Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War

An anonymous reader writes "Citing the recent sales numbers, Sony exec David Bishop is claiming that the high-def format war can officially be declared over. With a movie sale ratio of almost 2:1 Blu-ray discs are being declared the victor over rival HD-DVD by Blu-ray supporter Sony. 'And yet while all agree that it was a strong month for Blu-ray, opinion is split on whether the surge in sales is an indicator of stronger user adaption of Blu-ray compared to HD DVD, or simply a reflection of the larger number of new Blu-ray titles that hit the market over the month -- 25 new Blu-ray titles were released in January, compared to just 11 titles on HD DVD for the same period.'"

Comments

Number of movies

[SnarfQuest]

Aren't the number of movies available related to the popularity of the format?

Re:Number of movies

[ngtvtw13ve]

If that was true then wouldn't we still be buying vhs tapes?

Re:Number of movies

[LiquidCoooled]

If thats the case, divx avi movies rule the world ;)

Re:Number of movies

[Andy Dodd]

Number of movies released in a particular month != total number of movies available

I believe that prior to this particular month, HD-DVD was consistently ahead of Blu-Ray. Declaring a winner based on a single months' worth of statistics (especially at this early point when both formats are in their infancy) is utterly idiotic.

Re:Number of movies

[Itchyeyes]

Yes, but they're also related to how much the studios like the format's DRM and how much money the format producer is willing to throw at them.

Re:Number of movies

[SnarfQuest]

But, how many new VHS movie titles were released last month?

Re:Number of movies

[Babbster]

Aren't the number of movies available related to the popularity of the format?

You're absolutely correct, and that would be a good measure of a particular format's success. Here's the problem: The number of HD DVD and Blu-ray titles currently available is a virtual dead heat. The last time I did a count (about 2 weeks ago) via a popular website that sells both formats, the numbers differed by less than 10, with the total being in the mid 100s.

As regards the most recent numbers, it's pretty obvious that more Blu-ray titles have been released and purchased in the last two months because a) Sony finally released the PS3 and there is nothing else to do with that hardware other than playing Blu-ray movies and play Resistance and b) they're trying to catch up with HD DVD which had a significant lead in available titles prior to the holiday season.

It's obviously way too soon to declare a winner, but I'll give Sony props for trying to turn lemons into lemonade...

I should note, as I often do, that I don't care who wins. If Toshiba and company stand pat and don't push their format then Sony could indeed win the thing because the PS3 is going to sell as time goes by, even if it doesn't become the dominant game console that the PS2 and PS were. The HD DVD folks need to get a standalone player out ASAP for under $400 and by Christmas they need to have players under $300. If they don't, then they'll have to rely on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on to compete with the PS3, and that's a dangerous road - not because the HD DVD add-on is a bad deal (it's actually a pretty good one), but because 360 owners already have what they need and want to play games without the bonus of an HD format, while PS3 owners are "forced" into possession of the HD format as a consequence of desiring PS3 gameplay.

Re:Number of movies

[Ucklak]

Doesn't really matter.

As crappy of a movie it is, I still want The Incredible Melting Man on DVD and it's not available legally in the US of A.

I remember seeing that at the local grindhouse with trailers for Suspiria and other shlock fests back in the day.

Re:Number of movies

[DesertBlade]

If you look here. A majority of the Blue Ray movies are older. I counted 15 that are about a year old. For Example:
Resident Evil
Scooby Doo
Hitchikers Guide
Courage Under Fire

HDDVD has a a few too (counted 6), but I think blue-ray flooded the market with older movies.

Re:Number of movies

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Sony doing something idiotic? Naw...

Re:Number of movies

[packeteer]

Its not idiotic, its smart. That is, it's smart marketing for the people involved with Blu-Ray.

Re:Number of movies

[Yvanhoe]

So 36 movies were released in HD format this month. Clearly, regular DVD are more popular by an order of magnitude. Until one of the HD format outperforms DVDs using this metrics, I wouldn't call the war over.

Re:Number of movies

[encoderer]

So let me get this straight:

A single data point can be used as a "tool" to gage the trend?

No shit?

Re:Number of movies

[oh_bugger]

you hit the nail on the head when you said it's too early to tell. Sony can't decide at this point which product is the winner. That's like Al Gore saying he's the president just because he's got the most votes. (yes bad analogy, I was going to say something serious but that came into my head)

Re:Number of movies

[bdr529]

6 months of data is a single data point? No shit? It's not a single data point. It's the volume of title sales over 6 months. RTFA and maybe... just MAYBE click the links.

