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Format war? How stupid are you people? Has anyone bothered to look at the support coming out of blu-ray's corner?

"Hitachi, Panasonic, Sharp, Dell, Phillips, LG, Pioneer, Mitsubishi and Samsung" and about a hundred other heavy-hitters like Apple, 20thCentury Fox and Disney.

Oh and let's not forget that it's going to be the disc drive for their little project called Playstation 3. For anyone wondering why that might be relevant, the number of ps2 owners currently stands at just over 80 million. Yea, 80 million. And if you haven't connected the dots yet there'll be a lot of blu-ray owners around the world when it launches next year.

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huh????? HD-DVD has huge support behind it to and has one major advantage over Blu-Ray. The switch from DVD to HD-DVD would be a lot less expensive for the industries than the switch to Blu-Ray, which is why it stands a chance. I prefer Blu-Ray myself but its not like HD-DVD is completely out the window at all

DuckNrun..... you said it perfectly

Ludikhris

Now that Apple is gunning for Blu-ray too I am positive it will win. Yes HD-DVD has it's supporters too, but I like Blu-ray better, and so do the majority of big companies, well except for a few like MS.

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Format war? How stupid are you people? Has anyone bothered to look at the support coming out of blu-ray's corner?

"Hitachi, Panasonic, Sharp, Dell, Phillips, LG, Pioneer, Mitsubishi and Samsung" and about a hundred other heavy-hitters like Apple, 20thCentury Fox and Disney.

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And in the other corner we have Billion Dollar Bill Gates

I would like to know how you are supposed to decide which format you prefer without using them?

I will be waiting for the whole mess to settle before I buy any new equipment from either side.

Long live BETAMAX
Sony Sucks

i prefered anyone that play on the dvd player i have now which is hd dvd.

HD-DVD media WILL NOT PLAY IN YOUR CURRENT DVD PLAYER. Both media actually utilize a blue laser, the blu-ray one is just smaller to read smaller pits for more data cramming. HD-DVD is ment to be CHEAPER AND THAT'S IT. And it isn't cheaper by enough to convince me.

hooray for Sony, blu-ray all the way!

wild77 "Long live BETAMAX Sony Sucks"

What does that mean?

Yes Greay statement my man what does long live betamax sony sux mean, it was sony who had the betamax format.To add the betamax is still used today as its far superior to any other tape format, hence all the t.v companies use them.Anyway so thats living proof that not always does the best format win the consumer war, we will all see i guess what wins in the end but be rest assured its whatever sony backs because they own nearly all record labels and have vast shares in all the major film studios not to mention there game consoles...For the monopoly on all this media i would agree they do suck, but they do make some great stuff..without which today i would have been lost.

And the winner is....The Adult Video Consortium and Blu-Ray. Secondary winner is the Movie Industry Production Studios. To me, the biggest reasons behind the new standard is new copy protection and a new media for the consumer to re-buy product (ie. vhs, then dvd, now blu-ray). As with the VHS/BETA wars, it came to title availability. Sadly, as we move forward to the new standard, they will likely repeat history and severely reduce in new releases in the old DVD format, just like they did in laserdisc. My questions are: What significant enhancement is 720p or 1080p blu-ray disks if you already upscale existing 480i/540p to these formats (and don't think the studios won't just step their existing dvd masters)? What new(?) or improved(?) audio response is there in blu-ray that you don't get from DTS? Will the general public, a majority of which will still purchase 4:3 sets, be willing to convert all their electronics to properly display and hear blu-ray technology at it's fullest?

They need something new to sell, lrodrigue.

DVD sales are slowing down. Way down. The DVD market is maxing out, already at 80% saturation in the USA.

But you're right .... I don't see much use for an expensive Hi-Definition movie played back on a 14" bedroom TV with a single built-in speaker.

It's not always the better format that wins just like Sony's BetaMax which was superior to VHS tape systems. Dela states this well, HD-DVD has a chance and could dominate the market.

For those who think you can't judge something before it comes out. Well that's just not true there is a thing called SPEC's and they do tell most of the story but can also be deceiving at times.

Clearly Blu-Ray is better but is much more difficult to produce and I would thing compatibility issues would increase. Look at all the compatibility issues we had with DVD-R or DVD+R and what stand alones they would work in or not. I have a JVC that plays some of a type but not others, which also get's into writer issues. It was a good two years after the new burners and media were out before players became more compatible.

