Blockbuster Says It Will Back Blu-ray in DVD Format War

www.nytimes.com...

LOS ANGELES, June 17 (AP) — Blockbuster will rent high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format in 1,450 stores when it expands its high-definition offerings next month, dealing a major blow to the rival HD DVD format.

The move, which is to be announced Monday, could be the first step in resolving a format war that has kept confused consumers from rushing to buy new DVD players.

With all the amazing things on the Science and Technology board, this seems kind of weak, but I still hope it interests enough people

How big of an impact will this move really have on the latest format war? Back in the VHS/Betamax days, it basically came down to manufacturing costs and being able to record on 3-hour tapes while Betamax was still on 60(?) minute tapes. Will this happen again with the Blu-Ray holding upto 10Gb more (20Gb on dual-layer) on a single-layer disc compared to HD-DVD?

I don't believe you can record HD quality yet at home can you? So that point may not count for much today

What are your thoughts on this and which way do you see it going?

en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

This kinda stuff cracks me up - online downloads are here now and more services will be available shortly (Apple....) so this all becomes a moot point in a few years.... As people fight and argue over formats, technology leaps right past them and they all wonder what the hell happened.

Note that the CD format wars were not ready to be eclipsed by something better (online download) for a good 7-10 years. Not true today....

To tell you the truth I don't see any format lasting much past 15 years... I foresee the internet being your dvd player. You already see that with "on demand", blockbuster and net flix. You can already watch net flix movies over the net. It is only a matter of time before all of your house hold goodies are plugged into the net.

It would be great if the internet could surpass dvd but I don't see that happening in the near future. Consider youtube...its quality is even worse than tv. While it is true that extremely high quality videos can be downloaded thru other sites or programs, typically this translates to waiting an extremely long time, even with broadband. As it is, DVD is still several steps ahead of the internet in quality, and I don't see this trend changing in the future.

Ok, got that out of the way, next topic.

I thought that the porn industry always picked the winner in disputes such as these, and that it had picked HDDVD. However, it could have picked a loser for once.

Theres no way that I am going to rush out and spend $600 dollars (us) on a Blu-Ray Dvd Player, especially not when I watch all of my movies on the internet anyway.

The internet is already leaping past DVD players...just check out the Divx player where the quality is almost as good as high definition.

I am short selling Blockbuster, they wont last another 5 years.

So what's the ATS consensus? HD-DVD or BluRay?

I spent $450 american gold on an HD-DVD player not too long ago. I have a 61 inch TV, so it's kinda hard to want to watch strictly on a comp monitor

well i watch movies i download off the internet all rhe time on my ilo 32 inch lcd hd tv it even came with a computer hook up slot on back. mind you most of the movies i watch are from peer to peer programs and are usually hacked digital movie feeds why would i want to throw 600 dollars into a high end dvd player when i can get theater quality already without having to wait months for a movie to come out on hd bluray dvd.

Originally posted by uberarcanist
I thought that the porn industry always picked the winner in disputes such as these, and that it had picked HDDVD. However, it could have picked a loser for once.

I don't know that the pr0n industry picked HDDVD so much as Sony said it would not release any "adult" movies on Blu-ray. Which kind of goes hand in hand with Blockbuster supporting the Blu-ray format...

The real test will be the affordability and the features of the player. We may not think that the 10 GB difference in size is much, but when it is the difference between having to buy 1 blu-ray disc or 2 HD-DVD Discs, it will absolutely become a factor. As far as I know Blu-Ray discs are 5-10 dollars more than HD-DVD. Of course they are higher quality as well, but im sure the difference is not much.

My Opinion? Blu-Ray will win out for a few reasons.
1) The PS3 is a bonafide Blu-Ray player right out of the box, putting the Blu-Ray up already Millions of customers.
2) The Blu-Ray's discs are larger, thus eliminating the need for 2, 3, or 4 disc 'collector's super special extended uncensored uncut edition'.
3) Sony has huge names behind them, including some of the major movie studios

Originally posted by Mantys

My Opinion? Blu-Ray will win out for a few reasons.
1) The PS3 is a bonafide Blu-Ray player right out of the box, putting the Blu-Ray up already Millions of customers.