Re:Number of movies

[Penguin's Advocate]

It's not at all idiotic. When the signs in Best Buy (or Walmart, or on tv) tell Joe Sixpack that "Blu-ray is the winner of the Hi-Def format war" (Assuming Mr. Sixpack is there spending his tax return on a new Hi-Def setup) What do you think Joe is going to buy? He's not stupid, he's not going to buy the "loser".

Re:Number of movies

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh. I know that was intended as a joke, but you're absolutely correct. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are barely in the battle at all. The winner (by an indescribably large margin) is either DivX, XVid, or something along those lines. Of course, I know that they're only referring to next-gen disc-based media formats, but still, as far as newly released movies go... it's a valid point.

Re:Number of movies

[pluther]

I think the problem with this is, that most people don't know there's a format war going on.

Those that do are the ones paying attention, and they probably won't be fooled by the marketing hype declaring Sony the winner.

25 titles release in a month, compared to 11 for the competition, is far too small of a number to actually draw any kind of conclusion. Sure, it's more than twice as much, but with numbers this small impressive-sounding percentages are easy to come by.

Re:Number of movies

[PopeRatzo]

I agree with TFA. Blu-ray has won the format war.

I'm also ready to declare Tom Vilsack the winner of the '08 presidential election and the Chicago White Sox the winner of next year's World Series.

Re:Number of movies

[compro01]

Interesting... *ahem* I hereby declare myself the sexiest man alive!
Now all I have to do is just repeat it often enough that everyone starts believing it... ;)

well, if you repeat as much as sony's marketing budget would allow, it's likely that a number of people would start believing it.

Re:Number of movies

[Babbster]

With the HD-DVD player for the Xbox 360 available for about $200, it should be possible to have a stand alone HD-DVD player for $250...

Unfortunately, that's not quite correct. While the pieces making up the drive itself (such as the blue laser) are indeed a large expense, the hardware permitting 1080p playback from such a drive are similarly expensive - CPU, audio/video decoders etc., all handling more complex work than similar hardware in a DVD player. In other words, it would take more than $50 of additional hardware to turn the add-on into a standalone device. Add in the mark-up so that both retailers and manufacturers make some dough on the deal, and the price increases quite a bit.

Still, the HD DVD prices aren't that bad compared to DVD prices at a similar point of only one year (actually, a little less) from introduction. This (and upcoming price drops, which I expect to reach $300 or less by Christmas) is most likely due to the competition in formats. While the early adopters may get hosed by the two competing formats (if their chosen format "loses"), the inevitable price war will probably greatly benefit the rest of the consumers down the line.

Re:Number of movies

[encoderer]

What article are YOU reading, bro?

I think _YOU_ ought to click on the link.

The article clearly says, many places, it's talking about JANUARY.

And it doesn't say so directly in the article, but if you do a little homework, you'll find that HD has outsold Blu-Ray (in units) so far.

So really, you want to try that again?

Re:Number of movies

[StikyPad]

There are plenty of players which either natively, or through minimal reconfiguration, play region-free. There are also a variety of sources. If there are no retailers near you, I used (Buy-it-Now) eBay to purchase the Philips DVP-642, which plays almost anything you can throw at it, including VCDs, DiVX, xvid, etc. for $50-$60. Additionally, I purchased the "Planet Earth" DVDs online (BBC, Region 2, PAL) and it played them flawlessly doing realtime PAL->NTSC conversion.

VLC player will also ignore region codes. Unfortunately it's not the most user friendly player, but it gets the job done.

So it isn't entirely hassle free at this point. You still have to find and buy a specific model of player (and possibly unlock it), but those are generally trivial one-time hassles which will provide you with years of unrestricted DVD playback.

Re:Number of movies

[Talgrath]

He does actually have a point though, the TRENDS show that Blu-Ray is steadily gaining on its HD-DVD counterpart; and most likely will overtake it if HD-DVD doesn't do something to turn the trends around (the article mentions this in part). Considering Blu-Ray hit the market second, it's not terribly surprising that HD-DVD outsold Blu-Ray overall, so far.

cool.

[President_Camacho]

Sony Set to Market Blu-ray as Winner of Format War

Are they also going to market their laptops as the winner of the battery war?

Re:cool.

[MrNaz]

Yep, it'll be like when George Bush declared the Iraq war won! :P

Re:cool.

[Reverend528]

Are they also going to market their laptops as the winner of the battery war?

They blow the competition away!

