Why Blu-Ray will win the format war

Posted by Steve McGrath

In recent weeks, Blu-Ray has more and more sites/people taking their side. I'm on the sidelines because I don't own either one so, no investment to protect. Also, I'm just waiting on a few titles, mostly from Blu-Ray, and a price drop before buying a player. Why I think Blu-Ray will win Those are just a few things:
  • Because content is king and take a look here. It's a good research and many people buy top movies. Like I mentioned on a previous post, check you DVD collection.
  • Blockbuster decided to offer Blu-Ray to more places. HD-DVD will remain available to the test locations and online. It's a big name recognition for many people.
  • Better content protection with BD+. The studios will like this better than the semi-crack HD-DVD protection(cat and mouuse). If BD+ can resist the first few waves of crack attempts, the HD-DVD studios will follow and support it too. I may not like DRM but it's a there.
  • The PS3 has a Blu-Ray and it's sold at a lost but can make it up with the sale of games. Toshiba also sell it's player at lost but will not attract other known manufacturers with that strategy. How can manufacturers regain their money? Again, big name recognition is important. These are not $30 DVD players and brand name will count.
  • Price may be a little higher for now for Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD but it's only a matter of time. Like anything else, the price will drop.
Conclusion Dual format players may help protect the investment that HD-DVD supporters(consumers) already made. When their HD-DVD player failed watching the same movie over and over, then, they will be glad that those exist and manufacturers took them into pity ;). You will notice that I did not talk much about the technical merits of either format because both are nice but for me, I just want to play the movie in HD. Anything else is just extra. :D Unless Sony goes bankrupt, Blu-Ray is on it's way to win. So, what would buy again in HD from your DVD collection? Is it mostly Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? Notes: I don't have any game console or Sony products. So,I can't be accused of being a Sony fanman! ;) I also notice that "pro HD-DVD" already bought into it and it's in their interest that this format stay longer. Like I mentioned, dual format will be their salvation.
Keywords: Entertainment, High definition, Movie, Technology


15 Comments

ZPrime
Why HD-DVD will win:

Steve McGrath
1. Porn is no longer an issue this time around. They may go streaming and bypass the format. Also, free porn is available on the net.

Why Blu-Ray will win the format war
[...] If you wonder about the HD(Blue-Ray, HD-DVD) format war and which one to pick, I wrote a post on Steve’s Tech Blog some times ago in case you missed it. You can go there to find out Why Blu-Ray will win the format war. [...]

cooliojones
I always knew it would win because of more storage and a catchy name. Now I just need the discs to come down in price to be about 10/movie!

Steve McGrath
I doubt movies will go for $10 soon. :( They will try to make more money that way unless Blu-Ray is fully cracked.

Bryan
HD-DVD is going to win. Paramount and Dreamworks is now on HD-DVDs side because that format is going to win.

Steve McGrath
I agree it will be harder for BD to win and the next holiday seasons would be a benchmark how things are going for both sides.

Why I won’t go see movies in theater made by Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks
[...] By The Numbers II. Blu-Ray has still more overall content. I also made my position clear on my blog. I also commented that the next holiday season will be critical for both sides.  I don’t [...]

tootallsc
Why the F@*k would i buy a bluray player. I sell both all day and bluray freezes all the time on my normal dvd's and cd's. There's no standard so you reall have to know which one to get. Don't get me wrong there are good bluray players out there but ones like the sharp bluray that's a piece of junk and still charge $500 can. for it. And as well JAVA in a player. We all know java is free and it's freaking horrible. Bluray is very unstable. Pirate of the Carribean took 3 minutes to load the disc. And i'm sick of people saying the PS3 is the best bluray. I'm sorry but for home theatre the PS3 is a piece. There's no Dolby True HD and DTS Master Audio processors on board. Bluray is all hardware no software. That's why hddvd has out sold bluray in standalone players. The only reason bluray is out sell hddvd in disc sales is because when they bring their new bluray player home and put in their old dvd it either upconverts really bad or rejects it. HDDVD doesn't have that problem. There's a standard. And all the bluray companies know it. If toshiba had just as much money as sony, hddvd would have more studio support that bluray. You guys just better not hope microsoft and intel and nec become part owner of hddvd and start throwing their money around because all three of those companies have way more money than sony. Bluray is all show and no go, sorry boys. Plus what's with the mpeg 2 and mpeg4, damn mosquito noise! VC1 is so much better in my eyes, not nearly as much mosquito noise.

Steve McGrath
1. When I first got my DVD 9-10 years ago, that was the same arguments people said about bugs. Hell, Matrix was a DVD that made people cry because it was buggy on the hardware and on brand names too. Plus, you can at least update Blu-Ray player like on the PS3.

tootallsc
Just for your info there are bluray are mpeg4(avc) and mpeg2, no vc-1. And if there's porn on both format then that means disneys contract with bluray is broken and therefor can leave bluray. Bluray is going to lose alot of exclusive studio support this spring. Unless they shell out 150-500 million to each studio to keep their exclusive support.

tootallsc
Dolby Ture HD and DTS master audio is very important. I sell the denon avr-988 like crazy. If you've ever heard the difference you would go out and upgrade your reciever. But let me guess you hate sound quality that's why you listen to mp3's and own an ipod rather than listening to dvd audio. I bet you probably own a car stereo with a after market deck, amp and some subs, but kept the stock mids and ran them of the after market deck. Again ruining your sound quality. I would never buy a ps3 for that fact there's no HD audio. And as well never a bluray player for the fact if you own a profile 1.0 player and you want profile 1.1. and profile 2.0 you have to shell out another 500 bucks to get those interactive features that on bluray are just graphics.

Steve McGrath
Wrong: VC-1 is part of the basic codecs that Blu-Ray players must play. It's the studio that can choose the codec and so mpg2 was used on the first Blu-Ray disc.

tootallsc
Wrong again. VC-1 is a microsoft codec. That's why there is no bluray move encoded in VC-1. Microsoft tried to do bluray and backed out because it was very unstable. You'll spend 500 bucks on a bluray player that has poor upconversion but not on a denon 988 that will upconver video and upscale to 1080p with the DCDi chip, and by-amp your speakers, with 7.1 and mulit room and HD audio. Go ahead then and buy a 300 dollar pioneer or sony or yamaha that will go into protect mode when you push it and have no video conversion or upscaling. Denon or Harman Kardon all they way. Did I mention the X-a2 won another award from sound and vision? Quality over quantity.

Steve McGrath
Yes I know it is a Microsoft codec but they are in both HD format spec. See:

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