Hasn't Playstation's sales taken a turn for the worse recently? Didn't the head hancho in head of Playstation retire from Sony not too long ago?

2) The Blu-Ray's discs are larger, thus eliminating the need for 2, 3, or 4 disc 'collector's super special extended uncensored uncut edition'.

Yeah, but as you pointed out, the Bluray subsequently costs more! That's bad news in the eye of the average consumer.

3) Sony has huge names behind them, including some of the major movie studios

I'm not sure about movie studios, but Sony has indead lost many of their good game contracts. Again, a bad sign for PS.

[edit on 27-7-2007 by Cloak and Dagger]

Originally posted by Cloak and Dagger

Hasn't Playstation's sales taken a turn for the worse recently? Didn't the head hancho in head of Playstation retire from Sony not too long ago?

True, but a turn for the worse means that they are still selling thousands of units every month. That means thousands more Blu-Ray owners who WILL buy the Blu-Ray movies because of the fact that they already own the player.

2) The Blu-Ray's discs are larger, thus eliminating the need for 2, 3, or 4 disc 'collector's super special extended uncensored uncut edition'.

Yeah, but as you pointed out, the Bluray subsequently costs more! That's bad news in the eye of the average consumer.

Yes, but the $30 price tag for a movie on Blu-Ray sure is cheaper than $55 for a 2-disc HD-DVD set with the exact same stuff on it as the Blu-Ray disc.

3) Sony has huge names behind them, including some of the major movie studios

I'm not sure about movie studios, but Sony has indead lost many of their good game contracts. Again, a bad sign for PS.

Every Hollywood studio except Universal has pledged to release movies in the Blu-ray format; PlayStation 3 will play Blu-ray movies; Blu-ray movies and players are optimized for 1080p output; Blu-ray discs can hold more data or video than HD-DVD counterparts; most studios have pledged to not constrain resolution via component outputs.

from www.cnet.com

And here are the differences in the disc sizes.

HD-DVD 15GB (single layer) 30GB (dual layer) 45GB (prototype triple layer)

Blu-Ray 25GB (single layer) 50GB (dual layer) 100GB (prototype quad layer)

And they are both $20-$28 retail for a movie. Thus putting the advantage in The Blu-Ray system.

And on a side note, I do not own either player, I just look at the facts and I believe that the Blu-Ray will win this battle.

Well, HD-DVD should not exist...Blue Ray should be the one out of the 2.
(The former is due to production studios fearful of having to spend money on new production process for Blue-ray...when Blue ray holds more etc.)

BUT...yes, downloads...so in truth, do we need either.
Well think of it this way...HD.
There are different levels of HD.

Not only that but red camera (red.com) is doing 4k (a lot larger than the largest HD format, can you say cinema) So you will need something better than blue ray, ideally for this - and as for downloads, you better have some bandwidth opened up.

So in a sense, the question is, how much bandwidth can open up...secondly - I remember when HD was coming out there was a japanese group that had something that held a terabyte or more...but of course we get stuck with the regular companies dictating whats next. Fact is, the more space the better...is it DVD, advanced 'flash' drives, or what not...who knows.

Again, HD-DVD is a cheap shot and not progressive at all...that should have been dumped to begin with -

Peace

Dalen

A regular DVD player can play HD-DVD... correct? If so, then can someone please explain to me why I have to spent loads of money on a new player when I can just use a trilayer DVD which holds 45gb?

Originally posted by snwboardn21
It is only a matter of time before all of your house hold goodies are plugged into the net.

