XBox to go Blu-ray? (1 Viewer)

[AsaPW]

they'll be $30 and bluRay, we'll pick them up for $10 or $15 on HD DVD.

Never buy Blu-Ray from stores. I get most of mine on Ebay new, for under 20 shipped. Most of the time I get them for around 15-18 bucks shipped. 30 bucks is outrageous and if I had to pay that, I'd stick to SD DVD.

 

[Mauer]

Never buy Blu-Ray from stores. I get most of mine on Ebay new, for under 20 shipped. Most of the time I get them for around 15-18 bucks shipped. 30 bucks is outrageous and if I had to pay that, I'd stick to SD DVD.

Yeah I buy most of mine from amazon, most of the time they have good deals. Right now theres a bunch of blurays buy 2 get 1 free, and a lot of them are 19.99 to 25.99 with free shipping on orders 25 bucks or more.

 

[buzd]

I'm surprised you say it dragged on and on. I thought the format war resolution was pretty quick. I thought it was going to continue for a lot longer.

 

[AsaPW]

I'm surprised you say it dragged on and on. I thought the format war resolution was pretty quick. I thought it was going to continue for a lot longer.

True. I meant even after the first couple studios, Blockbuster, etc. switched exclusively to Blu-Ray. Even still, you are probably right.

 

[Jeff Miller]

What's funny is, if HD-DVD would've came out on top, some of the people upset about Blu-Ray coming out on top wouldn't even be complaining about consumer choice. Some of the people would be estatic about it. Not that I can blame them if they purchased an HD-DVD player.

Obviously it is consumer choice taking over, or all of these companies wouldn't be switching to Blu-Ray only. At least people aren't throwing speculation around saying that Sony paid them off, just like some say that they paid every studio off that chose Blu-Ray.

I know it sucks that the HD-DVD will be worthless, but hey, it happens. I'd be upset also. But Blu-Ray has been outselling HD-DVD since the beginning. Obviously there were more people renting Blu-Ray from both Blockbuster and Netflix.

It just wouldn't be worth it to all of the companies, studios, stores, etc. to carry 2 different formats. If it's costing more money than needed, then why let it drag on? Everyone is out to maximize profits. Welcome to the world. One of them was going to win. Everyone knew that.

Jeff, with all due respect, I don't think it has anything to do with consumer choice for you. I think you just didn't want to see Sony win. It's just personal. Besides already owning an HD-DVD player, I don't see how it bothers you so much to blame several companies for not giving you consumer choice. Anyone who gave a flip about HD had a choice. You chose HD-DVD, more people chose Blu-Ray.This has been dragging on for quite some time now and like many of the companies that have made the switch said, the consumers have spoken. They could let it drag on even longer, but the sales of HD-DVD surely won't get any better and it will just cost them more money. They just don't have enough studios backing them. I think more people are just happy that they can finally buy a HD player without having to worry about it being a doorstep in the future. I personally wouldn't have bought either of the two up until now. The only reason I have a Blu-Ray player is because I own a PS3. I'm not trying to be a jerk, just saying. I saw your rant on the EE the other day.


I think the bottom line is, it cost companies and studios too much for the world to have 2 formats. Seems like everyone is ready to put an end to it. Blu-Ray has been leading the whole time. Even if people say that it's only because PS3's have Blu-Ray players, it doesn't matter. It's still out there and can still play Blu-Rays. Heck, I think alot of people choose the PS3 only because it comes with teh BR. After all, it's a solid value and the best blu-ray player out there.

If the 360 would've came with an HD-DVD player, I'm sure the outcome would've been different, and I would've been just fine with that. The PS3 definitely won this war for Blu-Ray. Sony was smart to include it with their gaming system. I would've did the same thing.

Anyways, I understand how you guys can be upset if you shelled out the money for HD-DVD. That sucks. Just be happy, buy a PS3 so you'll have a BR player.. then buy Warhawk (Best game EVAR) so we can PWND noobs.

EDIT: By the way, sorry about the long *** post. I had been wanting to comment on the subject since the Netflix post, but I kept passing on it. Then we had the Wal-Mart thing too and I passed on it.

With all due respect, you theory has one fatal flaw.

Video games, which is a even larger market with both greater revenues and greater profits can support not two, but 3 different platforms. Instead of video game software companies demanding the public only purchase xbox 360's to play their media they produce their product across two, sometimes 3 plaforms, at a far greater expense than it is convert a digial mvoie file to a storage medium, to get the maximum market penetration. Basicaly Warner, Bestbuy and Netfix have written off 30% of the HD medium market. No company would turn their back on potential sales like that unless they were compensated in someway.

