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Toshiba To Stop HD DVD Player Production
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Perhaps when the PS3's games catalogue doesn't suck quite as badly you may have an argument.
Of course, I expect the console companies will be looking at their next gen machines by then anyway and, once again, it'll be a free for all.
I hope I can get Battlestar Galactica Season one and Star Trek: TOS Season 1 for a song. Screw the "war". I'm not dropping my HD DVD player. It can sit along side a BR player whenever the damn format gets below the "magic" $200 price point. Right now the cheapest BR player is around $300 which is too much. I got my HD DVD player last fall for $160.
I'm more then willing to stock up on HD DVD disks while BR gets its crap sorted out....and when I say crap I mean the interactive features that most BR players can't support yet because they can't connect to the net. Way to back an unfinished spec guys....
Anyways. I'm glad this is over one way or another. Would have rather have had HD DVD win. I have some friends who live in Japan who could have gone on an Anime shopping spree for me. Since HD DVD is region free and BR is not....would have been nice. *shrugs*
I'm sure all of you HD-DVD fans will appreciate that HD-DVD will remain region free to the very end, being that the DVD Forum will now never get the chance to add Region Coding:
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=17197
Here's the specifics on Blu-Ray region coding:
link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc
"Blu-ray discs may be encoded with a region code, intended to restrict the area of the world in which they can be played; similar in principle to the DVD region codes, although the used geographical regions differ. Blu-ray players sold in a certain region should only be able to play discs encoded for that region. The purpose of this system is to allow motion picture studios to control the various aspects of a release (including content, date, and, in particular, price) according to the region. Discs may also be produced without region coding, so they can be played on all devices."
As for the BD 2.0 functionality, I guess those 500,000 folks that purchased early standalone players are out of luck for interactivity, but at least they will be able to play new Blu-Ray content indefinitely.
Something that HD-DVD will quite soon lack.
offtopic:
you gotta love it how in the US every channel is broadcasting in HDTV while in central europe sat1/pro7 just _shut down_ their HD TV broadcasts "at least until 2010" "because of the lack of viewers" .. which now means there is a _single_ free german HD-TV channel left ... the other 2-3 are pay per view
for which you need a 300-400 euro receiver to get that single free channel
ontopic: thank goodness a format finally one ... sadly not both failed because i would have really appreciated that to finally teach the industry a lesson ... no we only have to wait until drives actually get cheaper for watching the stuff on the computer (i'm not going to buy a HD TV just for movies)
hi-def matrix trilogy currently only available on hd-dvd...
Hmmn, Blu-Ray Matrix...ok, will be nice.
The 2nd and 3rd...Meh.
Like many another franchise, by the time it gets to the Threequel (i.e Flogging a Dead Horse time), it severely undermines what is often a good first movie...e.g. Pirates...Shreck...Matrix...
etc.
Still, at least we now have A HD format on disc, so that means no more shilly-shallying about.
As to whether Blu-Ray is the deseving victor, well, that's for us all to decide, I guess.
Or, I bought a PS3 with a free Blu-ray player, or a Blu-Ray player with a free games console...
Anyway, if the dust settles soon, than I'm sure BR players will drop in price, as DVD players did.
but I have to admit, the Region encoding bit is the only part that I don't really like, although it seems as with DVD players, there will be region free(unlocked) players available.
PS Anyone know of a region unlock code/hack for a European PS3???
Don't get me started
After moving from one region code to another, I can only say one thing: This must be one of the most consumer unfriendly technology ever. I've started to rip all my region 2 DVD to H.264, because it's the only way to ensure I can watch all the content I bought after my region encoded computer dies (I don't want to risk a DVD firmware upgrade). There's a good chance I will never buy a region 4 coded DVD.
Now, it appears that HD DVD "lost the war", but that doesn't necessarily mean that Blue Ray is winning the war. Look at the CD sales and music downloads... with increased network bandwidth HD movie content is going the same way.
I would think that Blue Ray or other disc formats are becoming redundant in the near/medium future.
In the UK we have:
Sky Movies HD
Sky Sports HD
Sky one HD
Sky Arts HD
Nat Geo HD
History Channel HD
Discovery HD
BBC HD
Channel 4 HD
Sky Box Office HD (Pay per view)
ITV HD is rumoured
Unfortunately, most of it's crap unless your into rugby and sports. I'm glad Bluray won seeing as I have a PS3 but it is good that people can actually start buying PS3's now since the war is over! (esp as it's the only profile 2.0 player out there...)
Agree completely. The network is the winner. Don't go building that Blu-Ray library just yet. They'll wind up in a box in the attic next to your LaserDiscs all too soon.
but more Microsoft
Maybe so, but end-result for consumers is the same
IIRC, all BD-releases have been region-free as well.
