HD-DVD is Dead (was: First Signs of Blu-Ray Dominance)

[Vocenoctum]

I expect the US standard changing to HD in Feb 2009 will push awareness and the public in general to start getting new equipment. Not everyone, of course. But this will be the chance for many people to learn and upgrade. As it stands now, HD stuff is flying off the shelves. Not at DVD rates, but HD isn't for everyone just yet. It needs to come down in price.

I assume you mean "digital" not HD...
I've already had to explain the digital transition to a few of my fellow employee's. (I'm 34, everyone else in my shop is over 50) They all see the cable company saying not to worry, and they've all got cable. Most of the folks that will really be affected by the digital transition will be too poor to buy a new HD-TV to replace the old rabbit ears.

That holds true for any new media. So far, it hasn't happened and there are just as many problems with that kind of imagitech (rights, distribution fees, storage, playback, etc) than there is with discs, which have always sold well.

Most of the problems with such a system are more problems for the distributors rather than the consumer. Right now people are used to Pay Per View and I think a shift to "pay once and watch forever" is certainly easy enough for them to get behind. Including DVR/ TiVo and such, the market seems to accept digital delivery, but the producers don't.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I'm thinking that whether they make $30 on selling a DVD, or on allowing someone to download and keep a file, it's still $30. From their perspective, as long as the anti-piracy technology is strong enough, it shouldn't matter whether it's a disc or a download.

Well, they don't make $30 either way, so that's what I mean. There's really no accurate way to predict Digital Delivery and whether it'd be more or less profitable.

I *think* that the 360 *can* support a USB connected hard drive....but *only* for viewing movies, pics, and music that you've loaded onto the hard drive in advance from your PC. You can't use it for saved games, content downloaded from Marketplace etc. Keep in mind, I *think* this is the case, but I'm not 100% sure.

Banshee

Neither am I, it's certainly not advertised either way, so that's certainly a failure if so.

 

[Arnwyn]

Awesome news about WB an Blu-Ray. Anything that moves toward a clear(er) winner is good for consumers.

And no, WB won't be changing back. Making an announcement like that and being clear about sales in said announcement shows they've made their decision. It won't be changing.

Great news, in any case.

 

[Banshee16]

Neither am I, it's certainly not advertised either way, so that's certainly a failure if so.

I'll ask a coworker tomorrow....he's one of the guys who mods stuff, and is always on the bleeding edge of what he can get his system to do. If it's possible, I'm sure he'll know.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Awesome news about WB an Blu-Ray. Anything that moves toward a clear(er) winner is good for consumers.

And no, WB won't be changing back. Making an announcement like that and being clear about sales in said announcement shows they've made their decision. It won't be changing.

Great news, in any case.

Guess we'll see. If HDDVD players continue increasing, it would be silly not to entertain changing. At least through the holiday season, they were kicking the butts of Blu-Ray. If HDDVD player sales tank as a result of this announcement, then yeah, it ends up looking like a great idea.

Banshee

 

[John Crichton]

Guess we'll see. If HDDVD players continue increasing, it would be silly not to entertain changing. At least through the holiday season, they were kicking the butts of Blu-Ray. If HDDVD player sales tank as a result of this announcement, then yeah, it ends up looking like a great idea.

I'm not trying to be snarky or mean here. Sorry if it comes off that way...

I think you are missing the point of the exclusivity deal WB signed. They can't decide to all of a sudden change their minds. It's a contract and why this is such a big deal to those following this and anyone interested in HD content. They are locked in to producing only BR after May 2008. And what they will put out for HD-DVD until that point is still up in the air.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I think you are missing the point of the exclusivity deal WB signed.

From the sound of the press release from the HD-DVD guys, they may have broke some contracts there.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I *think* that the 360 *can* support a USB connected hard drive....but *only* for viewing movies, pics, and music that you've loaded onto the hard drive in advance from your PC. You can't use it for saved games, content downloaded from Marketplace etc. Keep in mind, I *think* this is the case, but I'm not 100% sure.

Correct. Fat 32 drives are supported for this purpose now - including USB flash drives.

 

[Banshee16]

I'm not trying to be snarky or mean here. Sorry if it comes off that way...

I think you are missing the point of the exclusivity deal WB signed. They can't decide to all of a sudden change their minds. It's a contract and why this is such a big deal to those following this and anyone interested in HD content. They are locked in to producing only BR after May 2008. And what they will put out for HD-DVD until that point is still up in the air.

Maybe what I'm missing is that I haven't seen anything about a contract. I know they've said they've decided to only produce Blu-Ray, but as far as I know, it's only theory that they've actually signed a contract. Toshiba has come forward and indicated that Warner seems to be in breech of contracts they've signed regarding HDDVD....that's the only contract talk I've heard.

And I know you're not being snarky. This isn't an AV forum, so I haven't seen much "nyah nyah nyah" type behaviour here. I'd like to think we're all more mature than that, but many of the AV forums, it's a different matter. I kind of want to ask some of these guys if they know what a female looks like .

In any case, I'll go take another look. Maybe I missed something when I was reading the press release.

Banshee

 

[John Crichton]

Maybe what I'm missing is that I haven't seen anything about a contract. I know they've said they've decided to only produce Blu-Ray, but as far as I know, it's only theory that they've actually signed a contract. Toshiba has come forward and indicated that Warner seems to be in breech of contracts they've signed regarding HDDVD....that's the only contract talk I've heard.

Yeah, I imagine there is going to be alot of that flying around and some damage control by both sides. That typically happens when it's big companies butting heads like this.

I'm still waiting to find out if WB is lying and they actually were paid off to support BR.

And I know you're not being snarky. This isn't an AV forum, so I haven't seen much "nyah nyah nyah" type behaviour here. I'd like to think we're all more mature than that, but many of the AV forums, it's a different matter. I kind of want to ask some of these guys if they know what a female looks like .

It's so hard to convey non-snark sometimes, so I just wanted to be sure. I've quite enjoyed the conversations here lately and I want to keep them that way.