[Golden Legacy]

The format war for the next-generation optical media has finally come to an end.

http://crave.cnet.co...tml?tag=bubbl_1
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/officia...at-war-is-over/
http://news.bbc.co.u...ess/7252172.stm

Toshiba, the central proponent for the HD-DVD media, has officially stated it will cease production of the format in a month. This leaves Blu-Ray, supported by Sony and the majority of movie studios, as the winner, and what we will now see in the coming months as the new and dominant high-definition optical media.

In short:

R.I.P. HD-DVD. You shall be missed.

[ZephyrAnalea]

So this means everyone will need to get new bluray players to replace dvd players.
Is there anyway to add bluray to laptops or 360s?

[Eugine]

Blu-ray was always the superior format ^^. Why would you miss HD DVD anyway? Yeah, it helped decrease software and hardware price, but honestly it was only a hindrance to high def adoption. Now my pops may well enter the high def realm...

Oh another of my prediction has come to past, next it is the PS3s dominance.

EDIT: Zephyr, Microsoft is still silent on the issue. It will have to create a blu-ray addon to stay competitive to the PS3 though.

[Saturos S.]

SonyMatsu****a (Panasonic)Warner BrosWalt Disney20th Century FoxBlockbusterNetflix

These guys are 75% of the market? No f'ing way. They're big I'll give you that, but 75% is too big.

Universal StudiosParamount PicturesDreamWorks AnimationIntelMicrosoftHP

Seeing as these guys will only make 25% of the dvds in that case. The numbers just don't seem to make sense. Universal/Paramount and Dreamworks have at least 30% of the film releases last year, well the significant ones.

[Caael]

I'm not paying more money for a blu ray 360. I think microsoft will stick with HD dvd until their next console, because who's going to go and buy a blu ray 360?

[Golden Legacy]

Caael, on Feb 19 2008, 05:17 PM, said:

I'm not paying more money for a blu ray 360. I think microsoft will stick with HD dvd until their next console, because who's going to go and buy a blu ray 360?

Which is why Sony has just received an incredible boost, the PS3 is a fantastic Blu-Ray player (the best on the market, and it will remain so for years to come). That said, Microsoft will probably cease production of the HD-DVD add-on for 360, and will likely create a new one for Blu-Ray.

I wonder how long it will take Blu-Ray players to penetrate the mass market, however?

[Sea of Time]

Wal-mart was the final blow for HD-DVD. Two days before Toshiba ceased marketing the HD-DVD, Wal-mart had decided to carry Blu-Ray over HD-DVD in stores around the world. For me, losing out on such a huge retailer was the last hit Toshiba needed to take.

[Laharl]

i'm sorry but movie wise, slightly better resolution does not significantlty improve a movie experience or justify paying £25 for those films you already have.

that said it was pretty obvious it would beat HD-DVD, though i'll be sticking with regular DVDs thank you very much

[Drizzy Drake]

I shal be sticking to my regular DVD's for a while also, but I shall make the slow move to Blu Ray. The good thing is, that unlike VHS, DVD's can still be played on a Blu Ray player.


Oh, and to anybody who doubted that Blu Ray would win(On here, or around the world)....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH YOU SUCK.



Excuse me.

[Caael]

Golden Legacy, on Feb 19 2008, 09:19 PM, said:

Which is why Sony has just received an incredible boost, the PS3 is a fantastic Blu-Ray player (the best on the market, and it will remain so for years to come). That said, Microsoft will probably cease production of the HD-DVD add-on for 360, and will likely create a new one for Blu-Ray.

I wonder how long it will take Blu-Ray players to penetrate the mass market, however?

I totally forgot that 360 doesnt have HD built in, it's only an add on. What's gonna happen to normal DVDs theN?

[Golden Legacy]

Nothing's going to happen to them - in fact, DVDs have become so popular and mainstream now it's going to take quite a few years before the high-definition format becomes the actual standard. Expect to see them around for a long time.

And yes, the 360 only has (had) HD-DVD as an add-on, so it never tied its success to the format wars. Microsoft could now just as easily release a Blu-Ray add-on for 360.

[Drizzy Drake]

And even with Blu Ray players, you can still play normal DVD's, atleast you can on the PS3, so I can see DVD lasting longer than VHS did when DVD came out.

[Toasty]

.eugine, on Feb 19 2008, 12:13 PM, said:

Blu-ray was always the superior format ^^. Why would you miss HD DVD anyway? Yeah, it helped decrease software and hardware price, but honestly it was only a hindrance to high def adoption. Now my pops may well enter the high def realm...

Oh another of my prediction has come to past, next it is the PS3s dominance.

EDIT: Zephyr, Microsoft is still silent on the issue. It will have to create a blu-ray addon to stay competitive to the PS3 though.

Blu-ray may hold more data, but the load times are HORRIBLE. Unless they've fixed that already. I don't really know. If they have, then yay. If they haven't, then I'm boycotting.

And contrary to popular belief, you DON'T need an HD-DVD or Blu-ray disc/player to have high-def movies. All you need is a good compression program, and a dvd player that can decode that codec. That, and a plain old dvd. Dual layer wouldn't hurt.

