Sony blinks in high-def battle

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Capitalist — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 01:05:28 GMT

no one mentioned that the HD-DVD format will play the old DVD's as well. That is a huge advantage. The big advantage of bluray is the considerably larger storage capacity. However, right now there isn't any use for this capacity. The movie companies aren't putting that many extras on the DVD's. There might be use for the extra storage for video games in the future and maybe studios will figure out a way to create interactive movies that could use the extra storage. Right now, the cheaper price and backward compatability means HD-DVD will win this holiday season.

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Dan W — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:28:38 GMT

I'm still waiting to see how this battle plays out, but my money is on HDDVD coming out on top. Sony has a history of making expensive, proprietary formats which trap a small segment of consumers, but never attain broad market appeal. They've only had one or two "successes" with their proprietary formats, the largest of which is probably MemoryStick, and that's only due to the popularity of their digicams, otherwise the MS flash format would bite the big one.

Sony, listen up: tightly-held proprietary formats don't win in the long run. Make high-quality products that use open storage formats, and you will succeed.

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Brian — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:22:35 GMT

I bought a PS3 as a game system and a BD player. I believe BD is a better format based only on the capacity. In truth, it doesn't matter to me. If blu-ray dies, I still have a gaming system, not an obsolete piece of hardware.

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

superdave — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:19:24 GMT

I don't know if I want to see some porno's in that high of a quality. Some of those women are beat up and better at 50/50. Good looking at 50 miles an hour or 50 feet away.

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Alphaxy — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:09:36 GMT

I think "Barnum....." has it right about the porn industry, that's the elephant in the corner. That industry by itself has the ability to set the standard. But didn't the HD guys already turn their backs on the porn industry? Bad move....

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Daniel E — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:24:38 GMT

The consumer only loses if you you have to be the one to run out and get the latest "in-thing" right when it comes out. For now, my cheaper DVD's on my much cheaper DVD player are just fine for me. When they settle on a standard, and when I decide to upgrade all of my components, I will get the better TV and then the winner of this "war".

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

K Snyder — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:32:41 GMT

The the porno industry has already endorsed hd dvd. Remember what happened to beta!

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Robin S — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:20:26 GMT

Blu-Ray or HD-DVD that is the question: When Video stores or retail outlets side with one Format product instead of offering a choice of both then they are in my opinion cutting one of their legs out from under them. This makes consumers fill that big business is telling them they must buy their idea of what's right or wrong and I believe we the consumer should have the right to pick what every format we want and the stores should sale both. It only makes since that if you offer both then your business will make more money and customers will be happy they get a choice.

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Karen Smith — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 15:45:34 GMT

now that movie prices are dropping to 7 dollars for a lot of semi-old titles why should we spend more money to buy movies priced at 40 dollars? Plus I have a lot of movies and couple of dvd players.

the cost of making the discs DVD or blue ray or hd dvd is the same so why are they charging so much for them? They are stealing our decreasing paychecks.

I understand the dollar has lost 50 percent of it's value since 2002. That is a hugh drop in just 5 years. I need to save even more money for retirement so why pay more for HD DVD.

They did a test study and with a 52 inch HD TV no one could tell a HD DVD movie from a DVD movie. So why pay for something that makes no difference.

re: Sony blinks in high-def battle

Cory — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:41:57 GMT

VHS/BETA was a different argument.

Beta was a format that offered really high quality, at a higher price. It didn't lose quality the more you played it, and the more made copies of it.

VHS was a cheaper format that broke down easier and lost quality every time you copied it.

That's one of the main reasons why VHS won out over Beta. Because Sony and other movie companies didn't want us to have a format that would allow for pirating (copying) at a high level. Beta was still the prevelant format in news rooms up until 5 years ago (digital) because it was a better quality format, and allowed for copying without losing anything. Make a copy of a copy of a VHS tape and see what you get. Make 20 copies off copies of a Beta format, and it'll look the same as the original.

The Blu-Ray/HD-DVD argument is something that has come up since the government didn't regulate what HD format they wanted companies to go with.

That's why there are 50 different types of TV's with HD, 720P, 1080i, 1080p. It was probably just a way to have the consumer electroics industry skew the facts and sell more TVs to people who can't figure out all the differences in what's out there.