High Def DVD Format Wars

Karahd sent me this:

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6044...4262&subj=news


The advantages for HD-DVD:

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Toshiba leads the HD-DVD camp. Sony, Samsung and Philips are part of the rival Blu-ray camp. Blu-ray players will come out later in the year and cost more.

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The advantages for Blu-ray: Supposedly it holds more data, and the PS3 is planned to have a Blu-ray drive, which helps boost the installed base.

Frankly, they both suck since I am pretty sure both are closed standards that can screw us just as hard as DVD. :(

America meets its first HD DVD player

http://news.com.com/1606-2_3-6061110...1110&subj=news

Man, this upcoming format war is horrible.

It is like watching the Yankees play the Lakers with the Philadelphia Eagles taking winners.

When you hate everyone, and when everyone is a crooked piece of crap, who do you root for?

Well, check this one out, then.

Week in review: TV's fuzzy future

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Neither HD DVD nor Blu-ray can offer movie titles from all seven of the top movie studios. That means buyers of one disc player may be prevented from watching a movie from a studio that doesn't support the format.

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At least one TV technology is getting a quick dismissal from some consumers, who weren't very happy with an invention from Royal Philips Electronics that prevents TV viewers from switching the channel during commercials or fast-forwarding past commercials when watching DVR content

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Originally posted by Aristotle
Man, this upcoming format war is horrible.

It is like watching the Yankees play the Lakers with the Philadelphia Eagles taking winners.

When you hate everyone, and when everyone is a crooked piece of crap, who do you root for?

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The Browns

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Originally posted by drasoini
The Browns

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You want me to root for the football equivalent of VHS? Pretty good in the 80s, but basically worthless garbage now.

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Originally posted by Aristotle
You want me to root for the football equivalent of VHS? Pretty good in the 80s, but basically worthless garbage now.

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If it's brown flush it down!

More fuel!

Porn Industry May Be Decider in Blu-ray, HD-DVD Battle
Adult entertainment market seems to have already chosen Blu-ray.

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Just Like VHS vs. Beta
"If you look at the VHS vs. Beta standards, you see the much higher-quality standard dying because of [the porn industry's support of VHS]," he said. "The mass volume of tapes in the porn market at the time went out on VHS."

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Originally posted by karahd
More fuel!

Porn Industry May Be Decider in Blu-ray, HD-DVD Battle
Adult entertainment market seems to have already chosen Blu-ray.

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This might be true, but it is certainly LESS likely than it was in the VHS era.

In the VHS/Betamax war, there was no market for people owning their own movies yet. The adult industry had a huge effect on the winner of VHS/Beta because it allowed people to watch porn, for the first time, in the privacy of their own home rather than a peep show booth or adult theater.

The sale of "legitimate" movies and TV shows on DVD is huge now, and tons of consumers are active in this market. Thus, the adult industry does not have nearly as strong of a "market making" power. However, their choice will definitely have a big impact on the winner, since the porn industry sells more discs than the "legitimate" movie industry and music industry combined.

By the way Karahd, you didn't post a link!

Crap! Ok, I found a copy!

http://www.computerworld.com.au/inde...8;fp;16;fpid;0

I don't have a link for the info right at this second, but a friend of mine showed me an article that says blu-ray in some way registers to a specific player.

Basically this means that if you play the new (insert name of random family movie here) blu-ray disc in the living room it won't work on the blu-ray drive in the PC in the office, give it to the kids to play on the PS3 in their room and so on. Apparently it's to prevent unlawful hiring, loaning etc, but it' basically means another way the studios can screw the consumer...

While both new formats have an array of restrictive, horseshit "Digital Rights Management" software (DRM = screw the consumer), I doubt it will be that extreme.

That would make renting movies totally impossible, and even the movie studios know that is a huge source of their revenue.

Also, I don't think even the sheep also known as the public would stand for that degree of restrictiveness.

