The statement says "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format". It's a weak denial and pretty ambiguous. The way it is worded they could easily change their minds tomorrow or even go neutral. I would expect HD DVD studios to be issuing stronger statements than that if they were actually committed to the format.
Don't use in Java in your curriculum if you don't like it. Duh. But please at least use a language that has practical application to students outside your classroom.
Blu-ray comes with a significant price premium -- for both technical and licensing reasons -- over HD-DVD.
I don't believe that for a second. HD DVD and Blu Ray are so close to each other in terms of their system requirements, their technical specifications and the standards they implement that I doubt there is any significant difference in the cost of either.
If HD DVD appeared cheaper (appeared being the operative word), it is more likely due to Toshiba being the sole provider of HD DVD players while Blu Ray consisting of a consortium of consumer electronics firms. Toshiba can set its prices however it likes including taking a large loss while BDA members are attempting to sell their players for a profit.
I expect that even Sony didn't subsidize its standalone players (though maybe it did with the PS3) for the obvious reason that it doesn't want to hurt BDA members.
Even so, BD players are dropping rapidly. Some are already sub-$300 and chances are they'll be sub $200 before the year is out. Chinese manufacturers will get in on the act to ensure cheap end systems and there are plenty of new models being announced in CES.
Blu Ray does help games. It allows more content, more sound, more graphics, more languages. From a producer's perspective it also minimizes the risk of piracy meaning more revenues.
Microsoft certainly didn't appear to show much commitment to a format they were associated with. My guess is that they don't like physical media at all and have their eyes set on downloads. So they got close enough to HD DVD to get some control over it and threw a bit of cash around to prolong the war as long as possible. But they certainly didn't want to embrace it too tightly, not when a dead format could seriously taint the 360.
I expect that if Warner hadn't made it's shock announcement that MS & Toshiba would be right now touting a Toshiba branded 360 ultimate with internal HD DVD. The Toshiba branding would allow MS to stay aloof in case the format still tanked. As it happened, Warner put the boot in before we had a chance to know if such a device was for real or just a rumour. It would certainly be a waste of time now which might explain why no such announcements were made.
Toshiba fell victim to believing HD-DVD was going to ever be supported by anyone beyond that niche demographic. And it cost hundreds of millions in their losing battle against BluRay.
Toshiba fell victim to believing it could go it alone against a consortium which more or less represents the entire consumer electronics industry (except Toshiba), and a good part of the movie industry. It's kind of odd for all the Sony hate when objectively Blu Ray had the industry support by far. Toshiba's main advantage was to slash costs on its players and hope that sales took off before Blu Ray caught up. It didn't, and without studio support, the format is looking distinctly dead. Who knows, maybe they'll get a studio to switch and drag the war on, but it's looking pretty bleak for them at present.
Anyway I think the background behind which studio did what will make fascinating reading. Maybe it could have gone the other way. I'd love to see what slides Toshiba & MS execs meant to show before Warner hoofed them in the balls.
I can see arguments either way. HD DVD sounds like a natural progression of DVD and more or less tells you what it is in it's title - high definition DVD. A consumer may hear Blu Ray and wonder what the hell it is since there is no clue in the title.
I think the PS3 is excellent value for what it is. Getting a Blu Ray player AND console AND multimedia functionality (music, photo, DIVX / MPEG2 / H264 videos jukebox), networking for $400 is excellent value. And it'll probably drop even further in the year.
Also, don't expect HD-DVD to entirely die out so quickly. Toshiba will still be making players and recorders for a good while longer -- the standard may even manage to live on as a drop-in replacement for DVD+Rs. Furthermore, HD-DVD is supposedly compatible with China's new CH-DVD standard. After cheap upscaling DVD players start to flood the market with HD-DVD compatibility mode, you won't have to worry about your collection being unplayable in the future. Don't minimize China's influence here, after all, old Chinese (S)VCD's are still playable on every new $30 player, some 10 years after they were obsoleted by DVDs.
This will be great if you're into Shaolin Kung Fu movies. I doubt it means much otherwise. Chinese manufactures are not going to be excluded from producing Blu Ray players just because their domestic market uses some other format.