Re:cool.

[SatanicPuppy]

Why not?

"Sony lithium batteries smoke the competition!"
"Sony is on fire with these new batteries!"
"Put a Sony battery in your laptop and witness an explosion of power!"
"Sony lithium: Taste the Apocalypse!"
"Sony lithium batteries: Your laptop will never be the same!"
"Sony batteries keep burning long after the competition has gone out."

The marketing material just writes itself.

Re:cool.

[SCPRedMage]

That's funny, because when I read this the first thing that crossed my mind was, "I wonder if they're going to hold a press conference on an aircraft carrier..."

Head Sony Exec:

[Anonymous Coward]

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Re:Head Sony Exec:

[UbuntuDupe]

That's kind of unfair. If you look carefully at the banner the ship actually put up, you'll note it *really* said:

this specific ship's MISSION has been ACCOMPLISHED

Sure....

[Anonymous Coward]

And these are the same people who already believe that the PS3 is the winner of the console wars against the 360 and the Wii, even though sales numbers in the US and even Japan say otherwise.

Re:Sure....

[pionzypher]

I don't know what (google cache) you're talking about. (second link has a great pic below the PA comic.)

Will they say the same about the PS3?

[vjmurphy]

"Citing the recent sales numbers, Sony exec David Bishop is claiming that the next gen console war can officially be declared over. Looks like the Wii and 360 are the winners."

Perhaps they shouldn't be gloating.

Re:Will they say the same about the PS3?

[sl3xd]

You know, joke aside, it's a very good point. And, in fact, the same lesson should be taken: Just because one is selling well, it doesn't spell the doom of a competitor.

Sony's just doing a bit of grandstanding to try to get more people to buy Blu-ray: "The format war is over! We won!" Fear sells, and they're attempting to boost their sales by saying the competition is doomed; one of the oldest sales tactics in existence.

Just like consoles, the success of one does not mean the demise of another. There's no reason why both can't succeed, no reason why "there must be one."

Cases in point:
CDMA vs TDMA vs GSM (Cell phones). There's no small amount of grief that this caused, and the solution was to build phones that do all of 'em. Oddly enough, that's what is starting to happen with the "HD" optical discs.
PS3 vs. Wii vs. Xbox
Linux vs. Mac vs. Windows
Apple's music vs. everything else...

And so on...

Nice of them ....

[gstoddart]

Nice of Sony to declare themselves the winner. Now we can all get on with out lives.

Seriously, is this the same Sony who last week said the fact that they're being outsold by Nintendo doesn't mean they're losing, it means we shouldn't be counting Nintendo.

I'm fairly confident a company can't unilaterally declare themselves the winner in a 6 month old format war. It doesn't work like that.

Oh well, it's their Kool-Aid, they can drink it all they want. :-P

Cheers

Why is it either/or?

[Pluvius]

'And yet while all agree that it was a strong month for Blu-ray, opinion is split on whether the surge in sales is an indicator of stronger user adaption of Blu-ray compared to HD DVD, or simply a reflection of the larger number of new Blu-ray titles that hit the market over the month -- 25 new Blu-ray titles were released in January, compared to just 11 titles on HD DVD for the same period.'

Wouldn't the fact that there are over twice as many new releases for BD than for HD-DVD in itself be an important indicator of stronger adoption of BD?

Rob

Re:Why?

[ack154]

PS3 = BluRay

Other than that... who knows. Maybe they're still relating to the BluRay "dominance" to PS3 sales - hence games.

Re:Why?

[Pluvius]

Because BluRay is inextricably linked with the PS3. If one succeeds then the other is likely to follow, and the same if one fails. I agree that this still doesn't belong in the Games section, but that's the rationale.

Rob

Wait for adult titles to enter full production

[topical_surfactant]

Here's some more info on the HD formats courting "behind the scenes" to porn producers. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/la-fi-p orn12feb12,0,4934876.story?coll=sfla-business-head lines

because....

[President_Camacho]

Why is this article here in the games section?

You don't think a corporate pissing match is a game?

In other news

[TinBromide]

HD-DVD proponents throw up arms and say "That just about wraps it up for us". They began packing up the manufacturing plants and began work on other projects.

In other news, Apple declares victory over vista because of the ratio of new apple ads to new microsoft ads.

Numbers??

[Kelz]

25 new Blu-Ray releases and 11 HD-DVD releases in one month?

Beta was still around for 27 years. I have a feeling that the two sides will be able to co-exist for quite some time (especially with the duel-format players that are close to release).

