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Any hope for HD DVD

DrinkLyeAndDie said:
Yes, of course. We are waiting on HD-DVD burners. That's a requirement here for it to spread through the masses more as far as authoring.
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User "Adbear" claims to work "in the biz" and has made the claim that HD-DVD burners for desktops are due out in January 2008 (this month): http://forum.slysoft.com/showpost.php?p=78070&postcount=102

I'm not sure I really trust what he says however. No disrespect intended, but I have to see it to believe it.
 
ivanX said:
Get over it.
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http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?p=51369#post51369

"While debating and discussion is fine, we will not tolerate rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts. Our decision is final in these matters."

Ivanx, if you can't post in a respectful, civil manner then don't post at all. And this isn't the only example of behaving in this manner in this thread.

:policeman:

Consider this a warning.
 
Sorry boss. Just telling it like it is.

At least it seemed to have worked and Adbear understood that he was in the wrong. No problem there.
 
Here is a news story I thought it was worth a share. If what they are doing starts growing there may be a change in this war.

Last week's CES was supposed to be an opportunity for the fledgling HD DVD to prove itself, but outside circumstances led to it being more of a death knell for the format, and now player prices are less than half of their respective pre-holiday MSRPs.

On Amazon, Toshiba's HD-A3 player is now priced at under $135, a new non-sale low. The A3 is Toshiba's current low-end model and does not offer full 1080p high definition output (its maximum is 1080i).

Toshiba's HD-A30, its least expensive device to offer 1080p playback, now has a suggested retail price of around $200. Before CES, it was $400, and at retailers like Amazon and Sam's Club, the price has dipped even lower, to around $180.

Just one day before much of the electronics community headed down for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Warner Bros announced it was ditching HD DVD in support of backing Blu-ray exclusively. Sister companies HBO and New Line followed suit shortly thereafter.

At CES, the HD DVD booth sat meekly behind a glorious Blu-ray booth and garnered very little attention. Nearly every company with Blu-ray ties snuck in some way to slam HD DVD, while those connected to the failing format tried to get by without commenting on the format war. This could be the start of a slew of "fire sales", marking the beginning of the end for the unfortunate format.

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35586/97/
 
If they think they can compete on price they only have to look at the year 2007 to see how that plays out. What, the 99 dollar player wasn't cheap enough? Yea, people will snap up these players, but not for HD DVD playback. They're snapping them up for good upconverting DVD playback. That's not helping the cause for either format. It's just prolonging HD adoption.
 
I see so the real issue is that no one wants either format as they are happy with SD's then. Point well taken.
 
That's not 100% accurate but close enough. I think people would accept HD discs if there were one format to choose from...a clear successor to the DVD, if you will. But for that to happen you need 100% studio coverage for a single format and prices of both players AND the movies to be reasonable. Right now we have niche pricing. It's not as bad as laser disc prices back before DVD, but, it's certainly not as cheap as it could be. Consumers are waiting it out to see what happens. They want one format to dominate and they want cheaper prices. In the meantime, they have a huge library of DVDs and cheap players with the promise of improving quality of that investment to "near HD levels" is enticing. Why spend a fortune on HD discs when upscaling looks "good enough"? I've said it before and I'll say it again...the format war is only the beginning of the real war. The real war is convincing consumers that HD in whatever format is beneficial to them. The studios don't believe purchases of new movies are enough. They feel that consumers should be rebuying older titles on HD in order for them to profit on HD. That's not going to happen with consumer's current line of thought. Sure, they can get a cheap player now and upscale their DVDs. And they might even start buying new titles in the HD format they chose to buy as an upscaling DVD player, but, this isn't what the studios are after. And I think they're kidding themselves if they believe a protracted format war is good for anyone...
 
I believe that what SamuriHL is saying reflects what I've been thinking all along: having one format leading the market will lower the prices due to it being more widespread. However, when Sony had PS2 as the leading console before next gen stuff came around it didn't reflect so well on how often they cut the price of it, so you never know...:disagree:
 
We'll see. If they want to move people to HD they're going to have to cut costs else people will just not adopt it. When all that inventory is sitting on shelves unsold, then prices are going to get cut either by the retailers or the mfg's themselves. Retailers won't allow merchandise to just sit around. Hence the current fire sale on HD DVD products.
 
It'll be interesting to see how this goes. I think even after the majority of people have HDM players, there will be a decent percentage wanting DVD's. Partly to be compatible with older players they own and also because the format is more open (not legally, but it is nonetheless). Slysoft is doing a great job supporting the HDM formats, but they may always be a lot more trouble to copy, convert, etc...
 
Bigger Picture...

Sometimes I think that we get a bit too close to the BluRay vs. HD DVD debate and forget the bigger picture that even if there is a winner, there is no guarantee that either format will succeed.

There are currently CE manufacturers that are actually working on plug in memory type solutions (think USB Flash Drive for a TV with built-in decoders). Flash and Mini-HD prices continue to drop where it soon will be pratical to distribute movies on these mediums as well. Bandwidth to the home continues to grow and improve as well.

In the end, even if Sony wins, you have to wonder if this will just be another Mini-Disc type product. Neat for some, but effectively un-used by the masses.

For those that complain about Sony and their over-reaching protections and anti-consumer "features", I encourage you to stand up and speak with your wallet. At the very least, don't buy titles that have BD+ on them to send a message that extra DRM doesn't pay.

