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No Love For The Blu-Ray
macnificent7 writes "Market analysis firm Cymfony has combed through blogs and discussion boards, and finds online consumers aren't thrilled about Sony's Blu-ray DVD technology. Many users are still bitter about the limited availability of the PS3 because of the Blu-Ray. Also many are skeptical of the Blu-Ray because of Sony's past formats that did not succeed."
How many ways are there to say it? Sony is stupid.
You would think it would learn from its mistakes. It tried to push out its proprietary format with Betamax, and it failed miserably. (I know, I know, "superior format" and all that, but it doesn't change the fact that VHS won the battle of the formats in consumers' living rooms.) It tried to push out its proprietary format with the MiniDisc, and it failed miserably. It tried to push out its proprietary format with UMD, and it failed miserably. Now, it is trying to push out its proprietary format with Blu-ray.
How many miserable failures is it going to take for Sony to realize something that, at least to me, is pretty freakin' obvious and stupidly simple: people do not want to get locked into proprietary formats controlled by one company. The thing that's so maddening is that when Sony does embrace non-proprietary formats, they have wild success. Their Walkman products sold like there was no tomorrow. Their CD and DVD consumer electronics have always been well-respected.
It's more than a little ironic, I think, that while Sony is trying desperately to convince people that they should be buying a PS3 for the Blu-ray drive, in fact, people are avoiding the PS3 specifically because of the Blu-ray drive! I mean, I don't know many people who actively don't want a Blu-ray drive, but it is definitely, at least indirectly, responsible for their woes:
I could go on listing items, but you get my point. Everyone that said and signed on with, "I have an idea, let's use the PS3 as a launching platform for Blu-ray!" should be fired, because they just don't get it. People will buy a game console that happens to also play movies, but they're not going to be force-fed a whole new movie format just to own it. And I may end up eating crow for saying it if history proves me wrong, but I think that when all is said and done, people are really going to resent Sony imposing such a high premium on their gaming for something that has nothing to do with gaming. I really think that five or ten years from now, people are going to look at Sony's die-hard pushing of Blu-ray at the expense of its consoles as the thing that killed its dominance in the gaming console market.
It's too bad, too. Nintendo, while clever, just isn't set up to own the hardcore gamer market. And while I'm not big fan of Sony, I'm certainly not a big fan of Microsoft, either. Still, it looks like Sony is bound and determined to hand Microsoft the console victory crown on a silver platter with this foolishness.
Betamax may have been the "superior format", but not in all ways. You could record six hours on a VHS tape long before you could do anything similar with beta. A 2 hour tape meant you could get most (but not all) movies, and very few sporting events. 6-hour tape meant you could leave that sucker in there. You could also tape a daily show for a whole week and watch it on the weekend.
Those little technical differences gave VHS an edge in the home market. Plus, Sony's excluding Porn from Betamax really screwed them.
Yeah, no love for Sony on this one. Everyone wants to bring up the M$ is teh evil argument, but come on: Sony's trying use their dominant market position as leverage into another sector. That's one of the reasons why people hate M$. Hate the game, not the players.
... and for one simple reason: the name. As one hip youngster pointed out to me, the name "HD-DVD" definitely lacks a cool factor. And it's such an ungainly mouthful: "Aich Dee Dee Vee Dee", yech. Nopes, "Blu-ray" rolls off the tongue much nicer.
Seriously, if there is no huge gap between the two systems in terms of available titles or choice of equipment, then Sony might just win on simething as silly as the name alone.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Judge this one on its merits.
Sounds wise, doesn't it? Until you realize it will cost you a small fortune to get a chance to judge Blu-ray. So maybe it might also be wise to remember past performance too. Minidisc, rootkits and will Blu-ray be the third strike?
Want to know why I want Blu-ray to win? It's easier to say...
Isn't the decreasing cost of increased broadband bandwidth and increased hard disk space will eventually make HD disc formats obsolete?
Sony insisted on using a proprietary format for flash memory modules: the "Memory Stick." My Vaio has a port for them. Those memory sticks are the reason I bought a Canon SLR camera instead of anything made by Sony.
Having experienced the agony of a failed flash memory module while far from home, I would gladly pay more for a module with a better track record, but the lack of interoperability is fatal, especially for flash modules. My USB memory card reader will accept half a dozen formats, but not Sony's. I do not understand why they insist on proprietary formats when they clearly affect primary hardware sales.
"Will future ages believe that such stupid bigotry ever existed!" -- Ivanhoe
When DVDs came out, you had the choice of buying DVDs and knowing that they would keep working, or buying VHS and knowing that it would become increasingly difficult to find hardware that would play them. Now, you have the choice of buying DVDs, which will keep working with your next player, or buying an HD disk that will also work, and will probably look better, but costs more. Until HD disks are close to the price of DVDs, there isn't much point in buying them.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Open Document format is supported by OpenOffice.org's Writer very well. They moved to it from their native format as the default a while back. KOffice and others support it too. Softie stil refuses to do so! Even a plugin for it made by someone else was made to not work from what I remember. Microsoft and Sony have a dream to lock out competition through proprietary formats. To me, learning the Open Source way follows steps like:
0) Belief in Communism (as practiced), MNC's, and Wealthy Over-lords. Here is Sony. Clearly Sony's rootkit showed they believe they operate above the law. Similar for monopolistic practices elsewhere.