It's very easy to tell the difference between SD and HD content on a large HD set. If you know what to look for or are shown it. Some images are going to make it easier to see than others - patterns and high contrast things make the distinction clearer. The problem is most people are probably ignorant and therefore don't know what to look for or their eyesight doesn't even make it obvious. I expect some probably don't even know what HD means and probably think it has something to do with the larger screen.
On top of that, the problem for HD DVD and Blu Ray is that most content does not warrant 2x the cost for questionable image improvements. I have a large collection of DVDs which I am not inclined to upgrade to Blu Ray any time soon. And I certainly won't be buying many new BDs while they cost so much. The price of Blu Ray discs in Europe is absurd and often tops 30 euros a disc. Assuming the prices drop to DVD levels then I think the reason to go HD is a no brainer, but not until the tech emerges from early adopter territory and starts competing with DVDs on price.
There is at least one advantage of getting an HD player when the war is finally resolved. Even if you just play DVDs (for now), a Blu Ray player will contain built-in upscaling for DVDs and an HDMI out ensuring excellent image quality. While there are upscaling DVD players, if you're going to spend that much you may as well future proof yourself and get a Blu Ray player. The PS3 also has excellent upscaling and shouldn't be discounted either considering how much functionality you get for the price.
Many HD DVD proponents like to have it both ways for the PS3. I've seen the same person in a forum discount the PS3 because its not a standalone player, but later include them when they're talking about attach rates. It's pathetic really.
I think everyone can agree that many people buy a PS3 for games, some for Blu Ray and some for a bit of both. Naturally the attach rate is going to be lower, but that doesn't mean it isn't significant or that we can pretend PS3s don't exist. They do exist and even if they're selling worse than 360s they're still selling at a rate which is still giving Blu Ray a large and increasing lead.
So, in the long run, if there's no content, and you have to purchase a blu-ray player anyways, you've bought the metaphorical magic beans. $100 dollars is a relatively large amount of money, especially when one combines it with the most powerful force known to man, compounding interest.
Being on the losing side of a format war probably means more than $100 lost. I expect many people are so emotionally attached to the format that losing is almost akin to a bereavement.
It's obvious they are. The components of Blu Ray and HD DVD players barely differ in any significant way. They use the same blue violet laser diodes, they require similar hardward to implement the same codecs. There is no reason whatsoever for either format to significantly differ in terms of price.
They'd be charged exactly the same as any other producer. As for there being no reason to own a PS3, I'd suggest that wifi, free networking, web browser, superior multimedia capabilities as well as games being able to use the full blu ray capacity are reasons that a PS3 would still be superior to a 360 even one equipped with a blu ray drive.
HD DVD players have been cheaper because it's been subsidized thus far. Blu Ray hasn't had that luxury since a consortium of manufacturers are making devices. Even so, BD players are already under $300 and the chances are that they'll be fall below $200 too this year.
There is one player left who will likely fight on, that being microsoft. They absolutely don't want blu ray to succeed, because that means they lose another round to Sony.
Microsoft only has itself to blame if HD DVD fails. They could have bundled the HD DVD drive into the 360 (e.g. the top end "Elite" model), or promoted the external add-on more but they didn't. I suspect they know the format was doomed and didn't want any of their IP to get dragged down with it. Microsoft also have ambitions with downloadable content and may have perceived that ANY dominant physical HD format is a threat. This may explain why they've been propping up HD DVD, to prolong the war and sow confusion, but not wishing either side to actually win.
There were even rumours circulating this week that they might licence XBox 360 technology to other manufacturers. This was probably so that Toshiba could produce some HD DVD / 360 hybrid under their own brand and keep Microsoft out of the picture if it tanked. I wonder what will happen if there was substance to that rumour. I can't help but think an HD DVD / 360 device would be stillborn so it may be the first casualty of this announcement.
It's possible yet HD DVD might make some studios play musical chairs. But failing that I think the writing is on the wall for the format. HD DVD owners should probably take heart that there are going to be some excellent firesales and at least Toshiba and probably others are bound to produce hybrid players that play both titles for some time to come.
