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Retailers Press For Unified HD DVD Format
datemenatalie writes "While the war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray continues over who will be the direct successor to DVD, the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) has issued a strong statement to Hollywood and the consumer electronics industry regarding the looming HD format war. The statement, which supports a single high-definition disc format, also offers advice on dimensions, packaging, features and even how marketing materials should be designed. The statement argues, "two formats, each capable of storing high definition movies on DVD, are planned for release into the market. Retailers uniformly agree that the concurrent distribution of more than one format is likely unsustainable, and that the launch of a single format is preferable to a format war which could confuse the public and lead to reluctance to embrace either format." This comes just weeks after early indications that HD-DVD will only allow playback of full 1080 resolution video signals through HDMI connectors, leaving consumers with older HDTVs (pre-HDMI) out of luck."
So yeah, they are rallying for a single format. Plus ten for style, but minus several hundred for insisting that the copy protection be severe, including the prohibition of analog HD.
Xesdeeni
which format offers more pr0n? (blu-ray) That is the answer. That is always the answer.
... ya think?
That for once these format developers can just agree on a single standard and stick with it. But, I think that will be highly unlikely. They will fight it out at the consumer's expense for a few years then finally settle down on a single format.
:P
By all rights, Blu-ray *should* be the next-gen standard. It is superior in just about every way. Which, studying history, means that HD-DVD will probably win out in the end
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
Competition is good! Let the market decide! Let the best format win! Even if there isn't a clear winner then people will have a choice, which is good too. Crap, I am sick of this organization of or that organization dictating what I can or cannot buy/think/do.
Is the adoption (or lack thereof) of DVD-Audio/SACD due to format competition? Nope. Much like CDs, DVDs provide more than acceptable quality to the masses.
Did anybody else realize that most of the people pushing HD-DVD and HDMI manufacture TVs?
Personally, I don't see either standard as being that successful. While I'll personally enjoy the better picture from a HD DVD standard, I don't see the average consumer willing to switch over.
DVD was successful because in addition to picture and sound quality, the format offered quite a few advantages over the prevailing standard VHS tapes. The new format was more durable (could be played over and over again without degradation), portable (smaller, easier to store), easier to manage (no rewinding, could easily jump to any portion of the film) and provided the viewer with quite a few new valuable features (extra features, commentary, switchable subtitles and foreign languages etc.)
A HD DVD standard only offers the advantage of better picture. I just can't see regular people willing to invest in new equipment and update their video libraries just for that, and in turn I don't see publishers being motivated to offer a large amount of titles in the new standard.
Sure, I'll buy it, but that's because I'm a dork and I like fancy electronic equipment, especially if it shows off the capabilities of my HD TVs. But most people aren't dorks (heck, a lot of people still prefer full screen versions of DVD movies).
The Internet is generally stupid
I don't usually reply to my own posts but in this case I think it's warranted. It wouldn't really take a united retail front. If Wal-Mart, Circuit City, Best Buy and few more of the major retail chains got togather and decided to get behind a single format that would seal the deal. Hell Wal-Mart alone might due the trick, look at how the RIAA bend over backwards to make sure Wal-Mart will carry certain CD's.
HD is already slow to be adopted. While this has nothing to do with OTA transmission, it will likely hurt public acceptance of HDTV once again. Let's all just wait and see if there is an even more newer-newer-newer standard we'll be forced to switch to.
Letter To Iran
Blu-Ray is going into American homes anyway, because it's part of the PS3 and it's probably too late for Sony to back out of that now even if they want to. Even if retailers don't want it, even if Blu-Ray fails miserably as a video format, or even if both HDDVD and Blu-Ray fail miserably as video formats and stores refuse to stock them, there are still going to be the Blu-Ray players and discs out there-- because that's what PS3 games are stored on, and this is going to happen with or without the video features ever being used. And this is going to start early next year, probably long before HDDVD players or discs become available.
Moreover, Blu-Ray isn't going to hurt the PS3-- since if Blu-Ray movies turn out to never happen, then from a consumer perspective all three video game consoles have the exact same video playback features (they all three play DVDs, though the Revolution requires an adapter and the PS3 has the additional optional bluray ability).
So, what effect does the above have?
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Some of the K56Flex modems were flashable to V.90. The one I had was, anyway.
consumers who are not ready to upgrade their TV's will shun away from them.
I'm sure it wouldn't be long until somebody creates a little dongle that will convert HDMI to a S-Video or Component signal and defeats any DRM imposed at the same time.
-my other sig is your mom
Stop offering two different desktops.
Isn't HD-DVD's one big touted advantage supposed to be, and correct me if I'm recalling wrong here, easy backwards compatability?
As far as I'm aware, the advantage is and always has been easy backward compatibility for the content industries. From the consumer perspective, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be equally backward compatible with DVD, and both will achieve this backward compatibility in the same way-- by adding a third laser to the two which DVD drives already possess (one laser for CD frequencies, one laser for DVD frequencies, one laser for the "blue" HD disc frequencies).
