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Will Hybrid Players End the Format War?

Posted by Zonk on from the think-of-the-innocent-discs dept.

flyhalf writes "A new report says that hybrid players will force an early end to the HD DVD/Blu-ray format wars. Some of the projections seem optimistic: $200 hybrid players by 2009 and several manufacturers cranking them out. But reality will likely be different: 'standalone units of any format aren't selling terribly well. Recent research determined that 695,000 consumers owned either a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, but most of those are tied to a console — 400,000 of the 425,000 Blu-ray players sold by the end of 2007 were PlayStation 3s and 150,000 of the 270,000 HD DVD players were Xbox 360 add-ons.' Most importantly, consumers aren't early adopters: 'DVD players needed over a decade to supersede the VCR in the living rooms of the United States and there is little reason to believe that HD DVD and Blu-ray player adoption will outpace that of the DVD.'"

1 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory by petehead · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Your post advocates a

    ( ) technical ( ) legislative (X) market-based ( ) vigilante

    approach to ending the format war. Your idea will not work. Here is why it won't work. (One or more of the following may apply to your particular idea, and it may have other flaws which used to vary from state to state before a bad federal law was passed.)

    (x) Blu-Ray doesn't want to allow dual format players
    (x) Nobody cares because either format is only an incremental improvement over DVD
    ( ) Remember Beta vs. VHS?
    (x) DVD-R and DVD+R isn't a valid comparison
    ( ) Either way, there is too much DRM
    ( ) There is already a workaround for AACS
    ( ) Users of will not put up with it
    ( ) Microsoft will not put up with it
    ( ) The police will not put up with it
    ( ) Requires too much cooperation from consortiums
    ( ) Requires immediate total cooperation from everybody at once
    ( ) Many people don't even have HDTV anyway so there isn't enough consumer influence
    (X) Sony doesn't care about anyone

    Specifically, your plan fails to account for

    ( ) Which ones can be played on Linux?
    ( ) Eternal arms race involved in DRM
    ( ) Extreme profitability DVDs
    ( ) The MPAA
    ( ) The installed base of PS3s
    (X) The vested financial interest of some media companies in the hardware
    ( ) My Dad's old black and white TV isn't HDCP compliant

    and the following philosophical objections may also apply:

    ( ) Ideas similar to yours are easy to come up with, yet none have ever worked
    ( ) Which format has Pr0n

    Furthermore, this is what I think about you:

    (X) Sorry dude, but I don't think it would work.
    ( ) This is a stupid idea, and you're a stupid person for suggesting it.
    ( ) Nice try, assh0le! I'm going to find out where you live and burn your
    house down

    P.S. just kidding, I think this will be resolved without a clear winner.