The PS3 client mostly works but it has a very nasty habit of dropping work units if it can't instantaneously connect with wherever they're supposed to be sent to. My PS3 must have processed 50 of them by now, but my readout still says 22. In other words Seti@Home have lost 28 good sets of results because the client running on my PS3 tried to connect to their server, failed and then automatically gave up entirely and started from scratch all over again.
I think a commercial version of the hardware - more or less the exact same hardware - is very important to start selling now. The Eee PC shows the demand for these kinds of devices is there. I think the OLPC is ready to sell with some modifications to its specs to make it more attractive to consumers. Make it black, boost the CPU, memory & storage and maybe minor modifications to the case / keyboard and it will be very popular.
I can see it being very popular as an educational version (which I will elaborate on in a second), an industrial / rugged version and even military versions. Now OLPC is educational by nature but I believe that they should also be selling these things in toy shops, perhaps with a different colour and more "fun" software.
I would love to be able to use my Wii as a media server.
It sounds like you should be buying a PS3 if that's what you want. It does virtually everything you want right now, except SMB shares. Instead it uses DNLA sharing for streaming although of course you can copy content to the PS3 or play it from a USB device if you want too.
The "consumer demand" for OLPC is based on its price and novelty, not on its performance or utility. She has jumped ship quite prematurely and her character flaws will soon result in a bitter future for the OLPC project and her own independent ventures.
Not true. I have an Asus Eee PC. It's a fantastically useful little laptop. Sure it's not as fast as modern laptops, but its plenty fast enough for web browsing, mail, skype, word processing, even movie playback. The important thing is that it's cheap, small, light and boots and shuts down fast. You can throw it into a bag, you can open it up in coffee shops, or in a lecture hall, or wherever you like with no hassle at all. I even used it on a Ryanair clip tray the other day. If you've flown Ryanair you'll know what an impressive feat that is.
The OLPC has many of the same benefits as the Eee PC and adds a few of its own such as lower power, kid-strength robustness and swivel screen. It's screaming out for a consumer version. Sell them with some more memory, some more storage and a cut down Fedora and they'll sell by the truck load. Just like the Eee PC is doing right now.
I am really surprised they aren't commercializing the OLPC. The profits from a consumer spinoff can be used to lower costs and fund the charitable arm. Everyone wins. I'm personally disappointed since I ended up buying an Eee PC when I was very much hoping the OLPC would recognize the opportunity first. Oh well. Perhaps this story is garbled and CTO has resigned because this is exactly what they're trying to do.
It's just like the PSP situation all over again. People pretend they're using the hack for "homebrew" when the vast majority are using it to play pirate software. If it's a software only hack Nintendo is screwed.
The Asus Eee PC is small, very, very practical, comes decked out with lots of software and is extremely cheap, cheaper than virtually every other laptop on sale.
That's the reason for the coverage. To buy an equivalent size laptop from Dell, Sony, Toshiba etc. would probably cost you 3-5 times as much.
As an Eee PC owner I can say these devices are great. Some of the software is pretty irritating but I can live with the faults for the price and practicality. I used my laptop on a Ryanair cliptray yesterday. This is a feat barely possible or advisable with most laptops.
Now how many times more powerful is the Eee PC than your Portege? Does your Portege contain 4gb solid state storage, 512Mb, wifi, 3 USB connectors, speakers, microphone and webcam? And how much did your Portege cost when brand new? Did it come kitted out with a fully pre-emptive multi-tasking OS with browser, office productivity, games etc.?
I think its very obvious that the last 9 years have made dramatic improvements in many areas, yet you suggest we run some piece of crap just because youre happy to run it?
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The statement says "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format". It's a weak denial and pretty ambiguous. The way it is worded they could easily change their minds tomorrow or even go neutral. I would expect HD DVD studios to be issuing stronger statements than that if they were actually committed to the format.
Don't use in Java in your curriculum if you don't like it. Duh. But please at least use a language that has practical application to students outside your classroom.
I don't believe that for a second. HD DVD and Blu Ray are so close to each other in terms of their system requirements, their technical specifications and the standards they implement that I doubt there is any significant difference in the cost of either.