Re:Numbers??

[Anonymous Coward]

Duel-format player? There's a typo that deserves a whole cartoon devoted to it.

Two major advantages

[elrous0]

The two major advantages that Blu-ray has right now is

1. EXTENSIVE marketing. It's almost impossible to watch an HDTV cable network and not be innundated with Blu-ray ads (they should rename "HDnet" the "Blu-ray channel"). And Best Buy and other retailers all have blu-ray kiosks touting the glories of blu-ray. I've yet to see a single HD-DVD ad or kiosk, by contrast
2. Studio support. HD-DVD just doesn't have the support to turn out enough titles. Warner and Universal alone just aren't going to cut it.

Oddly enough, what everyone THOUGHT was going to be a big advantage for blu-ray--the PS3, hasn't really been that great, as so few people are buying them. Conversely, the supposedly big HD-DVD advantage of price (both HD-DVD players and media are cheaper) hasn't really helped it, apparently.

-Eric

Re:Two major advantages

[Pojut]

Wow, way to make it clear to everyone that you're just another idiotic fanboy.

Hey dipshit, the PS3 is selling at a faster rate than the 105+ million selling PS2...

Anyone wanna get in on this one?

Re:Two major advantages

[SCPRedMage]

I think this image says it all...

Re:Two major advantages

[laffer1]

The gamecube didn't do that well.. now the Wii sales show Nintendo clearly ahead. Why don't we compare to the newest consoles and to the predecessor... next you'll compare sales to the Turbo Graphix 16 or perhaps the Sega CD....

http://www.vgcharts.org/japconscomps.php?name1=Wii &name2=PS3&type=2&align=0

Alien Technology

[ngtvtw13ve]

Of course Blu-Ray is the winner, it is by far a superior format. HD-DVD is nothing but DVD with 2 extra letters who wants to buy something unimaginitive, but Blu-Ray thats new and exciting. Its "blue" wich means advanced cause aliens are blue, and ray makes me think of an awsome ray gun from all those sci-fi movies. Its friggin advanced alien technology that Sony got its hands on hundreds of years before any other company. How could it not be the leader.

My thoughts exactly

[Weaselmancer]

How many coaches at halftime ever say they're going to lose the game?

That being said, IMHO this won't be a VHS versus Betamax thing. There is too much manufacturing set up for both sides to simply abandon one format. What I'm hoping happens is that one of the two becomes the dominant format (which it almost certainly will), and the other one will become the "ghetto" HD format.

The loser in this format war will still make money, but it will have to do it by underselling the winner. Lower prices, bigger numbers. When that happens, the loser will most likely wind up as a cheap burner you can stick on an IDE cable. And I'm really looking forward to that for data storage.

Re:My thoughts exactly

[Not_Wiggins]

When that happens, the loser will most likely wind up as a cheap burner you can stick on an IDE cable. And I'm really looking forward to that for data storage.

More likely, it'll wind up like the format war between DVD-R and DVD+R: you'll get a player capable of reading both formats, so it won't matter and the prices of the movies will be roughly equivalent.

If anything, consumers will pay for the war indirectly through hardware costs that integrate both solutions transparently.

Re:My thoughts exactly

[AaronPSU777]

"What I'm hoping happens is that one of the two becomes the dominant format (which it almost certainly will), and the other one will become the "ghetto" HD format."

I think another likely scenario is dual format players. Remember we had a format war just a few years ago with DVD+R and DVD-R and it was negated when dual format burners came out. If we do get dual format players it seems possible HD-DVD could become the more prominent format since it has plenty of space for full length movies *and* is cheaper to produce. Of course Blu-Ray has stronger DRM from what I understand so maybe studios will stick with that format as much as possible.

Re:My thoughts exactly

[Pluvius]

DVD-R and DVD+R are nearly indistinguishable from each other, unlike BD and HD-DVD which are very different. It's a lot cheaper to make a dual-format player for the former than it is for the latter.

Not that it really matters; the massive amount of studio support that BluRay has over HD-DVD makes it rather unlikely that HD-DVD will long enough to where dual-format players would be a viable option.

Rob

Re:My thoughts exactly

[aaza]

All I'm saying is a dual format player is a definite possibility, it's technologically possible and there is demand for it.

LG is supposed to have one available by the end of Q1 2007. That is, in a few months. I'm not sure I believe it until I see one, but my opinion is that HD is not worth it for me. (No flames, please. For me, it isn't worth it. For you it may be).