I personally won’t buy HD-DVD as my needs require larger capacities which eases system backups and allows for more movies on one disc.

I'll try to explain this, again, very s l o w l y. It does not matter who HD-DVD's partners are. Even if one of them is "Billion Dollar Bill Gates" as one genius put it. It doesn't matter that HD-DVD "would be a lot less expensive for the industries".

The only thing that will matter is the number of Blu-Ray owners after Sony launches their PS3 next year. This is Sony's latest successor to the Playstation family which to date has sold almost 200 million units combined throughout the world. Let me repeat that because that fact apparently failed to sink in the first time I mentioned it.

The Playstation brand has sold almost 200 million UNITS WORLDWIDE since December of 1994.

In the real world that's what we call extremely profitable. Why is that number important? Because it stands to common sense that Sony is going to continue that success with the PS3 resulting in an immediate installed base of Blu-Ray players IN THE MILLIONS. It wouldn't matter if Blu-Ray was inferior to HD-DVD, it wouldn't matter if Blu-Ray was named after a former communist who sold cigarettes to kids. Millions of gamers are going to buy the PS3 for their video gaming needs. The fact that it'll also solve a gamers HD movie needs makes buying an HD-DVD player pointless and a PS3 all the more attractive to everyone else still hanging on the fence.

So with millions of Blu-Ray enabled PS3's flying off the shelves faster than Oprah on a baked ham, how long do you think the movie studios will sit on their hands before deciding to cash in? I guarantee Sony will have a decent amount of Blu-Ray movies for sale right alongside the PS3 on launch day.

If you want proof look at the PSP. It launched in the US late March using Sony's proprietary UMD format to which movie studios again weren't too optimstic about. Here we are not even four months later and these same studios are now falling over themselves to release more movies on the PSP because it's selling very well.

In the end it's not the movie buff that's going to determine which format wins. It's going to be the gamers. Gamers who will see the Blu-Ray disc drive as an added bonus when not playing games. It worked brilliantly for Sony when they chose a DVD drive in their PS2. It's not that HD-DVD is inferior, it's just that Sony is giving media-entertainment consumers a much better incentive to go with their format...unless of course HD-DVD players start off at $50 bucks.

A lot of die-hard movie afficianados (enthusiasts) are going to take offense at your contention that a gaming console -- (any gaming console) -- will or even could dictate which high-definition/high-density format will win the war.

A lot of people can't stand games. A lot of people wouldn't use a gaming console if you gave it to them. Movie buffs are not all "Pow! Zowie! Zap! Blow 'Em Up" Gamesters-Types.

Frankly, I believe that if the fate of serious movie-collectors is in the hands of a contraption sporting joysticks or panel buttons, and who's main purpose in life is to blow up the bad guys, we're all in deep shit. To suggest that, "Oh yeah, this box will play movies too" is far too much of a cheap afterthought to merit the least consideration for people with expensive, dedicated home-theater systems. These people will not consider hooking up a battery-operated toy -- no matter how hi-tech that toy may be -- to an expensive large-screen high-definition projection system, and I don't blame them.

Those little 1 GB movie discs in Sony's proprietary video format are inferior, highly compressed add-ons not meant for home-theater systems. They are meant for viewing on a screen measured in centimeters. They are meant for casual viewing by folks who want to do something different after they've tired of beating up all the bad guys for today. They hold a mere fraction of the resolution of "real" blu-ray discs. If I had to use a Sony Playstation to play back serious movie classics, I'd rather stick with VHS.

You wanna play games on the local transit busses while hooked up to cheap $10 pair of headphones? Get a game box.

The rest of us will put our batteries away and get a serious, dedicated, "proper" high-quality set top movie player with digital outputs.

A_Klingon, would you change your mind about UMD if I told you the discs were 1.8GB :)? Your absolutely right though, UMD has no place outside travel movies (that costs way too much anyways) on a screen like the PSP's. 1.8GB just isn't enough, and those disc are expensive in comparison according to Sony. Even though we can't buy them, damn!

Most people won't have the PS3 for movies, some might not even know it can play them, lol. The PS3 will definitely offer support for BD, BUT most people will have a straight DVD player anyway! I have four not including my PC outside of my PS2. I won't use my PS2 for movies because it doesn't play back-ups, and neither will the PS3 play copies.

