appeal to the family market. 'It's a game-changer, what they're doing, and it's why we decided to throw in with them,' Katzenberg said.""

8/21/2007 3:45:44 PM

^

Wonderful. I think the Iraq war has more of a chance to end first than the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD battle.

8/21/2007 3:49:41 PM

Quote :

"The NY Times has confirmed via two Viacom executives, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, that Paramount has received a $150M pay-off to support HD DVD exclusively for a period of 18 months. The $150M is comprised of cash and future marketing deals. Also re-confirmed is that the deal includes no films directed by Steven Spielberg. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/technology/21disney.html?ex=1345435200&en=fe619b851abc0231&ei=5124"

Quote :

"On a post on his personal web forum entitled, "Paramount pisses me off!", Michael Bay says, "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!" http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2299"

they say Michael Bay's heart grew three sizes that day...

[Edited on August 22, 2007 at 10:40 AM. Reason : citation]

8/22/2007 10:39:14 AM

haha

8/22/2007 10:42:28 AM

^^ he recanted that after he sobered up and paramount called him

8/22/2007 11:50:32 AM

^ called him and waved his probably paycheck for transformers 2 in front of his face...

8/22/2007 12:53:57 PM

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070822-reasons-financial-and-technical-lurk-behind-paramounts-hd-dvd-coup.html

Honestly though, I still think a major factor in the decision by Paramount/Dreamworks is that they didn't feel that Blu-Ray discs would move $150 million in profit before the end of their exclusivity deal.

8/22/2007 6:48:19 PM

Quote :

"The end result of their testing, Bell told me, was the assessment that HD DVD is simply a "very consistent, stable specification." He said that all HD DVD players have had to meet the same specifications and that, in his estimation, HD DVD's specifications are more suited for the current market. Blu-ray, on the other hand, has been a moving target, and this could end up hurting early adopters who might be chagrined to find significance differences between players."

Of course it's a more consistent platform, it's only being supported by **one** manufacturer. He talks about "minimum standards", yet the most popular HD-DVD player lacks 1080p output, MPCM output, or mult-channel analog outputs. And of course, nothing he mentioned applies to the most popular Blu-ray player around, the PS3.

8/22/2007 6:57:22 PM

Are you familiar with the idea of minimum?

8/22/2007 7:01:52 PM

Are you familiar with the concept of "inferior"? The man talks as if HD DVD players are held to some sort of higher standard than Blu-ray players, yet that standard is well below that of 99.9% of Blu-ray players out there.

8/22/2007 7:08:46 PM

^ there aren't 1000 blu-ray models.

8/22/2007 7:19:21 PM

Quote :

"Are you familiar with the concept of "inferior"? The man talks as if HD DVD players are held to some sort of higher standard than Blu-ray players, yet that standard is well below that of 99.9% of Blu-ray players out there."

A standard is better than no standard.

8/22/2007 7:28:24 PM

Quote :

"Of course it's a more consistent platform, it's only being supported by **one** manufacturer. He talks about "minimum standards", yet the most popular HD-DVD player lacks 1080p output, MPCM output, or mult-channel analog outputs. And of course, nothing he mentioned applies to the most popular Blu-ray player around, the PS3."

Shit like that is an inevitable consequence of the 'format war'. Each side been selling hardware and / or discs with deficiencies just to keep up with the other.

With the exception of the Xbox 360 console, the first wave of HD DVD players lacked full support for the video, and all of them had audio limitations.

The first Blu Ray discs were poorly encoded, the most popular stand-alone player (the BDP-1000 or whatever it is) lacked true 1080p support, etc.

Every player on both sides is laggy compared to current DVD players. I have no doubt that Blu Ray will come out ahead, but both sides have a lot of room for improvement, especially for stand-alone players.

8/22/2007 10:05:53 PM

It seems the biggest reason they went with HDDVD was the internet connectivity the players have. I don't know if anyone is actually using this yet, but it does give the movie studios a lot of new potential for revenue, including managed copy, where they could disguise it as a feature of having people pay like an extra $5 to transfer a copy to their media server or something.

If you look at the reasons they went with HDDVD, NONE of them have to do with picture or video quality, only marketing-related things, which HDDVD really does have the advantage.

On the other hand, just like with the PS3, Sony was REALLY slow hammering out a set spec and feature list for Blu-ray. It wasn't really until a good bit in to this year that the first full-spec support blu-ray player was released, IIRC, and they were even planning until the last minute to release a PS3 with no HDMI but with a blu-ray player (which means as soon as discs started checking for HDCP, it wouldn't work for bluray playback).

Blu-ray is a nicer format, but Sony sucks pretty bad.

8/22/2007 10:23:39 PM

Betamax is a nicer format, but Sony sucks pretty bad.

Minidisc is a nicer format, but Sony Sucks pretty bad.

[Edited on August 22, 2007 at 10:41 PM. Reason : shall we go on]

8/22/2007 10:41:03 PM

I want to go on the record that I am for IPTV HD.

Until then I will obviously default to whatever is cheaper.

It isnt even close.

TV technology has a long ways to go before it even matters. Even the SXRD series are lackluster (albiet the most economical option available)

[Edited on August 22, 2007 at 11:01 PM. Reason : .]

8/22/2007 10:58:07 PM

^^haha

8/22/2007 11:20:04 PM

Quote :

"I don't know if anyone is actually using this yet"

I'm pretty certain that updates to the firmware of the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 could be obtained through that network connectivity. Not that that's really OMFG WHAT AN AWESOME FEATURE or demonstrates widespread use, though. I just thought it was a nice touch.