Problem with Ratios

[flynt]

With a movie sale ratio of almost 2:1

Unfortunately, he forgot to mention that those were also the actual numbers of discs sold.

Re:Problem with Ratios

[Anonymous Coward]

So does that mean only 2 Blu Ray discs were sold?

Re:Problem with Ratios

[mypalmike]

>> With a movie sale ratio of almost 2:1

> So does that mean only 2 Blu Ray discs were sold?

No. It means that almost 2 have been sold. Right now, there's a guy at Best Buy holding a Blu-Ray disc in his hand, pondering its purchase. He's not sure it'll play in his VCR, but the clerk is close to convincing him it will.

Free Movies, really sales?

[Innova]

Also to note...All PS3's came with a coupon for a free Blu-Ray movie. How many of those were included in the strong sale numbers?

Re:Free Movies, really sales?

[powerlord]

All PS3s that were part of the initial "launch" (what was it, 200-600K depending on who you believe?), included a bundled in copy of Talladega Nights.

Considering those PS3s sold in November, and no other PS3 included a Blu-Ray movie, I don't think it affects the December or January numbers much.

whichever sells first $99 player is the winner

[u19925]

i ain't gonna buy till price drops to $99. so 4 me, whichever one sells first for $99, is the winner.

Yeah, we trust them

[GweeDo]

This coming from the same company that owes me $9,600 for all the PS3's at my local walmart! source

BluRay has a Case

[Nom du Keyboard]

With BluRay in every PS3, HD-DVD not an integral part of any shipping product yet, and BluRay movies starting to outsell HD-DVD, there good reason to be betting on the BluRay horse. BluRay market penetration should outstrip HD-DVD, unless they're able to pull a VHS in pricing or capacity.

Actually yes, all over but the shouting

[DumbSwede]

The first week of January it was 2 to 1 for sales of BD
The second week of January it was close to 3 to 1 for sales of BD

The HD-DVD camp Shot back that there where more title released on Blu-Ray the first two weeks (11 vs 21).

So what to make of this weeks releases? 12 titles to 1
It seems the distributors have decided for us.

HD DVD and Blu-ray releases on February 13th, 2007

Blu-ray

* Broken Arrow (Fox)
* Chain Reaction (Fox)
* Chronos (Koch)
* The Departed (Warner)
* Entrapment (Fox)
* Ladder 49 (Buena Vista)
* The Marine (Fox)
* Phone Booth (Fox)
* Planet of the Apes (Fox)
* Reign of Fire (Buena Vista)
* The Sentinel (Fox)
* The Usual Suspects (Fox)

HD DVD

* The Departed (Warner)

Titles to date HD DVD 159 vs Blu-ray 171.
and remember HD-DVD had a big head start and is now fading fast.

Re:Actually yes, all over but the shouting

[Yakman]

From that list it looks like both formats got the new release (The Departed), and Blu-Ray got a bunch of old movies that won't be significantly better in quality than the SD DVD version anyway.

Re:Actually yes, all over but the shouting

[Apotsy]

bunch of old movies that won't be significantly better in quality than the SD DVD version anyway

WTF? Those movies are all less than 10-15 years old (unless they are talking about the original Planet of the Apes). They certainly will look better in HD. Even if they were 50 years old, they still would show improvement in HD. There is a tremendous amount of image detail in movies going back decades that is simply not visible in traditional home video formats, not even DVD. All it takes is a fresh high resolution scan to get at it.

Hell, a lot standard def DVDs out there today are already sourced from hi-def scans. In those cases, they don't even need to rescan, just reencode.

In other news ...

[Ace905]

Citing recent sales numbers, local used car dealer frank "the lone testicle" johnson has declared that he is in fact the best car dealer in all of north america.

"It was a toss up between me and every single other person, that is until I decided on the criteria by which we were all graded.", said the lone testicle.

Some other sales people are confused by the unanimous victory, but have to admit that Johnson is the best at dealing cars he himself is authorized to sell - in all of north america. One of johnson's opponent dealerships claims, "He only gets those numbers because he's counting sales of the very rare 'Delorian' cars that he sells. Of course when they offered 2 delorians for sale this year, his numbers doubled and every single other dealer in north america that doesn't sell those got a zero on his rating scale."

Confused by semantics, my editor has decided to just give free publicity to Mr. Johnson because he came up with a self-fellating story that almost sounds legitimate. congratulations lone testicle, please take all of my readers and try to sell them your over-priced crap.

