Slashdot Mirror
Kutaragi Confirms End to Blue-Ray Talks
Ken Kutaragi, SCE President, confirmed that after a long period of talks Toshiba and Sony cannot see eye to eye on the next generation of DVD format. Blu-ray discs, then, will be the only supported format on the upcoming Playstation 3 console. From the article: "Negotiations began back in February, but the two companies failed to reach an agreement on storage capacities. Blu-Ray discs can hold 50GB of data while HD-DVD discs only hold 30GB, but the HD-DVD camp argues that lower manufacturing costs make for a cheaper, more consumer-friendly product."
It's a matter of what's good enough.
At 30GB, you have enough for over three hours of HDTV, which means most movies, even with special features, won't need any more than that. Why use a more expensive format when you'll hardly ever need the extra space?
Of course, 50GB means each of the extended Lord of the Rings movies will fit on one disc, but the studios consider beaking movies of that length onto two discs to be reasonable.
Personally, I want the higher capacity, but I understand the support for HD-DVD.
Despite Kutaragi's comments last week that it was "game over," Sony shake-up prompts chipmakers to sit again at the negotiating table.
originally spotted on driverheaven.net
Ken Kutaragi, SCE President, confirmed that after a long period of talks Toshiba and Sony cannot see eye to eye on the next generation of DVD format. Blu-ray discs, then, will be the only supported format on the upcoming Playstation 3 console.
:)
That was news on Thursday the 16th, not Monday the 20th. The news as of today on Gamespot however is that the talks are back on. In the coming weeks both Sony & Toshiba top management are going to be reshuffled, the new blood may well find a new solution.
Either way, I'm sure Blu-Ray is going to win, and here's why. Installed user base & storage capacity.
The day HD-DVD players go on sale, do you think that there are going to be a million people drooling, cash-in-hand, ready to buy one? Because there will be a million people DYING to buy a PS3 this spring. And as we all know, the PS3 plays Blu-Ray discs, and that is why Blu-Ray will win out in the end. When I look at myself and my friends, 90% of us use our PS2's as our DVD players. And 99/100 a PS2 was the first DVD player we ever owned. When PS2's were $450 (CDN) DVD players were still $250 (CDN). It was like getting a DVD player for free, and that is exactly what's going to be happening with the PS3. Would we like a PS3 for $500 or a stand-alone HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player for $300?
Originally the XBOX 360 was going to support HD-DVD, but since its being rushed to market ahead of schedule they can't afford to include the technology... Which is working out great for Sony.
Additionally, we have the storage capacity issue:
Blu-Ray Single-Layer:
Storage: 25 gigs
MPEG-4's H.264/AVC codec: 4 hours Hi-Def video
MPEG2 codec: 2 hours Hi-Def video
HD-DVD Single-Layer:
Storage: 15 gigs
MPEG-4's H.264/AVC codec: 2 hours 24 minutes Hi-Def video
MPEG2 codec: 1.2 hours Hi-Def video
You can just look at the HD-DVD storage numbers, so the math in your head, and see how paltry its real-world storage capacity is. Of course using a dual-layered disc somewhat alleviates that problem for HD-DVD, but when Blu-Ray is dual-layered it doesn't just become "good enough" as HD-DVD does, it becomes exceptional. All of a sudden you can store 8 hours of HD content on one disc. Not only is that great for us from a convience standpoint, but shouldn't the storage capacity of the Blu-Ray disc compensate for its higher price point? Things could fit on a 1 or 2 Blu-Ray discs where it would take 3 or 4 HD-DVD discs.
I hope I've somewhat made my point.