Slashdot Mirror
MGM Purchase Gives Sony An Edge In Disc Format War
Grump writes "The New York Times reports: 'The purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by a group led by Sony will not only give the company an enormous film library but also considerable power in its fight to set the format for the next generation of digital video discs.' The article goes on to suggest that Sony is gearing up for another Betamax-style failure."
With Microsoft supporting the NEC and Toshiba blue ray format. And Sony, with its huge movie, and technology back up, who is more likely to win the war of the formats?
Hopefully, the consumers.
Ah, but this is where digital camcorders come in. They can drastically lighten a movie's budget, making it even easier for a person or small group of people to finance their own film. Yes, some people don't like the results, but the point is they give a workable result and as time goes on, they will only get better.
Yes, but the capacity on current DVDs is simply not sufficient for HD signals. And HD is where we're headed...
This is also the reason I favour the Blu-Ray format; it has 25 GB where HD-DVD offers 15 (I think both numbers are per layer, could be wrong).
Going from 4.5 to 15 per layer does not seem worth the effort, from 4.5 to 25 just might be. Also, I think the HD-DVD camp is making the very common mistake of overestimating *practical* video compression technology. Theoretically 15 GB might just be enough for 3 hours HD movie at 1920x1080i. However, the current DVD market shows most studios can't tell their arse from a good mpeg encoder.
Video compression is a bit like compiler technology; when Intel launches a new pentium it's like "well it won't work faster than the old one right away, but with a smart compiler it'll really fly"... however, that new compiler never materializes, or simply isn't used by your software vendor. So your shiny new processer won't fly after all.
Therefore, in CPUs and DVD storage capacity alike, over-engineer where you can! Vote blu-ray.
The article goes on to suggest that Sony is gearing up for another Betamax-style failure.
Betamax was far from a failure. it was better than VHS, a overall better design from the beginning and is still pretty much near the standard today in broadcast (betacam is very much like betamax.)
They failed because of two tiny points.
Tape size - not fricking long enough.. they fixed that with a larger format but by that time the damage was done.
Adoption - VHS was far cheaper to license, so the porn industry latched onto it and ran, thus solidifying the VHS format as the defacto standard.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Sony is in a much better position now than they were during the beta/VHS wars. They lost that one because they were much smaller and alone. They now have allies, the playstation is around and Sony owns more music and movies than they did. People are now are used to multiformat players and recorders. I think the trend will continue. Remember beta was a different size and shape, we are dealing with basically the same media with a different format. That being said, I agree that some of these monopolistic trends are bad for the industry. I wonder what format Microsoft will choose for the Xbox 2.
What does this mean to the Disney MGM park? Is Mickey Mouse going to have to carry a walkman now?
I assume they are going to keep the MGM branding, but has anyone heard anything else about this?
I don't think this will explode into a Betamax fiasco, but more rather a DVD-R and +R situation. At least from my standpoint, both suck, but I don't really have to worry about them because they've done a good job of making things compatible.
No one ever believed it was possible untill the Apple superdrive, so maybe they don't think they can make a combined player untill some other high priced company puts one in for "simplicity."
Or maybe this is just me hoping that the nice new Progressive scan DVD player I just bought isn't worthless
--clarus
.. is that no one wants them to become the standard in any format war.
Sony would like to set themselves up to be the microsoft of the entertainment world. They consistantly ignore market demands and instead produce devices they want people to have instead of devices that people want to have.
Honestly, how many people would want a portable music player that plays some format other than mp3? and takes a higher priced, sony only memory card?
If one studio releases everything on a 16 layered red-laser disc and another releases their stuff on a 2 layered blue-laser disc, but the player you got in your box of Cherios can play both happily, who really gives a crap?
Hahaha I'm hoping for Blu-Ray for one reason;
currently blue laser diodes are impossible to find. The one manufacturer that makes them has been holding all of their production capacity for guys like Sony.
They're apparently very difficult to manufacture. I don't think they're going to be giving any of them away in cheerios boxes for quite some time.
I will, however, happily buy broken blu-ray players from the local pawn shop to rip out the laser.
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
The fact that this means more consolidation of media in the hands of fewer and fewer companies, however, is very, very distressing. http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/mediaconsol.html
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Obviously you've never been to Japan where MD still rocks away. I'm actually in the market for a new MD player after sitting on the sidelines for a few years and not using mine. With a massive MD collection and some of the new players offering in excess of 20 hours off a single battery AND FINALLY data storage capabilities. The new HD-MD holds 1GB of data for only a few bucks. Try scratching or dropping an MD. Just pile the little things anywhere you want. Lastly, there are active linux projects for MD support as well.
>Does it have to be a Betamax-style failure? What
>about a Minidisk-style failure? Or a
>Memory-Stick-style failure? Or an Attrac3-style
>failure?
Those are all really successful formats.
Minidisc is alive and well, as is Sony DAT with ATRAC. Memory stick is doing no worse than any other single memory format. Beta was *THE* pro vidio standard for more than a decade.
You seem to be measuring failure by what is popular in the consumer world, but you conveniently ignore the pro world when you do that.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Blu-ray is HD. HD-DVD is HD. Blu-ray holds more data, which translates into lower compression rates, assuming the same extras on the disc.
IF Sony can get blu-ray out the door in a cost-competitive way, there will be no real fight like there was with Betamax/VHS. Sony just needs to get over themselves, and with so many parteners, they pretty much have to. There will be a marginal ($1) difference in production price at production volumes for the new laser wavelength. They're the same size disc, use the same codecs, will likely end up with the same DRM.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?