In fact from the consumer perspective if anything Blu-Ray is more backward compatible than HD-DVD-- because it is possible to manufacture Blu-Ray discs which can be placed in a standard DVD or CD player, and which appear as DVDs to a DVD player and Blu-Rays to a Blu-Ray player. (However, it is unclear if any such Blu-Ray discs will ever be manufactured, and anyway it may not be too late for HD-DVD to adopt this same feature.)
The tauted "backward compatibility" of HD-DVD is, as noted above, from the perspective of a content producer. That is to say, you can manufacture HD-DVDs in the same machines you manufacture DVDs in, with some slight upgrades. If you wish to manufacture Blu-Ray discs, you must buy a new machine. Of course, we are told, if it is cheaper to manufacture HD-DVDs than Blu-Ray discs because you don't have to buy new machines, then the discs will be cheaper for the consumer as well. Hooray for trickle-down economics!
And of course from the perspective of a content producer, forcing your cattle, I mean consumers, to buy new "secure" equipment-- as HD-DVD does and Blu-Ray probably will-- is a big plus.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
What's annoying about this isn't that my 2 year old $2800 HD TV isn't compatible with high definition signalling, it's not compatible with a specific and relatively new standard oriented towards copyright control.
As long as the running battle continues on securing DRM, nothing you buy will be safe from flexible standards; each standard will go through a phase of being new, then being cracked, then being replaced with something else which renders previous versions obsolete and "non-standard".
I'm not really pissed because I'm not interested in buying into HD DVD unless it's Blu-Ray, usable on my PC, and as usable for home recording as my current Panny E80 HD recorder is.
So to watch this new format I need :-
:-
1) A new TV @ £1500 Sterling.
2) A new HD-DVD/blueray player @ £?
3) Copies of Films I possibly already have to play on it @ £?
4) An upgrade to my satalite equipment to receive HD content (2 channels atm?) @ £?
5) An upgraded sat subscripition. @ £?
You know...to me (IMO) the above does NOT lead to
6) Profit!!
Why? Because in 5 years time, when all this stuff is priced at a more reasonable level and the quality/quanity of content could justify upgrading...there WILL be a new/better/cheaper format on the horizon (and VERY close to the horizon as well given this tech were talking about now is nearly 2 (lab) years old).
Even worse is MANY consumers (well those of us with better than NTSC) WONT be able to see the real benefits to the upgrade and are NOT going to be replacing that DVD collection; uptake in the mass market is likely to be quite slow.
This is quite probably going to lead to this generation of "technology" being largely shuned in the market place or only occupying a niche in the "videophiles" high end market and eventually going the way of laserdisc!!
So let the release both formats!! It will only quicken the demise for both and HOPEFULLY somewhere in the implosion the draconion copy protection measures will take some of the flak!
the HD-DVD folks just don't know it yet.
In the same 18 month period that the most optomistic forcasts have 500,000 HD-DVD players sold Sony is projected to sell 15-20 million PS3's - which will include a BD player. Given the forecast price of the PS3 you can bet a large percentage of families are not going to be willing to buy that and a seperate hd-disk player when they get both in the Sony package.
Given that the studios are complete whores and given the substantial decline in DVD sales, they are going to sell BDs for the PS3 no matter how much they prefer HD-DVD - they won't have a choice if they want to keep their phony-baloney jobs.
After two years - an installed base of 20M+ vs. an installed base of 2M+.... It won't even be a contest, and there are no viable theories that contest these well hashed over market projections (with the possible exception of the PS3 never being released.) Even if the X-box takes 50% of the market (Microsofts finest dream, not considered likely) that's still 15M PS3s in the first 18 months.
Oh, and for all the HD-DVD partisans who try to say that Sony will drop BD from the PS3 (other the n the complete absurdity of that contention) Just keep in mind that Sony can count the royalties it gets from every BD sold (and into the future) to subsidize the market price of the PS3 from day one due to the lock it will give it on the next generation format.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal...
What will probably happen is that the owners of that model will be required to obtain a patch or take their player in for servicing in order to both update the hardware key and disable the hack. Your "revoked" ZXDVD601 will come back to you as a ZXDVD602. Manufacturers will bear the brunt of the expense of the repair, meaning that they will have a very strong incentive (unlike now) to make their units virtually unhackable.
Manufacturers who refuse to lock down their boxes securely will wind up seeing all their keys revoked and it will be impossible to purchase any kind of warranty/insurance coverage on their devices.
It's actually a well thought-out evil plan.
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Just because you know nothing about what you're buying doesn't make me feel sorry for you.
I'm in the market for a new TV. A few months ago, I knew nothing about HDTV. I didn't even know the difference between plasma and LCD. All I knew was HDTV was supposed to be the "good thing" now. So did I go out and buy the first shiny HDTV that a blue-shirt told me to buy? No, I did extensive research, which helped a lot, because it showed me that the TV I thought I wanted in the beginning wasn't really what I wanted.
I also know nothing about vaccuums, but if I was to buy one tomorrow, you better bet I'd be looking up reviews and complaints tonight.
"Yeah, but not everyone know how to research the 'net for relevant information."
Yeah, and there are still people in the country who still use outhouses. So?