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Originally posted by Aristotle
While both new formats have an array of restrictive, horseshit "Digital Rights Management" software (DRM = screw the consumer), I doubt it will be that extreme.

That would make renting movies totally impossible, and even the movie studios know that is a huge source of their revenue.

Also, I don't think even the sheep also known as the public would stand for that degree of restrictiveness.

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Hmm... Well Working in a dvd rental store I know for a fact the rental copies they bring out are very different to the retail ones. Specifically the total lack of special features the rental ones usually have. If they can do this it wouldn't surprise me to find them leaving some kind of lockout glitch on the retail ones and not the rental ones.

And I doubt the public would have much to say. I've lost count of the number of CD's that won't play via my PC because of dumbass copy-protection stuff, yet I still buy CD's.

Just MHO.

Yeah, even the stuff they do with CD's is crap. I hate like hell when I buy a CD and can't rip it 'normally' because of some retarded protection they put on. At least with CD's though, as long as it can produce audio there's a way to capture it with little or no quality degradation. It just means you have to spend more effort doing something that -should- be well within your rights as a consumer. One of the most annoying parts about copy protection is that it doesn't usually make piracy much harder, it just seems to waste honest people's time.

But really, what are you going to do? When I have a choice, I avoid products that carry a 'thanks for buying me, now fuck you' label, even if they're more expensive. The problem is that you can only support products that make it to market, and if avoiding movies in general is the only way to withhold support for these DRM-ridden technologies...well, that's just not going to happen on a large scale. Grr.

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Originally posted by bolarithai
And I doubt the public would have much to say. I've lost count of the number of CD's that won't play via my PC because of dumbass copy-protection stuff, yet I still buy CD's.

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Fortunately, when it comes to CDs, most consumers are not being such sheep to the slaughter.

CD sales have been plummeting lately. Of course, they blame piracy, but the real reason is their crappy, overpriced product and all this DRM crap.

Remember, just because you are still buying it even with the DRM crap doesn't mean everyone else is. They are experiencing about 20% drop annually in sales which is a pretty resounding message that most consumers are unhappy (sadly, they are too stupid to listen).

They will continue to be too stupid to listne, and they'll blame piracy for why HD-DVD/Blue Ray DVD's don't sell.

Half of their problem is DRM! To me, someone who listens to a complete spectrum of music, I get enjoyment from sharing it with other people. Sure, they can't make money directly from that, but that's the way it has always been even back when people would copy tape to tape or cd to tape. My second thought is, that I personally cannot even count the number of times someone sharing music with me has led me to buy a cd by the artist. I cannot say everyone will, but in my situation sharing of music has boosted the number of cds I have bought rather than caused them to lose out.

A shotgun marriage for Blu-ray and HD DVD?

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That is the number of players for both formats that the Computer Electronics Association has said likely shipped in 2006, the first year of global sales. Earlier, the organization had anticipated 750,000 players would ship for the year.

Consumer fears about buying the wrong piece of equipment--combined with high prices and other factors--have crimped sales of the next-generation movie players and prompted the beginning of a thaw in the standards battle. Earlier this week, for instance, South Korea's LG Electronics formally announced it would release a combo Blu-ray/HD DVD player after months of flip-flopping on the issue. It plans to provide details on Sunday, the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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LINK: http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6147...0-20&subj=news

http://www.lge.com/about/press_relea...E%7CMENU.jhtml

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LG Electronics(LG), a leader in consumer electronics and mobile communications, announced that it will launch the world's first dual-format high-definition disc player, capable of playing both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD content.

The unit will be released in the United States in early 2007. Details will be provided at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held January 8–11 in Las Vegas.

LG expects this technological breakthrough to end the confusion and inconvenience of competing high-definition disc formats for both content producers and consumers.

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http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/07/08...blu-ray-discs/

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While there is still doubt over if or when a Blu-ray and HD DVD capable drive will be available, Ricoh has created a single laser that is able to read discs in either format. Their new component will be able to read and write to Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD and CD with one pickup and one objective lens.

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Problem solved.