I could go on and on regarding examples that blow holes in the single format theory. But its obvious most people don't care. If there ok with that fine, i won't lose any sleep over it. And no, its not hate for sony, last year i bought a PSP for my aunt because i thought the product was superior in many ways to the other portable devices available. And there again is another example, the market seems to be doing just fine with PSP's, DS's, portable dvd players, Cell phones, mp3 players, Zume's and video iPods. In fact i never had a negative thing to say about sony untill this issue.

This whole issue, violates every rule of marketing and many in economics. In a fair and open market there is no way any product could acheive dominace over the other like this where the HD market share is a fraction of a percentage of overall SD DVD sales. I have never advocated that BluRay should "lose" or that it shouldn't be supported, but that there was plenty of room for both formats. Sony, everything else aside, did whatever it need to do. Right now i don't fault them for that. I wish it had failed, but they wated to win and did whatever to took to get there. Kudos to them.

This outcome wasn't decided by consumers, it was decided by the movie studios. They choose to release in one format, either thru choice, payola, or some type of strategic alliance (example, columbia pictures is owned by Sony, so you'd never see any of their movies on a HD DVD disc, no matter what).

Now this leads be to believe in three possiblities.

The movie studios are just plain stupid and don't know a thing about formats or technology.

or

The movie studios simply do not care and don't want to be bothered with the hassel irregardless of the impact on consumers.

or

There is some type of financial incentive involved, if not payola, possible profit sharing, or possibly some type of discounting and the back end.

On thing is for sure, no one is all truistic on this issue, on either side. What is best for the consumer never had been the issue for anyone involved, its about making money. Period. Perhaps years down the road the truth will come out. Perhaps not. But please don't be a sheep and propogate this lie that consumers chose bluRay because technically, consumers have choosen SD DVD.

 

[billinms]

I didn't really care who won. I only occasionally rent movies so Apple Tv is fine for me. The movies I like to rewatch occasionally are old and some I can't even find on SD DVD. I just hope either XBox comes out with an affordable add-on blu-ray player or the stand alone prices drop some.

 

[Jeff Miller]

You know, since i switch to comcast, i have a LOT of HD movies on demand. I can see myself using that more and more.

 

[kcirdor]

whats really eerie and pokes holes in your argument is that throughout the history of entertainment media, The solution ALWAYS come down to one format. Using Video game market as a prime example really doesn't hold water. It is not relevent to the history of how we watch our movies. It is merely relevant to three MAJOR companies (one who solely speciallizes in games) developing and marketing their own product. Each has years of fan base built up as foundation. They are each responsible for making their product accessible to the developers. The developers know that they have three cornerstone markets to dip into. All of which are cash machine's.

And as for Consumer choice, the studios, etc. had the choice and as consumers they decided to go with Blu-ray. One thing that is tried and TRU about this whole situation is that media has always chosen ONE format, why change now?

Does anyone know or know where to get the numbers of sales over time b/w blu-ray and HD up until all the major studios decided to go full blu-ray.

The real injustice is why didn't the makers of HD-dvd make more of an effort to beat out Bluray. Especially when we all know that this market is and has always been a ONE horse race.

And I'll choose B for the list of possibilities.

I mean come on maybe they had a historical perspective on Format Wars.

 

[Jeff Miller]

whats really eerie and pokes holes in your argument is that throughout the history of entertainment media, The solution ALWAYS come down to one format. Using Video game market as a prime example really doesn't hold water. It is not relevent to the history of how we watch our movies. It is merely relevant to three MAJOR companies (one who solely speciallizes in games) developing and marketing their own product. Each has years of fan base built up as foundation. They are each responsible for making their product accessible to the developers. The developers know that they have three cornerstone markets to dip into. All of which are cash machine's.

And as for Consumer choice, the studios, etc. had the choice and as consumers they decided to go with Blu-ray. One thing that is tried and TRU about this whole situation is that media has always chosen ONE format, why change now?

Does anyone know or know where to get the numbers of sales over time b/w blu-ray and HD up until all the major studios decided to go full blu-ray.

The real injustice is why didn't the makers of HD-dvd make more of an effort to beat out Bluray. Especially when we all know that this market is and has always been a ONE horse race.

And I'll choose B for the list of possibilities.

I mean come on maybe they had a historical perspective on Format Wars.

Well, Toshiba could have been more agressive, yes. For what ever reason they choose not to be, and they ended up paying the price.