But I'm not very interested in blue-laser based discs. I'm FAR more interested in holographic optical disks capable of holding terrabytes of data.

[Golden Legacy]

Toasty, one step at a time.

Eugine is right, while HD-DVD and Blu-Ray both had strong technology, Blu-Ray was the more capable of the two formats (although not by much), as noted in its ability to hold many more gigabytes of data than HD-DVDs. The one thing that made me favor the HD-DVD format more was:

- Cheaper price (relatively)
- HD-DVDs, the discs themselves, are a little more durable than Blu-Ray. HD-DVDs, like ordinary DVDs, carry the information about 0.5mm deep into the surface, making it durable and allows it to play even if scratched up slightly. However, Blu-Ray discs carry data much closer to the surface, about 0.1mm - and that would make it more susceptible to data loss.

At any rate, this is all a moot point now. Blu-Ray technology is now the successor to the DVD, that's simply it. The question now is how soon Blu-Ray will penetrate the mass market.

[Sea of Time]

I think it'll be a while before the price drops on high-definition DVD players. When it drops below $250, that's when it will start to penetrate the mainstream in my mind.

[Caael]

Microsofts take on the matter:

Microsoft actually took the time to voice their opinions concerning the rumors HD-DVD's demise in a statement to tech blog Endgadget. They seemed rather nonchalant on the matter, stating the demise (or not) of HD-DVD wouldn't have "any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace." They went on to talk about how the 360 has the largest lineup of games on the market right now, and stated that "it is games that sell consoles." However, they also stated that "we will wait until we hear from Toshiba before announcing any specific plans around the Xbox 360 HD DVD player." The way the statement is worded, it sounds as if they have some sort of plan B in place that they are ready to institute upon HD-DVD's death. There's talk of an external Blu-ray drive, but I have my doubts about that one. Microsoft seems to be pushing for digital downloads above all else, and throwing their support behind Blu-ray would likely cloud their message.

[Someone Else]

Caael, on Feb 23 2008, 12:05 PM, said:

They seemed rather nonchalant on the matter, stating the demise (or not) of HD-DVD wouldn't have "any material impact on the Xbox 360 platform or our position in the marketplace." They went on to talk about how the 360 has the largest lineup of games on the market right now, and stated that "it is games that sell consoles."

It's true. I'm still doubting the PS3's success.

I'm personally just glad it's over and could care less over whether HD-DVD or Blu-Ray succeeds.

[Drizzy Drake]

The fall of HD-DVD will DEFINETLY have an impact on the 360. Before the next X-Box comes out, most everybody will have HD-TV's, and people wanting to buy a system won't buy a 360, because it won't have HiDef movie capability(Except for the 10 movies alreayd out for HD-DVD), and will therefore, go towards the PS3.

Yes the games matter, but if somebody lieks the lineups equally, they will tend to lean towards the PS3.

[Someone Else]

Everyone who wanted a 360 probably has one by now...

[Drizzy Drake]

Not Nessecarily, people are still buying PS2's, G-Cubes, and X-Box's.

[Caael]

Well PS2s yeah as they're waaay cheaper than PS3s and they still have new games coming out, but I find it hard to believe people still but GCs and Xboxs when you can play the games on the new consoles.

[Toasty]

Skidz, people still buy new PS2's. NOBODY still buys, or even sells GC's or Xbox's besides ebay whores. Nobody buys them new because you just can't find them new anymore, and only VERY few people, mainly people who have very little money, buy GC's or Xbox's

Golden Legacy, on Feb 21 2008, 09:43 PM, said:

Toasty, one step at a time.

Maybe, but we already have 'em. Not only that, but also re-writeable ones aswell. It's too bad they're still restricted to labs an tech colleges though. But it won't be more than a few more years until hollodiscs (lol, I should get that copyrighted) overtake Blu ray discs.

Yay wikipedia!:
http://www.bungie.ne...postID=16179166
http://en.wikipedia....ographic_memory
http://en.wikipedia....al_data_storage


All are good reads. Keep in mind that 3D optical storage is term used for multilayered discs AND holographic discs.

[Blink]

Guys... you do realize we're just going to get all our movies on iTunes in a year or two, right? :)

I'm kinda glad BluRay won, but kinda sad too. Glad because it means Sony won't turn into the next Sega (if BluRay failed, half the PS3 sales would be gone, people who bought the console as a BluRay player would be getting rid of it left and right) but sad because HD DVD was looking like a much better idea (keep things cheap like the consumer wants).

Then again, if SuperHD (2160p or whatever) at 60fps for a 3 hr film can all fit on a BluRay disk? I'm all for it, not having to switch data mediums again would be great.

...but that's not going to happen with digital downloads for movies. :P; So, I kinda wish HD DVD had won. I see both as temporary fillers until all movies are downloaded... so I prefer the cheaper one. xD

[Toasty]

It'll be a long time until most/all movies are downloaded. It'd require everyone to have fiber optic connections, since if/when that does happen, we'll have ultra HD (5520p or better), and those movies will range in the many hundred gigabytes, to terabytes range (yeyz for holographic disks).