Only because Toshiba tried to desperately sell as many players as possible with firesales. Those prices were unhealthy and not viable in the long run. If we exclude those sales, the prices were more or less the same.
Now I'm not talking about other countries, but there's just now way in hell that the US broadband infrastructure could handle widespread regular downloading of 20GB files. Telecoms oversell their bandwidth to such a huge degree, why do you think they make such a huge deal of like the top 1% of their customers using bittorrent and downloading loads of data. Some are even starting to disrupt all P2P and bittorent data or at least slowing them to a crawl.
I'd be willing to bet that with some cable and DSL ISPs in this country, that if you downloaded just three 20GB 1080P movie files that they'd send you a letter or something. Why do you think all the news is about ISPs starting to explore "tiered services"... The era of "unlimited" internet will be over and I'd wager bandwidth caps for the average monthly service will be around 50GB or less. As soon as a significant amount of users start using this level of data transfer, they'll start making big changes designed to choke the pipe.
The only thing that might change this will be wide spread roll out of fiber-to-the-home and so far only Verizon has even started offering service in very limited areas. We're about 5 years behind western Europe and about 10 years behind Asia. It's really quite pathetic. There is NO competition in this country for internet service because of the stupid de-regulation of cable and DSL service that the stupid ass republicans did. For people outside the USA it probably sounds foreign to hear that most of our population has a choice between ONE cable provider and ONE DSL provider. And that's if you are lucky enough to live close enough for DSL service which many are not. Many huge areas can't even get either and are relegated to satellite unless they are lucky enough to have a (WISP) terrestrial wireless ISP.
We are in dire need of real broadband competition and a national broadband plan. I hope the 700mhz auction can do something to help this.
or Movies, or Documentaries, or Drama (what else is there?). It's actually not a bad range we get offered here in the UK.
I'm glad that the format war is nearly over. At last, consumers will not be lost in a confusopoly. With one format dominant, the demand for and thus price of players will drop, the take up of HD TV's will increase.
As for downloads being the ultimate winner - forget it. A single good quality movie download would, on its own, kill most peoples bandwidth allowance or breach their fair usage policy.
A BR disk, with overnight delivery, offers better bandwidth than most ADSL connections in the UK. People want a 'thing' - something to put on a shelf, something they can share, can take to a friends house. Downloads for music are different, 79p here or there with a few meg download, who cares But a top quality HD movie is many gigs - and that's not going to be delivered via the net for some time here.
Doug
Collusion by the studios, payola and the death of technology
Will all the record labels get together now and release one new HD audio format now? Will the RIAA be in charge of the releasing of such music?
probably will happen after seeing the studios collude.
This Blu-Ray alliance of all studios into one, is the most corrupt form of collusion since the 1948 Paramount Decree where studios were sued by the US government for manipulating the exhibition market.
This is the same thing but in the home video market now.
You wont see any signs of corruption now, but mark this post when HD-DVD is finally announced (god forbid) that they are done.
Watch Sony and the studios run the greed machine.
Forget trying to be an independent releasing films on Blu-Ray, they will charge an arm and leg just to license the logo now.
Toshiba had an unfair fight , if they were fighting an electronic maker NOT the actual studios, they would beat Blu-Ray hands down.
I know there are electronic makers in the Blu-Ray alliance like TDK, Panasonic, etc.
but
TDK/Panasonic is like the Island of Tongo being named as part of the US Coalition on the War in Iraq.
They are just there to sell the war. Its all US funded.
This is all about THE STUDIOS vs. TOSHIBA. trust me.
The studios are going to collude on prices, on Digital Rights Management and on the ENTIRE market . Regions on a $34.99 Blu Ray disc is the first major sign that they are in it for the money, first, second and third.
While of course, Toshiba/HD-DVD is also in it for the money, Region free coding, HDI interface, the amazing features of its discs, are all pro consumer and most importantly for the technology.
Blu-Ray glitches, loading erros, times to load, obsolete players after 1 year on the market, discs that have DRM up the wazoo, ARE clear sign they don't care about the technology of HD media.
COMPETITION IS GOOD, it thrives the technology forward (see airline industry and the pricing, big screen TV and the advancement of size and price, see hard drives, without competition, Maxtor would still be at 120GB for $300.)
Competition is also good for price points and offers. You wont see Blu-Ray, 2 for 1 deals when HD DVD leaves. it will be back to the days of CDs at $18.99 min.
Lack of educated consumers is the saddest part.
Average Joe didnt care to educate themselves that HD DVD is actually a better "CAR" than the glossy "Sony SUV" which costs more to own and run for doing the same thing.
They got sold on marketing and on the horrific Playstation 3 which still cannot produce 1 great title much less a graphic card that makes objects look real.
Toshiba had an unfair fight.
HD-DVD is the better format for the technology and for the consumer.
I will never support Blu-Ray.