If HD DVD appeared cheaper (appeared being the operative word), it is more likely due to Toshiba being the sole provider of HD DVD players while Blu Ray consisting of a consortium of consumer electronics firms. Toshiba can set its prices however it likes including taking a large loss while BDA members are attempting to sell their players for a profit.
I expect that even Sony didn't subsidize its standalone players (though maybe it did with the PS3) for the obvious reason that it doesn't want to hurt BDA members.
Even so, BD players are dropping rapidly. Some are already sub-$300 and chances are they'll be sub $200 before the year is out. Chinese manufacturers will get in on the act to ensure cheap end systems and there are plenty of new models being announced in CES.
Blu Ray does help games. It allows more content, more sound, more graphics, more languages. From a producer's perspective it also minimizes the risk of piracy meaning more revenues.
I expect that if Warner hadn't made it's shock announcement that MS & Toshiba would be right now touting a Toshiba branded 360 ultimate with internal HD DVD. The Toshiba branding would allow MS to stay aloof in case the format still tanked. As it happened, Warner put the boot in before we had a chance to know if such a device was for real or just a rumour. It would certainly be a waste of time now which might explain why no such announcements were made.
Toshiba fell victim to believing it could go it alone against a consortium which more or less represents the entire consumer electronics industry (except Toshiba), and a good part of the movie industry. It's kind of odd for all the Sony hate when objectively Blu Ray had the industry support by far. Toshiba's main advantage was to slash costs on its players and hope that sales took off before Blu Ray caught up. It didn't, and without studio support, the format is looking distinctly dead. Who knows, maybe they'll get a studio to switch and drag the war on, but it's looking pretty bleak for them at present.
Anyway I think the background behind which studio did what will make fascinating reading. Maybe it could have gone the other way. I'd love to see what slides Toshiba & MS execs meant to show before Warner hoofed them in the balls.
I can see arguments either way. HD DVD sounds like a natural progression of DVD and more or less tells you what it is in it's title - high definition DVD. A consumer may hear Blu Ray and wonder what the hell it is since there is no clue in the title.
I think the PS3 is excellent value for what it is. Getting a Blu Ray player AND console AND multimedia functionality (music, photo, DIVX / MPEG2 / H264 videos jukebox), networking for $400 is excellent value. And it'll probably drop even further in the year.
This will be great if you're into Shaolin Kung Fu movies. I doubt it means much otherwise. Chinese manufactures are not going to be excluded from producing Blu Ray players just because their domestic market uses some other format.
On top of that, the problem for HD DVD and Blu Ray is that most content does not warrant 2x the cost for questionable image improvements. I have a large collection of DVDs which I am not inclined to upgrade to Blu Ray any time soon. And I certainly won't be buying many new BDs while they cost so much. The price of Blu Ray discs in Europe is absurd and often tops 30 euros a disc. Assuming the prices drop to DVD levels then I think the reason to go HD is a no brainer, but not until the tech emerges from early adopter territory and starts competing with DVDs on price.
There is at least one advantage of getting an HD player when the war is finally resolved. Even if you just play DVDs (for now), a Blu Ray player will contain built-in upscaling for DVDs and an HDMI out ensuring excellent image quality. While there are upscaling DVD players, if you're going to spend that much you may as well future proof yourself and get a Blu Ray player. The PS3 also has excellent upscaling and shouldn't be discounted either considering how much functionality you get for the price.
I think everyone can agree that many people buy a PS3 for games, some for Blu Ray and some for a bit of both. Naturally the attach rate is going to be lower, but that doesn't mean it isn't significant or that we can pretend PS3s don't exist. They do exist and even if they're selling worse than 360s they're still selling at a rate which is still giving Blu Ray a large and increasing lead.
Being on the losing side of a format war probably means more than $100 lost. I expect many people are so emotionally attached to the format that losing is almost akin to a bereavement.
It's obvious they are. The components of Blu Ray and HD DVD players barely differ in any significant way. They use the same blue violet laser diodes, they require similar hardward to implement the same codecs. There is no reason whatsoever for either format to significantly differ in terms of price.
