Why Blu-Ray Will Win The Format War Now

Posted by Steve McGrath

I started to answer back HD-DVD fans in this post but decided to use my blog instead. Also, I would be able to write an updated version of Why Blu-Ray Will Win The Format War with the latest information. Now for the points:
  1. Adult industry won't decide this time around. But Digital Playground, the biggest in adult HD-DVD, started to release movies in Blu-Ray now. Not enough HD-DVD sales?
  2. Sales of movies was won 52 week in a row by Blu-Ray with 2:1 up to 3:1 advantage some weeks.
  3. It was not a last grabbed of money like HD-DVD fans think during the last holiday seasons. Warner gave a chance for HD-DVD fans to increased movie sales before the holidays. They did not buy enough movies thus the decision. I'm a businessman and that's what I would had done. If sales would had meet a certain minimum of expectation, I'm sure Warner would had waited another few months before taking any decision. People may had bought a $99 players but did they buy a lot of HD-DVD movies with the money saved on the hardware? Apparently not enough.
  4. Except for a few, most people don't care much for extras that both camps offers. They just want to watch the movie in HD. Heck! I don't care much either now. It's fun for my favorite movies but I don't have time for all movies.
  5. I do agree that HD-DVD was in advance(Internet feature) for a while but Blu-Ray is now keeping up with newer profiles and speed. The quality of video will be on the Blu-Ray side because of the capacity of the media. The question is: Is the same movie encoded to fit HD-DVD (30GB) and then encoded again to fit the higher size of Blu-Ray(50GB) and with an higher bitrate or just use the same encoding? The HD-DVD 51GB don't count because it's not out now. Blu-Ray has a 100GB in labs too.
  6. Retailers may decide now. Read "A Retail Perspective on the Format War". It's a good read and point of view.
  7. Paramount received money($150M) at the end of the last summer to go HD-DVD exclusive. If Warner did, which they said they did not, then it's even.

    Blu-Ray

  8. Yes, Paramount is big but the Blu-Ray camp is now 70 % of the market. Content is king and Blu-Ray has the advantage of even more movies with Warner. I'm sure now that Paramount is now checking for an exit clause on the $150M contract hoping it won't cost too much.
  9. HD-DVD will become a niche market for a year or 2 or until the end of the HD-DVD contract exclusivity. Blu-ray could still make a deal with HD-DVD(maybe in profile 3.0). But I would not buy a HD-DVD player now. HD-DVD fans with players can still rent movies instead of buying them.
  10. Selling the Ps3 40GB with a Spider-Man 3 let people know that it can play Blu-Ray movie too. With almost 2.7-3 million PS3 sold, some still don't know they can do that. Of course, not all PS3 are connected to a HDTV.
  11. Why would a manufacturer would want to make a HD-DVD player when Toshiba is selling it's player at a lost? Most prefer to make Blu-Ray players because they can make a profit at least.
  12. The $99 HD-DVD player was during the holidays and current price of players are very close for 1080P players. But HD-DVD players are still lower.
  13. Ray mentioned that Warner stocks closed on a lost. This was the trend in the last 5 days of trading. Sony did closed higher and Toshiba lower depending on the stock markets.
  14. Gates did not mentioned anything about HD-DVD in his CES keynote address. Will Microsoft focus on the download side and stop or do little promoting of HD-DVD? Being the biggest backer with money, I would expect some mentioned of it.
  15. They won't raised the price if only one format(Blu-Ray) exist(waiting for Universal/Paramount). You will then have the economy of scales because those on the fence will start to buy again. For example with movies, Resident Evil Extinction is sold in DVD at $24.99 and $34.99 in Blu-ray. 3:10 to Yuma is sold $19.99 and $27.99. That's the price I paid when I bought my first DVD and even paid higher. Paying $5 more for a Blu-Ray movie would be better at this time. In one year, I would expect to pay less because more PS3 and Blu-Ray players would had been sold.
  16. Two format can't work in this field unlike gaming consoles. Who owns a SACD or DVD-Audio?
Looking at my poll on the sidebar, No was far behind. But with the recent announcement by Warner, the No is gaining ground(No:24, Yes: 24, Maybe:12) Not many readers voted. Disclosure: 8 Days ago(Dec. 30), I bought a PS3 to watch movies(mostly) and play games(few) in that order.
Keywords: Business, High definition, Money, Movie, Playstation 3, Technology


10 Comments

Steven H. Taylor
Who owns an SACD player? You do! Since you bought that PS3 last week. So do millions of other PS3 owners, plus millions more who bought SACD-compatible DVD players or Home Theater Systems (or dedicated SACD players) in the years before. At this moment the installed base is probably significantly higher than that of BD (regardless of whether you include the BD majority of PS3 players or not).

bloggingzoom.com
Why Blu-Ray Will Win The Format War Now | McGrath Dot Ca...

Steve McGrath
Of course, it's a Sony product :p. I was mostly thinking of the media not the hardware.

The Truth About HD Streaming Or Downloads
[...] Warner decided to go with Blu-Ray, I can say that the war is almost over but Toshiba don’t accept it yet as Universal and Paramount. [...]

Mario Jakobi
I have 2 Blue-Ray players for my computer from different companies. Both will not play blue-ray discs that implement that new security feature. I have 5 discs that will not play past the main menu. I have 10 other discs that play fine. I have yet to hear back from the customer support teams of either player. So in essence I have spent close to $1400.00 on computer equipment that is not doing 100 percent of it's job. I also own an HD player for my home entertainment system which I have had no problems with any disc that I have puchased for it. If the movie makers that support the faulty Blue-Ray format would also release their movies in HD format they would sell more movies and isn't that what they want. I will not purchase anymore blue-ray discs until the issue with the 5 that do not play is resolved. My vote for the best format stands for HD.

Steve McGrath
You did not add the models and what software you use. You may need a firmware update for those drives

Mario Jakobi
Sorry, I have the LG GGC-H20L and the Lite-On LH-2B1S both have the latest drivers. I use cyberlink powerdvd ultra and is also the latest version. You see that i have 10 Blue-ray discs that play fine so I have the correct equipment.

Steve McGrath
I could not find anything but what movies did not work. What you could search for in Google is: LG GGC-H20L or LH-2B1S plus name of the movies. Someone else may had the same problem and found a solution.

Mario Jakobi
Dragon Wars

Steve McGrath
Did not find anything but check or ask on

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