---
lone testicle?

lets see

[way2trivial]

last VHS by publication date

amazon.com
#1 the mystery of love
VHS Release Date: February 6, 2007

#115 Dora the Explorer - Save the Day! was Jan 10, 2007
#116 Here Comes the Big Red Car ~ Wiggles was Jan 3rd, 2007- so 115 seems to be a safe bet for new vhs titles in the last month.

And he's right

[melted]

The primary thing that decides the success or failure of a format is content available on it. There's only one HD-DVD exclusive studio (Universal). There are quite a few that are Blu-Ray only, including all of the Sony studios and Disney. There are rumors of Universal throwing in the towel on HD-DVD.

Besides, Blu Ray is a better format. 50 GB per disk allows for lower compression ratios and uncompressed multichannel sound. The only advantage HD-DVD has is the "extras" and "interactivity features". I don't know about you, but I don't give a shit about picture-in-picture that they push so heavily. I just want to watch the goddamn movie.

As if this wasn't enough, Blu Ray also enjoys much broader industry support, including Apple (which gives you a hint as to what Final Cut / DVD Studio types will be using) and Dell. PS3 is by far the best value on the market as far as 1080p players are concerned. The fact that it plays games as well is gravy. Xbox HD-DVD add-on has an abysmal attach rate, and even if it did have a better attach rate, Xbox doesn't support HDMI, so it's not an option for folks who want an entirely digital signal path.

So there you have it.

Reminds me of famous historical headlines:

[vertinox]

1812
France to market Napoleon as winner of battle of Waterloo!

1862
Southern states to market General Lee as winner of Battle of Gettysburg!

1944
Germany to market themselves as winner of World War 2!

2003
Fox news to market US as winner of Iraq war! Oh wait...

Experience with Blu-ray/HD-DVD

[MrJynxx]

So, I actually own both Blu-ray/HD-dvd players (PS3, and HD-dvd addon for 360). I have both systems hooked up to a 50" sony SXRD LCD projection TV and so far . . . I think HD-DVD looks better even though it's displaying at 1080i. (My PS3 is @ 1080p)

I've now come across quite a few instances of really grainy video with the blu-ray movies I have. This has not been a problem with HD-DVD.

In terms of quality both are identical (except for the annoying grainy video on blu-ray). I've shown this to quite a few friends and they all see the exact same thing (so I'm not crazy). So from experience, I'm hoping HD-DVD overcomes blu-ray.

***SIDENOTE***
So far I've been really disappointed with the PS3. It's probably been the worst purchase I've made in years. Sony had better get their shit together, and get it together FAST!!!

Sony pissing match: don't cross the streams!

[MS-06FZ]

No no no! We cannot infer that it will work for Sony. This Sony is Blue. Bush is a Red. If they ever cross: total protonic reversal! And that's bad. Okay. Alright, important safety tip - thanks.

You have no idea of film quality

[SuperKendall]

Blu-Ray got a bunch of old movies that won't be significantly better in quality than the SD DVD version anyway.

You don't know much about film, do you?

Scans of 35mm film exceed even the top HD resolution (1920x1080) you can get on today's HD discs.

As an example of just how wrong you are, on HDNet some time ago (when I still subscribed to Dish) I was watching Charlies Anglels, the original TV series, in full HD. It actually looked quite amazing. Even old stuff on film can look good (if a bit messy as the negatives age), modern day films will all look impressive as well - although one detraction can be that cut-rate effects really show up on HD sets. Also, anything shot in all digital can only be shown at the maximum resolution the cameras operated at (except for the special effects) that can be re-rendered.

3x1

[spwolfx]

Actually, in the week ending Jan14th, BD outsold HD-DVD almost 3x1, not 2x1.
And those are strictly retail movie sales, they dont include games or free movies.

40 days after PS3 is released, BD has 3to1 advantage over HD-DVD.

Sony sold 1mil PS3's in US in 2006, while MS sold 92,000 HD-DVD addons for Xbox.

Obviously Sony has won this war. In fact, the whole industry has won this war. Everyone but Microsoft, Toshiba and Universal is part of BD camp.

Only $999,999,999,999,999,999.99 !!

[gumpish]

$99 huh? $100 too rich for your blood?

It's comments like yours (and likely your real life buying habits) that result in such inane dishonest mental pricing games played by marketers.

"No one will buy this car for $20,000... but if you price it $19,999.99 you'll have to beat them away with a stick!"

Wouldn't you rather live in a world where prices were nice even multiples instead of $NICE_EVEN_MULTIPLE - .01 ?