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Sony Announces Date for Blu-Ray Roll Out
yermoungder writes "Reuters is reporting that 'Sony Pictures on Tuesday said it aims to deliver its new Blu-ray DVD format to U.S. stores on May 23 to coincide with the entry of compatible disc players, a new step in an industry war for control of home movie viewing.'"
Well, the difference between a DVD at 480p and a HD source at 720p or 1080i is substantial, provided you have quality equipment. If not... blu-ray offers you nothing.
Wish I could remember that site which had the mouseover comparisons of the two formats.
Isn't there already talk about releasing a player that supports both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray? Doesn't that end the whole format war, much like the DVD+-RW drives ended the writeable DVD format war?
I follow this standards battle with the same eager enthusiasm that I think many people reserve for reality TV, soap operas and sporting events. It really involves two titans that I can't help to both love and hate (gaming systems = great!, monopoly / drm = not great!) and a ton of significant other players (Toshiba, HP, Apple, Dell, Intel). This is great stuff, people! We'll be talking about this for years.
Specifically to this post, I'm just amazed over the last six months to what extent (in my own head and probably others), I've gone from thinking Sony was invincible to feeling it's really 50 / 50 with the HD DVD camp. I'm not sure what the merits are of releasing Blu-Ray movies next to a $1000 Blu-ray player given an imminent Playstation 3 delay. Especially knowing that one stand over are cheaper HD DVD movies and a $499 player. Poor sales goes on for six months or so and that's a huge psychological advantage for HD DVD.
I have to wonder if maybe I really assumed Blu-ray would win because of the Playsation 3 and not because of any merits compared to HD DVD on its own. And then I have to ask myself how would Blu-ray do without the Playstation 3? How would the Playstation 3 do without Blu-ray? (I can argue "better" -- out faster, cheaper. I can argue "worse" -- no tech advantage over XBox 360.) They are so fundamentally linked to each other that it really does feel like a double-or-nothing for Sony.
Can't wait for the next Slashdot tidbit regarding any of this.
A common misconception on Slashdot is that Joe Consumer understands the issues with DRM and even more importantly, cares.
And a very simple way to make the point and make Joe Consumer care is simply to say to him, "Don't you hate having to sit through all that junk at the beginning of the DVD before you can watch the movie?" That usually gets them thinking. Then drop a hint about how things like the broadcast flag can prevent them from fast-forwarding through commercials, if they're allowed to even record a show to begin with. And Congress keeps passing more laws that give "the suits" more control over what we're allowed to do in our own living room.
That gets their attention. DRM isn't about previnting piracy, its about exerting control after the sale. You won't be able to do it even if it is legal.