On The Media is produced by:
If you watch movies on DVD, you’re using an outdated technology. But no single high-definition disc has emerged as the replacement to the inferior DVD, mainly because of a battle between two competing formats: Sony’s Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD. Shane Buettner of Home Theater Magazine explains that Blu-ray may have won the war.
It should be noted that Microsoft did pick the HD-DVD format with the Xbox 360 console as a $180 add-on device to the $280-$450 console itself. I don't have numbers on the install base of the add-on with Xbox 360's, but the Xbox 360 console itself has a significant install base over the PS3.
I listened to this segment with interest as I've been watching this battle. I don't care which format wins, I bought an HD-DVD player in December because they were so cheap and I am happy to also buy a Bluray player as well.
But what was left out of the report is WHY the movie studios are switching to Bluray. Is it because of the cost of developing for both HD disc standards?
Then today I saw this on Gizmodo...
http://gizmodo.com/344680/the-real-reason-warner-went-blu+ray
I wonder if it is true.
I've been a Blu-Ray fan from the beginning. They hold more data without the triple layer and that should help the price of the discs themselves. Whether Warner was bought out doesn't interest me. People tend to forget that it's business. These companies aren't advancing and putting new products on the market so they can look cool. Money is the bottom line and hopefully Blu-Ray is here to stay.
Bill Gates has said that the door is not closed on 3rd party manufacturers who may want to make a Blu-Ray add on for the XBox 360. If this were to occur then the last salvo may have been fired.
I have a huge collection of HD DVD and I was disappointed to hear that the major studios are going to release on Blu ray. I have a high definition television and I was skeptical to buy HD DVD, but as time went on I thought that blu ray would not make it because of its high price, just like Beta vs. VHS.
I have to agree with Bill Gates (for once) sooner or later we are going to get everything from the internet so all this argument over blu ray HD DVD isn’t worth it.
Please keep your comments relevant to this entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments on On the Media are moderated. On the Media reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the onthemedia.org Comment Guidelines before posting.
Back to Episode
