| QUOTE (goth willow fan @ Jan 7 2008, 01:46 PM) |
| What I like more is the interactivity (best illustrated by 300's finished film to bluescreen direct comparison). |
| QUOTE (willowroolz @ Jan 8 2008, 12:11 PM) |
| :rolleyes: I bet you were stamping your little feet when you typed that :lmao: |
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| Blu-ray supporters scent victory By Darren Waters The backers of the Blu-ray high definition DVD system are predicting victory in the format wars with HD DVD. The two rival camps have divided consumers since the two incompatible systems were launched. But Blu-ray supporters are touting the decision by Warner Bros to shift allegiance as a tipping point. Andy Parsons, of the Blu-ray Disc Association, said: "It's much clearer to consumers now which of the formats is going to prevail." Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, he added: "We still have a little bit more work to do before we can say the format war is over." Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, the creators of Blu-ray, was also unwilling to declare outright victory. "I never put up banners that say 'Mission Accomplished'," he said. In North America, films on Blu-ray disc are outselling those on HD DVD by more than two to one. HD DVD, which is backed by Microsoft and Toshiba, now has support from only Universal and Paramount among the big film studios. No-one from the HD DVD promotion group was available for comment after the organisation cancelled all press interviews at the show. "Nobody likes a format war - it's not fun, it's very time consuming and it confuses consumers," said Mr Parsons. The battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray has echoes of the rivalry between Betamax and VHS in the 1980s. The cheaper format, VHS, prevailed while 20 years on it seems as though Blu-ray, the more expensive system, is winning the race. David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said the Warners' decision was "a great message for consumers". Mr Bishop said the Blu-ray camp would welcome any move by Universal and Paramount to shift formats. "We'd love to have them over and hopefully they will in the short term so we can act as a single industry." Sony has been talking to retailers about the possibility of helping HD DVD owners who now wanted to move to Blu-ray. "We haven't had any meaningful dialogue as yet. But it is something we have considered." Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group, said the decision to back Blu-ray exclusively had been driven by consumers. He said sales of the studio's movies on Blu-ray were outselling the same title on HD DVD by three to one. He said that a disc unveiled by Warner last year at CES which could hold both formats had been dropped because none of the other studios would support it. "As a result retailers would not stock it," he said. The future of technology at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 Story from BBC NEWS: |
| QUOTE (willowroolz @ Feb 18 2008, 11:23 AM) |
| Matt was just telling me about that. It begs the question: if HD-DVD has lost, what exactly has Blu-ray won? It's not like everyone is suddenly going to go out and buy them :ponder: |
| QUOTE (willowroolz @ Feb 18 2008, 01:00 PM) |
| Fair comment. If they keep putting out crap like Into The Blue on the format it's going to die as well, though :lol: |
| QUOTE (goth willow fan @ Feb 18 2008, 02:56 PM) | ||
But I thought the purchase of that disc had very little to do with plot? :ph43r: :D :lol: I can't really pass judgement having got Fantastic Four on Saturday. :ph43r: |
| QUOTE (willowroolz @ Feb 18 2008, 03:00 PM) | ||||
At least Fantastic 4 is fun - Into The Blue is just irritating and tedious. To be fair, it picks up a bit towards the end, but JA isn't in it anywhere near enough <_< Everything has to live up to Ratatouille at the moment :wub: |
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| How the PS3 led Blu-ray's triumph By Will Smale Business reporter, BBC News The next-generation DVD format war is over, and the future is Blu-ray. Ever since the two rival high definition DVD systems were launched in 2006 - Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD DVD - there could only be one winner. In a re-run of the VHS and Betamax video cassette battle of the early 1980s, each raced to win over both the home consumer and the big Hollywood film studios. Toshiba's announcement that it is to stop production of HD DVD players leaves the way clear for Blu-ray to become the industry standard. Yet how did Toshiba fail while Sony succeeded? It is a story of computer game consoles, marketing savvy and schmoozing in Los Angeles, as well as Sony's determination not to let history repeat itself. Which, at the end of the day, all boils down to much higher sales figures for Sony. Playstation advantage The first factor that needs to be put completely to one side is picture quality. Unless you are a technology geek with a television the size of multiplex cinema screen, there is no difference between the output of HD DVD and Blu-ray machines. Both offer high definition DVD playback superior to standard DVD players. Where Sony had the killer edge is that its Playstation 3 (PS3) computer games console comes pre-fitted with a Blu-ray player. So as Sony has sold 10.5 million PS3 consoles since it was launched in late 2006, that is 10.5 million Blu-ray machines already in homes around the world, before you add sales of stand-alone Blu-ray players. By contrast, Toshiba has sold only one million HD DVD machines. Toshiba does have a tie-up with Microsoft's Xbox 360 games console, but Xbox users are required to buy an external HD DVD drive. And as Toshiba's one million sales figure for HD DVD machines also includes shipments of these drives, it appears that not many Xbox owners have been bothered to go to the additional expense. Hollywood moves Sony also had a head start over Toshiba in persuading the big US film studios to back Blu-ray - its own Sony Pictures is one of the main players in Hollywood. It's good for consumers, some of whom must have been resisting buying next-generation DVD recorders because of the two incompatible formats Gartner analyst Hiroyuki Shimizu Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox joined Sony Pictures in supporting Blu-ray. And although Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros initially decided to back HD DVD, Warner Bros switched sides last month. For many analysts, this was the final nail in the coffin for HD DVD. "When Warner made its decision, it was basically over," says Kazuharu Miura, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo. Key US DVD retailers Target and Blockbuster have also decided to go with Blu-ray. Betamax lessons Other analysts also point to Sony's better marketing campaign for Blu-ray, fuelled by its determination not to lose a format war that brought back painful memories of the defeat of its Betamax video format by the JVC-developed VHS. Although Betamax offered better