They'd be charged exactly the same as any other producer. As for there being no reason to own a PS3, I'd suggest that wifi, free networking, web browser, superior multimedia capabilities as well as games being able to use the full blu ray capacity are reasons that a PS3 would still be superior to a 360 even one equipped with a blu ray drive.
HD DVD players have been cheaper because it's been subsidized thus far. Blu Ray hasn't had that luxury since a consortium of manufacturers are making devices. Even so, BD players are already under $300 and the chances are that they'll be fall below $200 too this year.
Microsoft only has itself to blame if HD DVD fails. They could have bundled the HD DVD drive into the 360 (e.g. the top end "Elite" model), or promoted the external add-on more but they didn't. I suspect they know the format was doomed and didn't want any of their IP to get dragged down with it. Microsoft also have ambitions with downloadable content and may have perceived that ANY dominant physical HD format is a threat. This may explain why they've been propping up HD DVD, to prolong the war and sow confusion, but not wishing either side to actually win.
There were even rumours circulating this week that they might licence XBox 360 technology to other manufacturers. This was probably so that Toshiba could produce some HD DVD / 360 hybrid under their own brand and keep Microsoft out of the picture if it tanked. I wonder what will happen if there was substance to that rumour. I can't help but think an HD DVD / 360 device would be stillborn so it may be the first casualty of this announcement.
It's possible yet HD DVD might make some studios play musical chairs. But failing that I think the writing is on the wall for the format. HD DVD owners should probably take heart that there are going to be some excellent firesales and at least Toshiba and probably others are bound to produce hybrid players that play both titles for some time to come.
The PS3 client mostly works but it has a very nasty habit of dropping work units if it can't instantaneously connect with wherever they're supposed to be sent to. My PS3 must have processed 50 of them by now, but my readout still says 22. In other words Seti@Home have lost 28 good sets of results because the client running on my PS3 tried to connect to their server, failed and then automatically gave up entirely and started from scratch all over again.
I can see it being very popular as an educational version (which I will elaborate on in a second), an industrial / rugged version and even military versions. Now OLPC is educational by nature but I believe that they should also be selling these things in toy shops, perhaps with a different colour and more "fun" software.
It sounds like you should be buying a PS3 if that's what you want. It does virtually everything you want right now, except SMB shares. Instead it uses DNLA sharing for streaming although of course you can copy content to the PS3 or play it from a USB device if you want too.
Not true. I have an Asus Eee PC. It's a fantastically useful little laptop. Sure it's not as fast as modern laptops, but its plenty fast enough for web browsing, mail, skype, word processing, even movie playback. The important thing is that it's cheap, small, light and boots and shuts down fast. You can throw it into a bag, you can open it up in coffee shops, or in a lecture hall, or wherever you like with no hassle at all. I even used it on a Ryanair clip tray the other day. If you've flown Ryanair you'll know what an impressive feat that is.
The OLPC has many of the same benefits as the Eee PC and adds a few of its own such as lower power, kid-strength robustness and swivel screen. It's screaming out for a consumer version. Sell them with some more memory, some more storage and a cut down Fedora and they'll sell by the truck load. Just like the Eee PC is doing right now.
I am really surprised they aren't commercializing the OLPC. The profits from a consumer spinoff can be used to lower costs and fund the charitable arm. Everyone wins. I'm personally disappointed since I ended up buying an Eee PC when I was very much hoping the OLPC would recognize the opportunity first. Oh well. Perhaps this story is garbled and CTO has resigned because this is exactly what they're trying to do.
Your 2 year contract only expires when the iPhone says it does.
It's just like the PSP situation all over again. People pretend they're using the hack for "homebrew" when the vast majority are using it to play pirate software. If it's a software only hack Nintendo is screwed.
That's the reason for the coverage. To buy an equivalent size laptop from Dell, Sony, Toshiba etc. would probably cost you 3-5 times as much.
As an Eee PC owner I can say these devices are great. Some of the software is pretty irritating but I can live with the faults for the price and practicality. I used my laptop on a Ryanair cliptray yesterday. This is a feat barely possible or advisable with most laptops.
I think its very obvious that the last 9 years have made dramatic improvements in many areas, yet you suggest we run some piece of crap just because youre happy to run it?