I suggest you keep buying HD DVD media, and download HD movies not on HD DVD via XBOX live or similar.
Do not support Blu-Ray.
Blu-Ray payola to various retailers, companies and such to shut down or support Blu-Ray only is disgusting and goes against the american way.
If the studios were not in any camp, HD-DVD would of been the hands down winner but as always --- everyone has a price.
do you?
Do NOT sell out to Blu-Ray.
Will all the record labels get together now and release one new HD audio format now? Will the RIAA be in charge of the releasing of such music?
probably will happen after seeing the studios collude.
This Blu-Ray alliance of all studios into one, is the most corrupt form of collusion since the 1948 Paramount Decree where studios were sued by the US government for manipulating the exhibition market.
This is the same thing but in the home video market now.
You wont see any signs of corruption now, but mark this post when HD-DVD is finally announced (god forbid) that they are done.
Watch Sony and the studios run the greed machine.
Forget trying to be an independent releasing films on Blu-Ray, they will charge an arm and leg just to license the logo now.
Toshiba had an unfair fight , if they were fighting an electronic maker NOT the actual studios, they would beat Blu-Ray hands down.
I know there are electronic makers in the Blu-Ray alliance like TDK, Panasonic, etc.
but
TDK/Panasonic is like the Island of Tongo being named as part of the US Coalition on the War in Iraq.
They are just there to sell the war. Its all US funded.
This is all about THE STUDIOS vs. TOSHIBA. trust me.
The studios are going to collude on prices, on Digital Rights Management and on the ENTIRE market . Regions on a $34.99 Blu Ray disc is the first major sign that they are in it for the money, first, second and third.
While of course, Toshiba/HD-DVD is also in it for the money, Region free coding, HDI interface, the amazing features of its discs, are all pro consumer and most importantly for the technology.
Blu-Ray glitches, loading erros, times to load, obsolete players after 1 year on the market, discs that have DRM up the wazoo, ARE clear sign they don't care about the technology of HD media.
COMPETITION IS GOOD, it thrives the technology forward (see airline industry and the pricing, big screen TV and the advancement of size and price, see hard drives, without competition, Maxtor would still be at 120GB for $300.)
Competition is also good for price points and offers. You wont see Blu-Ray, 2 for 1 deals when HD DVD leaves. it will be back to the days of CDs at $18.99 min.
Lack of educated consumers is the saddest part.
Average Joe didnt care to educate themselves that HD DVD is actually a better "CAR" than the glossy "Sony SUV" which costs more to own and run for doing the same thing.
They got sold on marketing and on the horrific Playstation 3 which still cannot produce 1 great title much less a graphic card that makes objects look real.
Toshiba had an unfair fight.
HD-DVD is the better format for the technology and for the consumer.
I will never support Blu-Ray.
I suggest you keep buying HD DVD media, and download HD movies not on HD DVD via XBOX live or similar.
Do not support Blu-Ray.
Blu-Ray payola to various retailers, companies and such to shut down or support Blu-Ray only is disgusting and goes against the american way.
If the studios were not in any camp, HD-DVD would of been the hands down winner but as always --- everyone has a price.
do you?
Do NOT sell out to Blu-Ray.
As soon as Lord of the Rings is out for Blu Ray, I'll be buying a player. Or hopefully there will be a 30" iMac out by that time.
I've pushed probably near 300-400GB of data back and forth using Verizon FIOS in the past 2 1/2 months or so.
They've never once called me or anything else about my bandwidth usage.
They've never once called me or anything else about my bandwidth usage.
All the reviews I have ever read (that´s been a few, believe me) on different sources stated that both systems were comparable from a technical point of view. None of the reviewers were able to say which one was better.
The prices are high for just one reason: only a few high-end brands were making HD players. No reason for others to make them until the war was over. Now you are going to see how really cheap players appear in the market (the same way you can get top-of-the-line regular DVD players very expensive, but also the cheap version of it. I paid less than $40 for mine, but I could have gone for a $200 one).
Originally Studios supported both formats: some of them were with BD, some with HDDVD and some with both. With time, they switched to one of them as they did in the past with VHS versus BetaMax. Would you think the same way if they had moved to HDDVD?.
The aggresive Toshiba prices were due, as someone already pointed out, to the fact that they knew they were losing. If your stuff does not sell, reduce the price. It was artificially low pricing, non sustainable. Again, I still remember CD-R and DVD-R being sold for $5 a piece. And again, small companies entered the market and lowered the prices due to competition. The exact same thing is going to happen now. I don´t know why you are so pissed.
Too late - it's all but a done deal.
Bear this in mind though, In order for ANY HD disc format to takeoff, the players have to be cheap and the discs have to be a reasonable cost and there has to be lots of titles available. If Sony don't make this happen then BR will be a dead format anyway regardless of whether there is any competition or not.