I fear in the end with Sony being a major supporter all of the extra protections on current DVDs what horrible stuff they'll do on top of BD+ (just what we all need, BD+, bad sectors, non-valid title-sets or equivlant, etc.)
 
I wrote this reply yesterday, but lost it cause my net cut out. So I'm just reproducing what I wanted to say, and may not include more recent posts (I haven't yet read) in this thread. :)
ivanX said:
So what region would you like to be? I'm not sure what you mean...
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You clearly did not understand what I said, could someone please explain what I said to ivanX?

This is what I said:
Yeah? So howcome two years after DVD was released, I heard fellow Aussies call into the local radio stations to ask why we're "Region 5"? (that's NOT a typo).

It is true, it is not a typo.
1.1 and 2.0 add extra features which are always optional. You can still watch the movie on the disc, can't you?
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No, they add previously unavailable features that have always been mandatory for hd-dvd.
I'm sure people who bought PS3s won't complain about that. Given a choice I'd rather pay less than more...
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Yes they will; the same caller all those years ago who wanted to know why we were "Region 5" was told by an official spokesman for the format that he could import a player of a different region if he wanted to.
I didn't say anything about Australia. I meant in general, so my statement was correct.
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No, you see Sony doesn't allow their console to be exported even to end users; and they drove lik-sang out of business defending this "right" - thus they forcefully ensured that the PS3 was not generally available in 2006.
Adbear said:
I make no apologies over anything I've said in this thread, so don't expect 1 over this, the European PS3 was different to the original US PS3 and contained different hardware inside so therefore it wasn't the same as the original US model and therefore came out last year.
I'm not going to bother to answer anymore as it's become obvious you have a very narrow view and if someone's view doesn't fit with yours then it doesn't seem to count
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Well written reply :agree:
ivanX said:
Sorry boss. Just telling it like it is.

At least it seemed to have worked and Adbear understood that he was in the wrong. No problem there.
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No he was not in the wrong. He expressed his valid feelings and opinions on this issue.
 
Aractus said:
No, they add previously unavailable features that have always been mandatory for hd-dvd.
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Can you see on 1.0 players the movie from 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 titles? yes, you can. Do you buy the movie for the extras? No, you don't, you buy it for the movie.

No, you see Sony doesn't allow their console to be exported even to end users; and they drove lik-sang out of business defending this "right" - thus they forcefully ensured that the PS3 was not generally available in 2006.
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This in no way changes the fact that PS3 was available in 2006. You are just splitting hairs.
 
ivanX said:
Can you see on 1.0 players the movie from 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 titles? yes, you can. Do you buy the movie for the extras? No, you don't, you buy it for the movie.
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Don't presume to dictate to me what I buy a movie for.
This in no way changes the fact that PS3 was available in 2006. You are just splitting hairs.
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It.was.not.available. I couldn't buy one, Europeans couldn't buy one - that's not splitting hairs, it's reality. Stop forcing your opinion.
 
Aractus said:
Don't presume to dictate to me what I buy a movie for.
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Just think of it as movie without any extras on the disc. Probably those people who got a Blu-ray player which is 1.0 (and not PS3) are the same people who got laser discs. There were always risks, whether you are aware of them or not.

It.was.not.available. I couldn't buy one, Europeans couldn't buy one - that's not splitting hairs, it's reality. Stop forcing your opinion.
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Just because it was not available to you or Europeans it does not mean that it was not available even in the smallest quantity to the smallest audience. Though I don't count Japan and USA as small audiences and they've sold hundreds of thousands.
 
ivanX said:
Just think of it as movie without any extras on the disc. Probably those people who got a Blu-ray player which is 1.0 (and not PS3) are the same people who got laser discs. There were always risks, whether you are aware of them or not.
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How is it you ignored the most important point I raised? Anyway this is a mute point; but if I owned a BD 1.0/1.1 player that was incompatible with certain special features on new discs, then I would feel cheated. Come to think of it, I'd feel cheated if the player had a region lock on it.
Just because it was not available to you or Europeans it does not mean that it was not available even in the smallest quantity to the smallest audience. Though I don't count Japan and USA as small audiences and they've sold hundreds of thousands.
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It was not generally available in 2006, full stop. End of discussion. There are over 6.6 billion people in the world, and the USA+Canada+Japan equals only about 462 million people - that's less then ONE continent. The world has SEVEN continents. Europe alone holds 710 million people. Don't presume to tell me that something available to 1/14th of the world's population is "generally available". Sony went to great lengths to ensure the PS3 was not generally available.
 
Aractus said:
How is it you ignored the most important point I raised? Anyway this is a mute point; but if I owned a BD 1.0/1.1 player that was incompatible with certain special features on new discs, then I would feel cheated. Come to think of it, I'd feel cheated if the player had a region lock on it.
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Then millions of players are cheated in the world because their DVD player (be it stand-alone or the one in your PC) because the vast majority if not all of them are region-locked.

It was not generally available in 2006, full stop. End of discussion. There are over 6.6 billion people in the world, and the USA+Canada+Japan equals only about 462 million people - that's less then ONE continent. The world has SEVEN continents. Europe alone holds 710 million people. Don't presume to tell me that something available to 1/14th of the world's population is "generally available". Sony went to great lengths to ensure the PS3 was not generally available.
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I never said "generally available". I said that it was available. Even if it is only to 462 million people. The main point is that it was available.
 
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