Almost everyone will end up with a Blu-ray or HD-DVD anyway, and then everyone who bought a HD-DVD player will end up throwing it away and buying a BD player in a year anyway :)

I'm not poo-pooing on game machines in general, reasons, especially when they are used for playing games.

Sony is trying too hard. They are trying to be a little-of-everything to everybody, which you cannot be and do everything well.

In the overall scheme of things, it matters not a whit how many PS3 players are sold when it comes to Hi-Def. When in comes to Hi-Res, Sony game boxes don't cut it.

Its like comparing apples with oranges. Sticking movie capability in a game box does not a quality movie-player make. Sorry.

(Yeah, ..... I guess you're right). The UMB discs hold 1.8 gig, not 1 gig. <g> Makes no difference. They hold less than half the space of a cheap .39c present day dvd. That's.... (um, let me see...)... less than one twenty-fifth (1/25th) of a standard DL blu-ray.

"Thhrrrpppphhhhhhhh!!!!"

You wouldn't be the same fellow who thinks I.E.-6 is the cat's meow over FireFox, by any chance ???? <hee-hee>

Ahhh, that is me, no doubt. But, I actually do use FF too because it seems faster. I was just pointing out that both have their problems, because people tend to think IE is the devil with security. FF is revolutionary no doubt, but has had as many fixes as IE. They just don't announce them or do them automatically, you just download the new version.

As far as DVD sales goes, it takes a good movie for someone to buy it for $15-$20. Most movies lately are olny worth renting. They even fudged on Star Wars Episode 3, I expected better anyway.

I hate to say it but Avant Browser kicks on both FF and IE although AB uses IE underneath it. I don’t know how we get on these side tracks?

www.avantbrowser.com

I don’t waste my monies on movie rentals, at $4, I’d rather wait until it’s on cable/satellite. I do agree that Hollyweird doesn’t know how to put out a good movie though, with exception to a very few. Just wait they are ruining Willy Wonka now, great job MR. E.T. and Pirates of something or other. It’s all about the bottom line, money, and as long as people keep going to the crap they put out it won’t change.

I have an XBOX with the wanted Samsung in it but I still don’t use it for movie play back as it’s not that good.

Am I bad mixing up my bad movies Not Mr. E.T., Mr. Sissor Handless... Mr. E.T. was with Tom Looser.

can someone tell me if they are going to rerelease all dvds to blu and hdddvd

We will probably be talking about the same things when future formats are released. What we always will crave is the capacity of which the new formats can hold. Who cares what copy protection is on these new formats, i am sure it will be fun for all the people to test there brain power when they try to break it.
50 gig on a disc for blue ray, yes please.

I am going to make up some statistics that probably more accurately reflect the public opinion.

6% prefer Blu-Ray
2% prefer HD-DVD
92% prefer NOT TO HAVE A FORMAT WAR!!!!

Of course, if the two formats end up mating, I'd vote that they go with the Blu-Ray name because it sounds slightly more interesting and takes less syllables to pronounce.

I myself am going to wait for the new 3" mini-pink-ray High-Def 3D discs to come out.

433 GB each. 87.6 layers. No DRM of any kind. You'll be able to buy a 50-unit spindle pack for $1.95. Each disc will hold seventy-two 3D Hi-Def movies.

They're already working on a 100-disc pink-ray changer. Fits in your back pocket. It'll play nonstop for 10-1/2 months before you have to swap anything.

:-)

Here is an old news from both Pioneer http://www.dvd-recordable.org/Article1724.phtml and Philips http://www.betanews.com/article/print/Philips_DVD_Burner_to_Suppo... getting ready to launch their next generation dvd writer, which will support Blu-Ray. It's an old article from January 2005, but at least we know for sure that somebody is coming up with a dvd writer that can write/burn Blu-Ray Disc.

I guess I'll wait and see what's up in the end. I hate to admit this, but as much as I hate Sony, I may end up getting the new PS3 regardless.

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You can now buy a Blu-Ray SA unit on ebay for $3875 usd made by Sony. These are marketed/sold in Japan right now and someone is exporting them to the US. I wouldn't pay that kind of money but they are being sold as we speak. You can check it out for yourself by going to the link below;

ebay
Sony Blu-Ray High Definition DVD Recorder Player
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sony-Blu-Ray-High-Definition-DVD-Recorder-Player-Blue_W0QQitemZ5799532876QQcategoryZ71581QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

you can also buy them directly from Sony.com, they've been availabe for a few months