1) Blind belief Sony and Microsoft are the leading creators of technology (the norm). For examples simply look at the recent discussion on Microsoft research team where many praised them despite Google's clear leadership and Microsoft's clear copy-ovation and buyout-ovation rather than innovation.
2) Thinking softie and sphoney are needed to keep the world running. This is evident in wanting to dual boot, running a doze Lose32 API layer SW, or emulate.
3) Realise the overlords are not the innovators. Once you realize this then you turn off your Windows box for good. No good can come of worshiping at the feet of the ultra-wealthy. Their interests are not those of yourself or any other commoner.
Sony is no different than the Plantation Owners of the Old South. Many slaves escaped to freedom. Softie and Sony slaves have a underground railroad to freedom as well. The greed of the English Kings allowed many indentured servants from the old world to become bona fide citizens by owning land because the King of England said serfs could become tree farmers after years of indntured servantdom as he wanted more longleaf yellow pine as needed to build his Navy. Once the serfs became citizens (voting and legal protection) then they never were to return to serfdom and, thus, won the freedom we all apprecate in the Revolutionary War. Likewise, Open Source pushed technology from the grips of the ovelords. Proprietary formats are one simple way the overlords hope to stop innovation. I personally believe they will fail. We can only hope our country will lead the innovation rather than see it happen elsewhere. The ability to look up land ownership in a ruling class stifled Europe for millenia and the ability to lock up innovation has stifled technology for a decade.
The strong legal system in the USA is a relic. The lack of international respect for copyright and patent law leave the USA at an unsurmoutable disadvantage on the world market. Either the Chinese come clean and pay up or the USA will have to eliminate such practices. Sony and others cannot both hope to run their business on illegal grounds (china et al) yet use legal grounds as foundations for their business in law abiding areas (usa etc).
Open Source is one innovation which removes the problem. Open Source is a return to before the Legalism Era when innovation was made for the sake of innovation rather than the sake of making competition impossible. The patent system of the USA is designed to disallow innovation in the USA; thus the antithesis of what it is supposed to be. Sony is so far from what is happening in the ground swell of Open Source that one can easily foresee Sony being cut down to size within a decade. Microsoft as well. The monkey business with Novell should be a nail in the coffin for the belief they had any redeeming contribution to make to innovation and technology. Seriously, does it take Billions in profits to write a Word Processor or come up with a 50G burnable disk? No. Look at OpenOffice, KOffice, GO (GnomeOffice), PlataSoft, and more. I suspect any of 1000 or so engineers and physicists in this country could come up with a 100G burnable disk within a year for under $500k. Sony's activity in the market is simply a reflection that the men who run Sony believe they are a class above those who buy their products. They are paid to innovate, not stifle innovation. Like the VHS, the cheapest and most u
Expect Freedom.
I honestly don't think MS cares how well HD-DVD does. They have no stake in this format war at all. What they do have a stake in is the console war where Sony is pushing blu-ray big time. If MS supports HD-DVD, even if it loses eventually the damage to blu-ray and Sony from the format war alone is worth it to MS. It's quite clever if you ask me.
Um.. You're comparing apples to oranges. According to Wikipedia (see the prices on PS3 and Xbox360) the premium PS3 retails for $599 and the Xbox360 (not the Core, the other one) retails for $399.99 and the HD-DVD addon costs $199.99. Some math reveals that the roughly equivalent PS3 and Xbox360 are 599 and 599.98, respectfully. That's only a 2 cent difference in retail price.
Notable differences in this rought "equivalent" pricing - PS3 Premium has a 60G HD and HDMI output, XB360 is only 20G HD and component only.
An even better comparison might be to compare the PS3 Basic (which still comes with a 20G HD as does the 360 non-Core model) then the prices become $499 for the PS3 and still 599.98 for the XB360+HD-DVD. Now we've got a PS3 (Blu-Ray player, game console, 20G HD) for $200 less than the equivalently featured 360 (HD-DVD player, game console, 20G HD). This is probably a better apples to apples comparison based on the feature set of each console (360 still lacks HDMI, which even the base PS3 includes).
Once you've GOT a 360, you've already shelled out 400 bucks, and once you've got the HD-DVD addon, now you've got something that takes up twice the shelf space of the PS3.
Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
Laserdisc was a niche market.
Your average consumer still don't know the difference between Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. A DVD is still a DVD.
Just observing what comes out of Wal*Mart and Best Buy, I'm still seeing your regular 27" CRT coming out over anything flat.
-Note: just watching what is in the back of pickup trucks and SUVs around town. May not account for delivery merchandise which is what your average large screen purchase would require.
People I know who bought flat televisions and wanted 4:3 content at full frame at 16:9 finally realized after weeks that it looks goofy.
The price for Hi-Def players is still cost prohibitive for discretionary income. By the time it becomes affordable, HVD will appear on the horizon and I will wait for that.
There really isn't that much difference between a 9Gig disc and a 50Gig disc besides 41Gigs. There's plenty of difference between a 9Gig disc and a 1TB disc for it to make a difference.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.