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Sony Calls Current Blu-ray/HD DVD Format War a 'Stalemate
unger814 writes "Sony CEO Howard Stringer says that Blu-ray and HD DVD are currently in a 'stalemate' and is 'playing down the importance of the battle.' Stringer addressed a crowd at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y cultural center Thursday, where he said that 'it was a matter of prestige' which format wins. Stringer pointed to the switch by Paramount from producing movies in both formats to only HD DVD as a turning point. 'We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides,' Stringer said."
The first person to believe they have lost momentum is often the loser.
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
Frosty piss!? Since the formats are roughly equal, then it is down to who does the dirtiest deals and knocks out their opponent with copious amounts of cash..
which is totally what she said
'We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides,'
Now what? Are you going to try to win by unlawful or dishonest tactics? Not sure why you wouldn't try to win on the merits, unless you know that your product isn't as good...
This comes down to greed, pure and simple. Rather than sitting down and coming to a standard acceptable industry-wide, these corporations decided to go it alone and try to beat the other guys in a format war. The result has been market confusion. I heard one NPR analyst estimate that this format war has reduced the market for next-gen DVDs by 90% - in other words, 90% of potential consumers stay away until the war has a clear winner. And there's no end in sight. I hope the format war continues on indefinitely, to teach companies a lesson not to do this in the future.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
In this war, there may not be a winner, but I guarantee the consumers will be the losers. From high priced product ( which may go down in time ) to DRM shens ( Explain to your mom why the new movie she just bought for 30 bucks doesn't work in her 600 dollar player ).
And like cattle, we line up to hand over our money.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
These things are still far to expensive. The jump between VHS quality and DVD quality was HUGE!! Not only did you start getting things like director's commentary and deleted scenes, but you got a much more "cinema like" experience. 5.1 dolby (in multiple languages if you need it), 16x9 Aspect ratio etc. etc. etc.
Blu-ray/hddvd don't offer THAT huge of a jump from DVD....certainly not enough of an improvement to justify their [still] astronomical prices, not to mention the limited selection of titles.
The first one to come out with a 30 dollar player will win the war.
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Actually, it's even worse. If Blu-Ray loses, Blu-Ray players will stop being manufactured. Sony is relying on economies of scale to drive down the costs of Blu-Ray diodes and drives, which will make it even harder for them to make a profit on the PS3.
In the past 1.5 years they've already lost half the profit they made on the Playstation brand since 1997 (you can check it on their financial reports).
Combine that with the astronomical price cuts they're being forced to do, and you have the recipe for financial disaster at Sony's game division. There may never be a PS4 if things keep going the way they're going now.
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
We just bought our first HDTV, they then knocked the price of a Toshiba HD DVD player down to $169 if we bought it at the same time. I asked about Blu Ray, the salesman said they'd love to, but they aren't getting the incentives from the factories and wholesalers. Plus, Blu Ray has that awful problem that Beta had in the 80's, license fees that keep the price floor artificially high.
If you remember the VHS/Beta wars, the winning factor really wasn't quality, it was price. You could get the VHS machines cheaper, and the tapes were cheaper. Sony keeps biting their own tail.
If it continues down familiar Sony lines, HD DVD will be the dominant one, and Blu Ray will go the way of the Beta and MD.
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
You see I think Sony has seen the sales figures from the under $100 HD-DVD players. BestBuy sold out and I think Walmart did as well. When Black Friday comes I think HD-DVD players will be back below $100. At that price people will buy them just because they bought an HDTV last Black-Friday. The winner of the format wars will be the first to get below $100. When it reaches that price point it becomes a why not purchase.
My guess is that this announcement is to prep us for Sony to start supporting HD-DVD.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
This a very unconvincing argument to me. History doesn't necessarily prove that Sony always loses. An equally compelling interpretation is that that the format with more capacity and better library of titles wins. Well that was VHS last time and Blu-Ray this time. VHS allowed an entire feature length movie on one tape and had more of them to offer when it launched. Many people have said that was the key reason that VHS won.
By the way, I don't disagree that the formats you mention failed, but I seem to recall Sony being one of the two developers (with Philips) of this little thing called audio CD. How did that do? :)
I'll probably hold the grudge for another five-ish years if they can keep their nose clean.
Storm
Sony just saw HD-DVD camp sell 100k players in a weekend at the $100 pricepoint and more would have been sold if walmart and bestbuys stock didn't deplete. Thats why sony is scared. They will always be more expensive than HD-DVD and rumours are toshiba is going to drop the of their entry level HD-DVD player to $150 for the Xmas season.
Have you ever been to a turkish prison?