Ah, I didn't know that. Thanks! I'll try that when I get home.
If I can find a way to get my HD-DVD films onto a hard drive, I'd feel a hell of a lot better about being on the losing side of the Format War!
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360 HD-DVD Owners - Whoops
- Thread starter Shacklebolt
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Ah, I didn't know that. Thanks! I'll try that when I get home.
If I can find a way to get my HD-DVD films onto a hard drive, I'd feel a hell of a lot better about being on the losing side of the Format War!
I don't regret my HD-DVD purchase because at the end of the day it will still play the disc I got for it and thats all that matters.....All of my HD purchases will now be blu-Ray(majority of my HD collection is BR anyway)
I'm sure all those titles that are being released for HD-DVD will make their appearance on BR soon enough....Universal is already BR.
Bless
I'm sure all those titles that are being released for HD-DVD will make their appearance on BR soon enough....Universal is already BR.
Bless
So what did it come down to? Why did companies shift sides? I assume it came down to money? Or companies saw better potential for BR?
I'm too lazy to look up and read articles, so thanks guys.
There were more Playstation 3's on the market than there were HD-DVD and Blu-ray players combined.
Thus, there were much more rentals of Blu-ray, so Blockbuster stopped carrying them, which hurt HD-DVD more. Blu-ray titles were outselling HD-DVD titles considerably...
But it was still pretty close until the day Warner switched, which completely reversed the tide. With like 70% of the major studios on Blu-ray's side, Wal-mart decided to stop carrying HD-DVD and the rest is history.
And in 5 years time when whatever format (digital distribution or otherwise) is what really takes off - then it all truly will be history
And in 5 years time when whatever format (digital distribution or otherwise) is what really takes off - then it all truly will be history
You're really pushing digital distributiuon. I don't think "digital distribution" of movies will really take off for maybe another 10 years. There are too many limiting factors which I don't see being easily overcome in the next 5 years.
I agree, I think 10 years is being optimistic on Digital Distribution taking off to the masses. 5 years is a pipe dream.
Not really... I did post
As much as I'm an early adopter of all formats and hardware.... I just never bought into HD-DVD or Blu Ray being the next big thing. I still bought both, but your talking to the person who bought Laserdisc, MiniDisc, Philips DCC, Philips CDi, Video CD, SACD, DVD Audio....... I've grown accustomed to having a feeling about what will take off in mainstream and what won't. Whilst I do see Blu Ray having a good opportunity with PS3, I think it's hideous price difference and cost over DVD (as I mentioned earlier new titles costing twice the price from their DVD brethren) and other requirements I just don't feel in my heart its really going to be the next big thing. I feel its just the next 'transitionary thing'...
My stance hasn't changed no matter what.
I don't think DD will be here anytime soon or H-DVD(?) so Blu-ray will be the HD standard for sometime. Prices will drop fast and I think BR & DD can actually co-exsist.
Bless
Bless
Most of my HD movies are Blu-Ray, but initially I did go for the 360 HD-DVD drive (only actually have 3 HD-DVD movies). If I don't really want to keep the HD-DVD drive hooked up just to play those 3 movies I might just hook it up to my Mac Pro at desk-level, as an easily accessible DVD drive.
You think so?
Ireland is probably well behind in broadband infrastructure & adoption, and yet I (and some of my friends) have downloaded HD movie rentals. Just a few years back, the fastest residential line you could get here was 512Kb, now I've a cheap 7Mb line with no contention (fast & reliable enough for 720p HD streaming), with 12Mb lines being offered later this year or early next.
When ISPs realise the massive demand for bandwidth that digital distribution will create, they'll be falling over each other to provide it. On the provider end, companies like Cisco and Akamai will be pushing this hard.
I'd be astonished if digital HD movie distribution wasn't making serious inroads within 3 years.
The problem with this is that the 'HD' downloads currently available are poor relatives to the quality of Blu-Ray (and HD-DVD) movies simply because the HD movies on Blu-Ray/HD-DVD are more or less uncompromised, they occupy anything up to the full 30-50GB capacity of the disc. For HD downloads, although the resolution is indeed HD, the movies tend to be very heavily compressed in order to bring the file size down to 5-10GB. I downloaded 'The Matrix' in HD via my Xbox 360 and to be honest I didn't feel it was very good quality compared with the Blu-ray/HD-DVD movies I have watched.
Plus, when you can buy a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD for about £15 which might store a 20-50GB movie, how much would it cost to store this 20-50GB on a hard drive? Not to mention the fact you would probably want to have this hard drive backed up in case of failure, thus doubling the cost.
Until download speeds are WAY faster than they are now, and hard disk storage is vastly cheaper and more capacious, then I think 'True' HD downloads are a long way off. 7GB 'HD' movie downloads as they are at the moment just don't cut it as far as I'm concerned due to the high level of compression and noticeable drop in visual quality.
Fair points NATO.
I tried Xbox Live downloads as well, and was more than satisfied with them. Perhaps it because my TV is "just" 37" and 720p - if I had a big 1080p screen I might be a bit less happy.
Still, I reckon 1080p owners are a relatively small segment still, so if the HD download market does take off, it's likely to target 720p for now. By the time 1080p televisions have a critical market share, download speeds and local storage sizes will have increased too.
So for me at least, 6-7GB full length HD movies are fine, meaning with the 1TB RAID I just bought I'll be able to store over 130-160 movies, and have them available on demand. (Or, with mirroring, 65-80). Thus, storage cost per movie is just 1.50 to 3 euros, depending on whether it's backed up or not.