I think you exaggerating the history a little bit. The history is only about 26 years old and has spand a total of 2 formats, VHS and DVD. Also, the bulk of that history has been dominated not by Sales, but buy RENTALS. Which is basically the exact same thing we just saw playout with the movie studios. The Rental companies choose VHS, so that is what the public got. The rental companies didn't offer Lazer Disc, and I don't ever remember a beta max section in a video store ever offering more than about 20 tapes to rent.

Most people used their VHS VCR's and Blank VHS tapes to record programs off TV. And what was the determining factor back then? VHS tapes, and VHS VCR's, cost less, even though BetaMax technically, was superior.

 

[AsaPW]

I don't think you can compare movies to video games or ipods. It's just not the same. Studios don't make money off of accessories, player sales, etc. Gaming makes a ton more money, with less investing I would think. The different MP3 players you really can't compare. The don't have different music studios supporting them. I see your point, but I just don't see why it'd be worth it to have to movie formats. Like you said, it's all about the money. I'm sure that if all of these companies thought that they could make more money with two formats, that we'd have two formats forever...seriously, they are not gonna miss out on 30% of anything if they thought they were going to lose that much money.. Of course I'll agree to disagree, just like we've been doing the whole time.

Consumers have chosen SD DVD, but that was back in the 90's. Eventually everything will be HD. People love their HD and when the price is right, SD will be a thing of the past. Whether it be downloads, Blu-Ray or whatever. SD-DVD will be out.

 

[kcirdor]

Well, Toshiba could have been more agressive, yes. For what ever reason they choose not to be, and they ended up paying the price.

I think you exaggerating the history a little bit. The history is only about 26 years old and has spand a total of 2 formats, VHS and DVD. Also, the bulk of that history has been dominated not by Sales, but buy RENTALS. Which is basically the exact same thing we just saw playout with the movie studios. The Rental companies choose VHS, so that is what the public got. The rental companies didn't offer Lazer Disc, and I don't ever remember a beta max section in a video store ever offering more than about 20 tapes to rent.

Most people used their VHS VCR's and Blank VHS tapes to record programs off TV. And what was the determining factor back then? VHS tapes, and VHS VCR's, cost less, even though BetaMax technically, was superior.

case closed

I am not exaggerating the history at all. Even if there is only two weeks of history you pull it into perspective. I believe that the history of the prior format wars had plenty to do with our recent format war. In the end it all about money and costs. One format = cost effective.

Case Closed(agreed).

(eh, I initially intended to end this post at this point, but its the off season.)

Case Open: Did Microsoft's promise to include HD-dvd with the 360 give the HD dvd producers a false hope? Probable.
Did Xbox 360 rushing to the market, while not including the player in package, kill any chance of HD DVD survival? Very feasible.
Did Sony's promise to include the Bluray in package effect the war? Absolutely.

Case Open: Why didn't people from the start see that Bluray was going to come out on top?

They have told us from the start that one would come out on top. We know as consumers from a historical PoV that ONE would come out on top. We also can tell from a social outlook that the Video game market is a very powerful industry. When sony held out their product to deliver their promises this sealed the deal on the console war, personally. Especially knowing that if Bluray failed Sony would have MAJOR losses to deal with. Knowing that nearly ALL of sony's eggs were in this basket there was no way that they'd allow anyone defeat their format.

Sony = Entertainment Electronics + Video game cornerstone + producer of Bluray = winner, right? Solid reasoning would lead you to pick this side of the fence.

Toshiba = HD DVD + Entertainment Electronics + depency of third parties to implement technology = false hope. Blind Faith would lead you to pick this side of the fence.

Can anyone truely look in the mirror and say, Toshiba will defeat Sony? And my response would be, NOT without alot of help.

 

[Rickboy]

Ok, the war is over...

Transformers on BluRay, NOW!!

 

[antipop]

Ok, the war is over...

Transformers on BluRay, NOW!!

i agree.....i haven't even bought a blu-ray movie yet.....spiderman 3 came with the ps3(BTW this movie sucks)......

i have a standard copy of transformers, but i would buy it again on blu-ray

 

[AsaPW]

i agree.....i haven't even bought a blu-ray movie yet.....spiderman 3 came with the ps3(BTW this movie sucks)......

i have a standard copy of transformers, but i would buy it again on blu-ray

I want Shooter. I think I may have it on SD-DVD, but not sure. They have Blu-Ray copies of Shooter floating around Ebay sometimes, but people are paying like 70 bucks for it because whatever studio it was that produced the movie went HD-DVD exclusive.. I don't get it. Just be patient, people.

 

[Mauer]

Army of Darkness on Blu ray NOW!!