Death of HD-DVD... according to Hitler

This is funny stuff, and very well done for one of these types of videos:

The Downfall of HD-DVD

The saddest thing about it is the relative accuracy of the claims and conclusions. It is really a shame that HD-DVD choked so fucking hard, letting Sony win with their goddamn proprietary standard. I guess 2 battling proprietary standards means neither has the real "advantage", but Sony is such a repeat offender in this category (with their damn memory sticks and other crap) that it is really a shame for them to come out ahead here.

I have to wonder if high def DVDs will suffer as a concept in general, and maybe end up being a passed over or skipped technology. It all depends how Blue-Ray handles their "victory" I guess.

Here is the response from HD-DVD.

I hope that isn't too little too late.

Granted, this is like trying to pick someone to root for in a war between Emperor Palpatine and Sauron, but HD-DVD seems a little less overbearing than Sony's Blu-Ray.

Given the rise of digital media, digital broadcasting, and the whole idea of your TV being online to access downloadable content. Neither of them would be what I would invest in. I think you had it right when you suggested that they both just might be passed over technology.

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Originally posted by Elvion
I think you had it right when you suggested that they both just might be passed over technology.

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I am really crossing my fingers for this. I would much rather see them both get skipped as we move forward to Video on Demand (VOD) that makes direct use of our HD television sets without the need of a $500 middle man.

This stuff is kinda what I do for a living now, and both the formats are not long for this world.

For one, they are completely screwing themselves with Copyright security, which can actually brick your players if you arent careful, and then have to go out and find a firmware update for no reason at all.

PS3 is currently the only updateable Blu Ray player I believe, too, which is kinda funny.

BUt the big thing is the actual recording of the discs. Any professional HD disc recorder is prohibitivley expensive right now, and companies arent committing to either format until it gets figured out, which is keeping costs high.

With storage getting super cheap now, (what, like $300 for almost a terabyte?) It will all go digital soon enough, and people will have to get over the 'owning a disc' satisfaction. With the change from broadband to wideband, which takes a movie from a 3 hour download or whatever to a 3 minute download, you'll see a giant jump in media center type storage units.

Professional AV is already going there, and consumer class will follow soon.

That's sweet news Serith. What you said makes a lot of sense from the technological side. It really would be nice to see both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray fail.... a plague on both your houses!

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Originally posted by Aristotle
That's sweet news Serith. What you said makes a lot of sense from the technological side. It really would be nice to see both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray fail.... a plague on both your houses!

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If they both fail, then the original problem ("we need more capacity on a convenient disc, then we'll be able to provide more resolution/better sound/etc") will remain. And then it'll be time for a brand new version of blue-laser disc to come out. And THAT ONE will win... by default. Hooray!

I dont think so, here's why.

Media technology formats typically have a lifespan of about 15-20 years. Think about when cassettes replaced records, then CD's, and now all digital formats with Ipods. All were about that lifespan

On the video side you have Vhs for about 20 years after the Betamax war, which is eerily similar to the Blu-ray, HD-DVD war, then got replaced by laser discs, which were immediately refined into DVD's (which, again had the DVD/DIVx war if you can remember!)

So think of the next step as just the Ipod movement for Movies and TV. If someone markets some swank little gadget that you can fit on top of your 5.1 reciever that is 15 years old, and that sleek box has a terabyte or two of storage, Depending on compression technology, there's no reason why you couldnt have a unit that could easily store 20-50 movies in High Definition digitally.

Now imagine just buying swappable Hard drives so you can increase your libraries, or take it with you to a friends house, and now you see where I think the market is heading.

Also now think about the huge spike in flash memory, like now a 4 gig SD card is like 30 bucks. Flash memory is absolutely perfect for this argument. When emerging compression and extraction technology gets coupled with Flash memory being able to almost double every year, now you've got an ultra portable, easy transferrable, VERY simple programmable way to fill the need to "OWN" a movie. Instead of DVD's, you'll maybe just have little SD cards.

Ill tell you the bummer about all of this is actually the movie and television industry itself.

The technology is already there to do what we should be doing, as noted above. But they are so freaking fucked up psycho about copyrights, they encode all their shit so heavily that it takes way more hassle than needed to get information from media storage...

Anyhow, blah blah blah, If you're interested I can get into lots of other little known tidbits, stuff like how HDMI cables are about to become obsolete, and how they're already developing the cable that replaces the cable that is replacing HDMI..... not to mention all the fucked up REASONS for HDMI to begin with..... (DVI is what Pro AV use, HDMI is only developed for copyright enforcement basically.) And how there's another screen resolution and aspect ratio war going on.... (Movies are filmed in 2.35:1, widescreens are 16x9, and computer widescreens are, get this, 16x10. FOR NO REASON AT ALL OTHER THAN TO FUCK WITH THINGS!!!)

but I digress...

byefornow

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Originally posted by Serith

Ill tell you the bummer about all of this is actually the movie and television industry itself.

The technology is already there to do what we should be doing, as noted above. But they are so freaking fucked up psycho about copyrights, they encode all their shit so heavily that it takes way more hassle than needed to get information from media storage...

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That is the part that both pisses me off and saddens me. I honestly do not think their fascist obsession with overly restrictive DRMs actually makes then any more money. In fact, I think it makes them less. I think people would actually spend MORE money on movies, music, television shows, etc. if they could get them cheaply and efficiently and not be saddled with ruinous restrictions.

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Originally posted by Serith

Anyhow, blah blah blah, If you're interested I can get into lots of other little known tidbits, stuff like how HDMI cables are about to become obsolete, and how they're already developing the cable that replaces the cable that is replacing HDMI..... not to mention all the fucked up REASONS for HDMI to begin with..... (DVI is what Pro AV use, HDMI is only developed for copyright enforcement basically.)

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I don't know about anyone else, but I am personally interested in as much detail as possible. I find this issue extremely interesting and important, as the ramifications of these developments have a pretty profound effect on all of our lives. Yes, it is entertainment, but entertainment happens to be one of the USA's most successful industries world wide. It may not be health care or taxes or something of that nature, but leisure and entertainment are a lot more important to our lives than some people might readily admit or acknowledge.

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Originally posted by Aristotle
I don't know about anyone else, but I am personally interested in as much detail as possible.

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I'll add my weight to that.

HD-DVD is officially dead now.

Toshiba announced it will no longer make players, and apparently there are some buy-backs in place to buy stock back from major stores.

There may be some huge deals out there on movies for people who already own HD-DVD players though. I have also read about tons of HD-DVD players going for well under $100 now. That might be worth it for some folks who want a hold over HD-DVD player for a while.

Frankly, I think Blu Ray and HD-DVD are both going to be orphaned technologies. I think we are going to move to hard disc based systems with a lot more on-demand high def content.