This is not the direction i would want to go and to be very honest, we just open our private lives up, more, for the government to be able to keep watch over us and see what we are doing and constantly be in control of our lives. These little things take on a huge "WOW" factor and we all want to rush out and buy all these wonderful gadgets and tell our friends' "OOOOOOO, my refrigerator links up to the internet" and "OOOOOOOOOO, my DVD player orders movies i haven't seen yet" and "oooooooo...." etc etc. We just don't get it yet. Hey i am not paranoid, i don't look over my shoulder but between our credit cards and refrigerators those in the "want to know" will know what you bought, where you bought it, how much you spent, what you still can buy for your available crdeit, what you had for dinner, when you had it, how much food was consumed, what movie you watched while eating this food etc etc etc. Bye Bye privacy. Then they will start using this info to profile you and before you know it you will be, in their books, a sweet and sour eating cold water drinking hot bath taking harry potter watching cheeto messing barbie doll murderer with a taste for the occasional taco bell burito while changing movies in your HD blu ray player with three finger's covered in hot fudge sundae over a bbq made with hot dogs.

As far as i am concerned, all these fantastic gizmos that plug into the internet can stay right there in the store. If it is something that has entertainment value i doubt everything will need to be linked to the internet - if it does, like MS Windows, the companies selling it won't make a cent from me. Sorry.

Im pretty sure that Blu-ray is going to win.
As a computer power user being able to back up my hdd with two dvds compared to three is actualy a big difference. It means I dont have to spend as much on dvds and I dont spend as much time puting files back together that I have to split up to put onto the disks.

-fm

As it is, DVD is still several steps ahead of the internet in quality, and I don't see this trend changing in the future.

DVD quality streams are already around man. Check out these Hi-def trailers on the site below.

If they don't stream in real time you provider is screwing you.

www.gametrailers.com...

Supply and demand is the key and right now, Online media is growing at a breakneck pace. As demand for bandwidth increases spurred by the growth in Online media it will cause a price war and an increase in capacity and speed(we have the technology now, the Telecoms in N.America are just too cheap to install it yet..........). As bandwidth costs come crashing down(and they will come down quite quickly and suddenylw ithout warning) and the game will be permanently changed forever. Some say the game was changed the moment Napster came on the scene.

[edit on 31-7-2007 by sardion2000]

Sardion I totally agree here 100% the telcoms have the technology but are way too worried about the stock holders rather than the customer!

but no matter how hard they try.... the reality is that fiber to the home or (long range wireless) is not impossible but a reality.

My money is on wireless. (but I could be dead wrong here)

I myself want the PS3, and for that reason will support Blu-Ray. I dont plan on plugging in my house into the grid in the near futute. I enjoy going outside, and hanging out in the real world. I am the guy who always goes to the theatres to watch new mvies, even though I can download the bootlegs. I like to buy my DVD's now because unlike music, which anyone can just open there mouth and sing a song, I do not typically have a multi-million dollar budget to produce a kick-ass sci-fi, horror or action flick.

I love movies, especially watching them in theatres. I wish theatres would even play older movies on their screens during the slower weeks, but that probably wont happen.

BLU-RAY ALL THE WAY!

Now it's Warner Bros. who make their stance known - could this be the beginning of the end for HD-DVD?

www.computerworld.com...

(IDG News Service) -- The decision by Warner Bros. to drop HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc for high-definition movies has set the electronics industry abuzz. Announced on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show, the move put a single question in the minds of thousands of industry-insiders heading to the show in Las Vegas: Could the high-definition format wars be over?

Since both formats launched they have been locked in a battle that pitted some of the industry's biggest consumer electronics companies against each other. Backing Blu-ray Disc has been Sony, Panasonic and Samsung, while HD DVD's main supporters have been Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel.

The battle also divided Hollywood and left consumers with a difficult choice: their favorite movies were likely split between the two formats and there was a risk the player they bought would become irrelevant. As a result consumers kept away from the formats and sales have been sluggish.

Warner's decision will give Blu-ray Disc an advantage in terms of content. With the move, five of the big seven Hollywood studios now back Blu-ray Disc with only two, Paramount and Universal, backing HD DVD.