Quote :

"NONE of them have to do with picture or video quality"

Well, as we were pointing out in the PS3 thread, there really isn't a quality difference when it comes to the video. It's more dependent on the transfer than on the type of disc it's burned onto.

[Edited on August 23, 2007 at 12:01 AM. Reason : .]

8/22/2007 11:59:35 PM

^ the lack of discernible difference in picture quality between the formats is kind of a disappointment. both formats have a video bitrate in the spec around 19 mbit, IIRC. It's low enough to get a 4+ hour movie and some additional content on an HD-DVD. Even at such high bitrates, the pictures can look grainy at times (not really noticeable unless you're close to the display). I would think a Blu Ray disc would be able to store the same content at 22-25 mbit to reduce the appearance of compression artifacts, but they don't.

Maybe the hardware just can't process the video data that fast?

8/23/2007 11:55:50 AM

i wonder how long the hd-dvd only deal is for....

8/23/2007 12:03:55 PM

Quote :

"I want to go on the record that I am for IPTV HD."

i won't get either hddvd or bluray unless i have to. i still don't have a dvd burner and i've survived just fine, i think i can do the same and wait 5 years for iptv to start hitting seriously

8/23/2007 12:05:11 PM

x264 ftw! don't need it until i need one or the other for data storage.

8/23/2007 10:11:06 PM

i'd stick with hd-dvd. since heroes is being released on it.

8/23/2007 11:01:34 PM

so.......when is this god damn war going to end? i'm ready to buy something.

9/22/2007 4:07:09 PM

Convert HD-DVD to Blu-Ray.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/836527/guide_convert_hd_dvd_to_blu_ray_works_on_ps3_no_loss_of_qual/

9/25/2007 9:59:26 AM

Guide: Convert HD-DVD To Blu-ray (works On PS3), No Loss Of Qual - Click here for more free videos
and this for educational purposes...i bet it doesnt work

How To Hack A Coke Machine - The funniest home videos are here

[Edited on September 25, 2007 at 2:39 PM. Reason : .]

9/25/2007 2:38:16 PM

bttt

10/11/2007 7:14:05 PM

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/01/08/ps3-owners-demand-porn-digital-playground-steps-up-to-the-plate/

Digital Playground has moved from neutral to Blu in the format war. Given recent events, it's not a surprising turn, and the studio's Blu-ray library that debuted with "Pirates" will swell to nine movies by January 11. Coming to the roster are: "Island Fever" 3 and 4, "Babysitters," "Jack's Teen America 3," "Jesse Jane: Sexual Freak," "Hush," "Contract Star" and "Jesse Jane Pink."

1/8/2008 1:29:29 PM

How are they gonna put out Jack's Teen America 3 without releasing the first two?

NOW I'M NOT GONNA BE ABLE TO FOLLOW THE STORYLINE!!

1/8/2008 1:43:08 PM

idiot huh?

1/9/2008 11:53:41 AM

<3 this thread

2/18/2008 1:04:31 AM

This thread failed.

2/19/2008 11:20:19 AM

well gronke IS an idiot so go figure.

2/19/2008 11:31:44 AM

Quote :

"If you bought a Blu-Ray, you're an idiot...."

.... ehe, pwnt by life. (though i agree paying the early adopter cost isn't exactly bright)

2/19/2008 11:39:14 AM

hahaha i was just thinking the same... this whole thread shows how funky things can go...
leave it to a console to declare a winner.

If Microsoft really wanted hd dvd to win the would have come in the xbox rather than as an attachment.

2/19/2008 11:46:42 AM

why would microsoft want HD-DVD to win? during this long battle between two formats most of the general public have been hesitant to adapt, microsoft has been able to promote streaming movie downloads for the same price or less than going to blockbuster.

and then microsoft watches the riots on a monitor...

twenty floors below sea-level...

from a bunker.

2/19/2008 11:56:45 AM

Quote :

"well gronke IS an idiot so go figure. "

2/19/2008 12:01:02 PM

So by now i would expect some of you if not all have heard that walmart, netflix, bestbuy, and toshiba are all going to go bluray only very soon. I dont really care either way since I dont have either one yet. But I figure it would stir up more entertaining arguments for me to read while I'm at work

2/19/2008 4:37:55 PM

Wait, i thought this was old news. HD-DVD is dead.

http://gizmodo.com/358219/a-consumers-cheat-sheet-to-hd-dvds-death-and-blurays-victory/

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/in-case-you-missed-it-peace-broke-out-in-the-format-war-hd-dvd/

Quote :

"It's official. Toshiba just made a statement saying, " it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders." Cessation of the player and recorders are targeted for March 2008. Volume production of HD DVD disk drives for PCs and games will end in the same time frame. However, Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation did say that Toshiba will, "continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives." That's it folks, the format war is over, Blu-ray has won. Full press release after the break. Update: Besides stating "no plans" to go Blu-ray during the Q&A, Toshiba committed to stockpiling HD DVD recording media for those who own HD DVD recorders. These will be sold on-line. As for future HD DVD software releases, Mr. Nishida could only say, "it was not our business, we cannot predict their business." Oh really? Is the lack of new titles on a dead platform really so hard to predict?"

[Edited on February 19, 2008 at 4:42 PM. Reason : .]

2/19/2008 4:41:08 PM