I tried Xbox Live downloads as well, and was more than satisfied with them. Perhaps it because my TV is "just" 37" and 720p - if I had a big 1080p screen I might be a bit less happy.
Still, I reckon 1080p owners are a relatively small segment still, so if the HD download market does take off, it's likely to target 720p for now. By the time 1080p televisions have a critical market share, download speeds and local storage sizes will have increased too.
So for me at least, 6-7GB full length HD movies are fine, meaning with the 1TB RAID I just bought I'll be able to store over 130-160 movies, and have them available on demand. (Or, with mirroring, 65-80). Thus, storage cost per movie is just 1.50 to 3 euros, depending on whether it's backed up or not.
Especially here in Ireland and Europe.
The vast majority of sets being sold here are still 720p/1080i and as there are not exactly a lot of channels for HD content here, most people are still viewing SD signals on both 720 & 1080p sets.
I think most ordinary folk would be hard pushed to see the difference between a 720p movie and a 1080p movie.
I know I've downloaded trailers from the PSN store in both 720p and 1080p (such as 30 days of night and resident evil : extinction) formats and I honestly could barely tell the difference on a set which supports 1080p. It really was negligable, but both were far better picture than SD picture.
I think therefore most ordinary folk would be more than happy with 720p. Remember 'the best' quality is not necessarily what most folk want. If that was true the whole way we look at media these days would be completely different.
The problem is, would "ordinary folk" want to pay for extra external storage? Would they even know what RAID is (or not think it's just a bug spray)? You have to remember, "ordinary people" are not as tech inclined as we are.
How would they react to now having to plan, far in advance, on renting a movie? No more instant gratification like you would get by going to a rental store or buying a movie, spur of the moment.
Currently, when someone's dvd player dies, they can easily buy another one. If a hard drive dies, you've suddenly lost your entire movie collection. How many "ordinary folk" would know about backup, be willing to pay extra to be able to backup, be diligent enough to backup? Digital copies are not as stable as physical media and not as "simple to use and understand." If you think in terms of "ordinary people," the masses will have a problem with this.
This also would kill the "used cd/movie/game" secondary market. You'll be paying more and getting less. Would ordinary people stand for that? ...Maybe, in the long run. Physical media will most likely go away eventually....but not for a long, long time. Not until there are nearly instant downloads at half the cost of what we are paying now. Digital distribution is too slow and too expensive for consumers right now.
How would they react to now having to plan, far in advance, on renting a movie? No more instant gratification like you would get by going to a rental store or buying a movie, spur of the moment.
Currently, when someone's dvd player dies, they can easily buy another one. If a hard drive dies, you've suddenly lost your entire movie collection. How many "ordinary folk" would know about backup, be willing to pay extra to be able to backup, be diligent enough to backup? Digital copies are not as stable as physical media and not as "simple to use and understand." If you think in terms of "ordinary people," the masses will have a problem with this.
This also would kill the "used cd/movie/game" secondary market. You'll be paying more and getting less. Would ordinary people stand for that? ...Maybe, in the long run. Physical media will most likely go away eventually....but not for a long, long time. Not until there are nearly instant downloads at half the cost of what we are paying now. Digital distribution is too slow and too expensive for consumers right now.
I wouldn't expect 'ordinary people' go out and setup a system as complex as this themselves - the only reason I'm doing it is because there aren't many adequate options out there.
I expect to see set-top boxes and home media servers become more and more common, cheaper, and easier to use as the electronics & content industries realise the demand for it. If they believe people will be more likely to "impulse buy" music & movies by clicking a button sitting on their couch; then they'll be all for it. Ultimately, money talks.
Convenience is key to that. The ability to have your entire music collection on hand, not just a small selection is what set the iPod apart from previous music players with tiny capacities, or too large to carry. Similarly, the convenience of being able to call up whichever movie you wish to see, or your favourite episode of Battlestar Galactica or Lost on a whim, without having to go down to the local store. Because it's easier, people will buy more. If people are willing to spend more, big business will follow.
By the way, I don't agree with you about digital media being less stable - CDs and DVDs have a finite lifespan; whereas digital media don't. Even though I'm careful with all my discs, I'm sick of them getting scratched and scuffed over time.
(Ultimately, all of this is probably just a stop-gap too - until we probably end up with a subscription on-demand service where you pay a monthly charge and pretty much every TV programme, movie and song is available on demand, streaming in real-time. No local storage necessary.)
No. That deal has been pending for close to a year. It's a completely separate division of Toshiba.
Despite what many people think, large corporations like Toshiba and Sony have individual SBUs (strategic business units) that largely operate independently of other groups within the corporation.
Toshiba's semiconductor division is a separate group (Electronic Devices & Components Group) than the HD DVD group (Digital Products Group).
Unfortunately, having individual SBUs also leads to segregation and hinders interoperability (I'm talking to you Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Pictures, Sony BMG, Sony Ericsson, etc).
Didn't you know they [HD-DVDs] all magically stop working now the format 'war' is over?
No regrets here, cheap HD-DVD. hurrah.
No regrets here, cheap HD-DVD. hurrah.
It doesn't matter if your HD DVD drive dies, by then BD burners should be cheap enough, then you ca nrip/burn your HD DVD movies to Blu-Ray. There is already a HOWTO on the internet, but BD burners are ridiculously expensive. I have seen HD DVD movies prices plummet at local retailers trying to clear stock before its too late. All things considered I be the Movie Studios will strongly consider NOT sending some of those scheduled releases to the production factory.