Lessons From the HD Format War

mlimber writes "The New York Times' Freakonomics blog asks a panel of experts, 'Is the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray really over? What can we learn from it?' The panel suggests, among other things, that Sony achieved a Pyrrhic victory because high-def DVDs will be outmoded before they reap enough profits to make up for what they (and Toshiba) paid out for both product development and bribes to win the support of content providers."

Comments

shhhh

[clusterlizard]

Yeah, Brian, so now that the war has ended, go and buy that hd-dvd player you've been wanting! Don't forget to pick up a car load of hd-dvd movies while you're out!

SECAM

[PCM2]

Interestingly, SECAM is still currently used by Iran, Syria, North Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Rwanda, Libya, most of the countries of the former USSR ... and France. Coincidence? I think not! Note that one of the first benefits of the U.S. military action in Iraq has been to liberate the country from the grip of SECAM and migrate it to PAL. I rest my case.

Re:What I learned

[Naughty Bob]

Sadly, so is the ability to lobby for copyright extension, have that written into international trade agreements, and argue that police should use the pretense of stopping piracy to combat terrorism when they don't have enough real evidence for a warrant.

All true, but everything you say is a short term, political-climate oriented problem; here at the moment, but not necessarily in the future.

Our killer new technology is going to persist, becoming ever more accessible and advanced. We will win, we're only discussing how long the corporations' treasure will last in forestalling the inevitable.

Re:Will it ?

[Don853]

Or reading Slashdot.

Re:Bad comparison

[suggsjc]

- AC vs. DC: Cheaper and better system won

I thought they got over their differences and started a band?