picture quality, VHS machines were cheaper and quickly gained the majority of market share, eventually killing off Betamax. It appears that Sony spent many years analysing that defeat and this time around, it was much better prepared. Putting a Blu-ray player in each PS3 was the secret weapon to ensure the format's presence in customers' front rooms around the world, effectively making their choice of high definition DVD player for them. Toshiba's gain While Toshiba's decision to end the production of HD DVD players is undoubtedly a humiliation for the company, analysts say it will be good for the firm's profits. Goldman Sachs estimates that the move will boost Toshiba's profitability by up to 40bn yen ($370m; £190m) a year. "The potential losses are small compared to the savings," said Goldman Sachs analyst Ikuo Matsuhashi. Commentators also point to the fact that as consumer electronics is such a small part of Toshiba's business, it could afford to lose the format battle. For while finished electrical goods such as laptops, DVD players and televisions make up just 6% of Toshiba's profits, it makes 40% of them from the sale of computer chips and a similar proportion from its nuclear power operations. By contrast, consumer electrical goods have always been core to Sony's profits. Uninterested consumers? But what does it all mean for consumers? "It's good for consumers, some of whom must have been resisting buying next-generation DVD recorders because of the two incompatible formats," says Hiroyuki Shimizu, an analyst at IT research company Gartner. "If there's only one format, consumers don't have to worry about incompatibility." Yet while Mr Shimizu predicts sales of Blu-ray player and discs will now take off, other analysts say the format battle is meaningless. They say this is because a growing number of consumers are already turning their backs on DVD players to download their movies via the internet instead, or from their satellite or cable television provider. Adding that electronics companies are wrong to assume that viewers want ever better picture quality, they point to the failure of high fidelity music formats Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio in the face of the explosion in the popularity of music downloads. While typical digital music formats such as MP3 have reduced sound quality compared with even standard CDs, their convenience has more than won over consumers. The future of high definition DVD players may very well be Blu-ray, but whether they can make a dent in the face of the growing march of computer downloads is quite another story. Story from BBC NEWS: |
| QUOTE (John Brawn @ Feb 18 2008, 10:22 PM) | ||||||
I went to the cinema to see Fantastic 4 and it was strangely appealing even if the plot was incredibly formulaic. A bit of originality would not have gone amiss. Have you seen the sequel? sk |
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| Q: What does it mean for consumers? Those who rushed out and bought a HD DVD player when it went on the market in the UK paid a hefty £449 for it and they could be understandably angry about Toshiba's pull-out. For its part Toshiba said it had "no plan to compensate consumers", and will continue to offer technical support for those owning HD DVD machines. In fact, according to Toshiba, the players - now available for just £149 - are still a good value option for consumers, despite the diminishing amount of content available to play on them. The machines can still be used to "upscale" standard definition movies for high definition screens. For consumers who have bought a HD DVD add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, there was no word as to whether the software giant will phase out the add-on. In a statement Microsoft said it was too early to say but added that games, rather than high definition movie playback, was the main reason why consumers bought consoles. |
| QUOTE (prophecy girl @ Feb 20 2008, 04:40 PM) |
In a statement Microsoft said it was too early to say but added that games, rather than high definition movie playback, was the main reason why consumers bought consoles. |
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| Paramount has become the final Hollywood studio to adopt Sony's Blu-ray format exclusively, discontinuing its support for HD DVD, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In a statement issued on Feb. 20, Paramount Home Entertainment announced that the company is "pleased that the industry is moving to a single high-definition format, as we believe it is in the best interest of the consumer." The studio did not release any further details about prospective titles or release dates. The decision comes a day after Toshiba announced that it is ceasing the development, manufacture and marketing of HD DVD players by the end of March. Within hours of that announcement, Universal Studios Home Entertainment cast its lot with Blu-ray, leaving only Paramount as the lone holdout in its exclusive support of HD DVD. Ironically, Universal had been exclusive with HD DVD since the format's launch in April 2006, while Paramount had initially supported both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Paramount and DreamWorks switched to HD DVD-only in August, reportedly after receiving a $150 million payment from the format's supporters for "promotional consideration." The four other majors committed to Blu-ray are Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (along with its distributed MGM Home Entertainment label), Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video (including distributed labels New Line Home Entertainment, BBC Video and HBO Video). Mini-major Lionsgate also has been an exclusive Blu-ray backer since the start. |
| QUOTE (star_fury @ Feb 22 2008, 04:34 PM) |
| Just to add confusion I believe the PlayStation is the only blue ray player that can be updated for this new profile via the internet once it's made available. :) |
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| Xbox to stop making HD DVD add-on Microsoft has decided to stop making the HD DVD add-on for its Xbox 360 games console after Toshiba abandoned the high definition DVD format. Toshiba estimated last week that about 300,000 of the add-ons had been sold. Microsoft was one of the key backers for the HD DVD format, competing with Blu-ray, which was the format available in Sony's rival PlayStation 3 console. Microsoft said it would continue to provide warranty support for the $130 (£115 in the UK) HD DVD add-on. Last week, Toshiba said it would stop production of HD DVD players and recorders after major film studios decided to back Sony's Blu-ray format instead. Toshiba said the tipping point came last month when Warner Brothers decided to release its movies only in Blu-ray. The Xbox add-ons sold represented 30% of the one million HD DVD devices that were sold worldwide. That compares unfavourably with the 10.5 million PS3s sold by Sony, which come with a built-in Blu-ray drive. Story from BBC NEWS: |