Slashdot Mirror
Blu-ray/HD DVD Disc Sales Numbers Revealed
An anonymous reader writes "The High-Def format wars finally have a yardstick against which to measure who's winning with the first public release of VideoScan sales figures for both HD DVD and Blu-ray. The first two weeks' worth of data seem to back up what many predicted — that the Blu-ray-enabled PS3 is helping Sony quickly close the gap with HD DVD, with almost three Blu-ray discs sold for every one HD DVD during the first week of January. HD DVD still leads in overall discs sold since inception, but that lead looks to be quickly dwindling. While they do show a trend, the results from VideoScan are still fairly vague. Why are consumers being denied the information they need to make a considered choice?"
Am i missing something? Phillips brought the CD to market, and the format is not proprietary.
Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!
http://financialpetition.org/
The CD was developed by a partnership between phillips and sony (just like Blu-Ray!)
Frag 'em all...
Nit: Phillips makes screws. Philips (one L) invented CD along with Sony.
and the format is not proprietary.Compact Disc was proprietary for its first twenty years.
"Not always. If the channel is coming in to the box digitally, it does not usually get transcoded."
I'd like to amend that a bit - in consumer DVRs, high-def content NEVER gets transcoded. It is always simply dumped to disc without decoding and/or reencoding. The transport stream is only decoded for playback.
Realtime high definition encoders simply do not exist, at least not at the price points needed to be put into a consumer device. The closest thing is the Slingbox PRO, but that downscales to SD before compression.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
History has shown time and time again over the past 25 years that consumers generally do not adopt Sony's proprietary formats: Betamax, Minidiscs, MemoryStick, SACD, UMD, and now Blu-Ray. Things that they develop in conjunction with other companies like CDs and eventually DVDs gained widespread adoption. I won't buy into Blu-Ray simply because it's a stupid name. "Buy this new movie on VHS, DVD or Blu-Ray Disc". "Blu-Ray Disc" sounds retarded compared to "DVD" which rolls off the tongue.
I wasn't happy with DVD when it came out. The only things I like about DVD are no artifacting and degradation with time and easy navigation of the disc (no rewinding).
DVD doesn't look great, its essentially the same quality as broadcast TV. Now if you believe broadcast TV looks great, then sorry, but we can do a lot better. I don't pay to go to the cinema to stand on sticky floors, put up with belching behind me or for the overpriced condiments, its for the higher quality sound and picture.
For the price of attending the theatre regularly with my wife over a couple years, I can easily purchase a high definition TV, Dolby Digital and/or dts receiver with speakers and cables and be able to pause. What's missing? The quality of video.
35mm film looks much better than DVD. 70mm film looks immensely better than DVD. I want high definition movies in my living room so I can avoid ever paying to go to the theatre again. Friends? Social life? Invite them over of course. I dirt cheap (free to guests) popcorn myself thank-you very much, and the floor usually isn't sticky.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
I'll be patient, and TiVo it when it's on cable.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
DVD doesn't look great, its essentially the same quality as broadcast TV.
You should probably get your eyes checked or maybe buy better equipment. DVD's horizontal resolution about 720. Broadcast "quality" is 330 and VHS is 240. Even without a progressive scan display it's pretty far from "essentially the same quality".
Granted, it's still a huge difference.