One Million Blu-Ray discs sold

Oh wow!!! Yay!!! They sold a MILLION!!!


....NOT...


WTF?? Okay; let's see what the hell is wrong with this article--

first of all;

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Industry analysts have suggested that those numbers are due to the fact that there are an increasing number of blockuster movies on Blu-ray disc, most of which are only on BD and not on HD-DVD.

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^pfff...1 million discs?? was that whay they said??? Because in my book; the sales from a RENTAL STORE DOESNT NECESSARILY COUNT--I mean; come on; that's retarded to say you've reached a 'million' when in fact Blockbuster obviously is carrying the hefty load of about at least 40,000 of those sold discs......sony...gawd their retards...^



SECOND

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According to Home Media Research, Blu-ray has become the first high definition format to sell one million discs, an incredible milestone that was achieved in under a year. Also released in the figures from HMR was that about 70 percent of high def movies sold in the first quarter of 2007 were Blu-ray discs.

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^pfff....gee; that's great but what was that I heard?? DISCS?? Oh yeah, that's right, they forgot to mention just how many PLAYERS they sold.......^




The bottom line I'm getting at here is that they may have claimed to have sold "1 Million" discs; but first; I would call the numbers skewed since they included blockbuster [come on, that's like cheating..lol..]

...and seriously; wtf does it matter how many discs you sold?? The thing that REALLY matters is how many actual stand alone playback units you're selling...

...that's the basis for this 'war'.....because you can sell as many discs as you want; but if only X-amount of people are buying those discs; and you've got about 1 million more people that actually own HD-DVD players; who do you think's gonna win??

I mean; I'm not rooting for either side right now; but this is rediculous--I'll stick with DVD thank you very much;)


p.s.

Dear Sony,

According to those numbers, how many of those discs do you think were pirated?
LLOOL>>>

I am sure if Hdvd added up the give aways,sold to rental palces and other things as "sold" they would hit 1 million too....

@Halen5150

What you say is true, but thats a basic tactic of marketing and sales though. A lot of companies including Microsoft report increased numbers of systems sold for quarterly report but in fact all they did was increased number shipped out to retailers and basically swamping them. But their report looks good at least.

I bet only 1,000,000 people have a blueray player though lol!

Didn't ps3 came with a movie?

Originally posted by halen5150:

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^pfff...1 million discs?? was that whay they said??? Because in my book; the sales from a RENTAL STORE DOESNT NECESSARILY COUNT--I mean; come on; that's retarded to say you've reached a 'million' when in fact Blockbuster obviously is carrying the hefty load of about at least 40,000 of those sold discs......sony...gawd their retards...^

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Dude..lmao there not talking about the Blockbuster rental chain there talking about movie that was a very good seller in the theaters...lol

Originally posted by halen5150:

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The bottom line I'm getting at here is that they may have claimed to have sold "1 Million" discs; but first; I would call the numbers skewed since they included blockbuster [come on, that's like cheating..lol..

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Sony never claim anything in this article..it was the Home Media Research group...lmao

^^^

Just thought I should point out that when the article was talking about blockbuster movies, I really don't think it was referring to Blockbuster the rental store lol. I think it's talking about blockbusters as in the big, popular and widely anticipated movies that everyone wants to see... yano... blockbusters lol.

Originally posted by rihgt682:

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Didn't ps3 came with a movie?

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it was a free coupon was it not?

Halen5150 :
omg i cant believe you thought they were talking about Blockbuster Video!! LMAO!!!!

Read the article again, but this time comprehend it before going on a mindless rant. Dont get pissed of because you bought an HD-DVD player, im sure it will turn around soon. ;)

It came with that Ricky Bobby movie... plus Sony handed out free copies of Casino Royale. There's probally half their 1,000,000 right there.

No it wasn't free coupon...People stop with this coupon or free voucher crap..The US launch PS3 came with Talladega Nights if you got a PS3 in the US on Nov1706.The UK launch had James Bond:Casino Royale but you had to be the first 300,000 to sign up online to get a copy.The BD voucher was for select titles only.One from all the movie studio's that made BD movies(All first Gen BD titles) plus they was mail in coupons...lol 10 dollars off thats all.You could only get back 70 dollars that all & you could not mail them all in at the same time..I hope this clear up the Free crap people talking about nothing was free...Only the BD that came with the system & only select people got them.The tread say SOLD

NexGen76
so you dont think they are not padding their numbers to look better?
it came with the system so it was sold in a since,never doubt the ingenuity of a a good PR team.

Does it really matter if they sold it to the consumer!? I mean Exposure is exposure, if it came with the PS3, so what, obviously that means that those consumers have Blu-ray players now and Will purchase Blu-ray dvds, thats why HD-DVD is lagging behind, obviously they can't figure out a way to say they have sold 1 million, maybe they should figure out a way to bundle their dvds with the 360 add-on or something

Again, as everyone has before me, c'mon Halen5150, if you're going to go on such a rant, maybe you should read the article more than once LMAO blockbuster hahahaha

This is a good step forward in the Next generation for HD discs and bluray well done but its not over yet.

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Read the article again, but this time comprehend it before going on a mindless rant. Dont get pissed of because you bought an HD-DVD player, im sure it will turn around soon. ;)

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@limelight;

I'm not trying to pi** you off or anything-- but Dude; you yourself shouldn't be dissing me just because of a misinterpretation.....for god's sake; I replied to this article in like 30 secs. so give me a break..lol....but obviously; you decide to assume that I actually bought an hddvd player--that's where you're wrong; I specifically said that I was neutral about this whole format war because I wasn't just going to turn into one of those 'gotta have it' consumers; so I in true, I have nothing at all to be ashamed of. Like I said before; I'll say it once again; I'll stick with my good 'ole dvds 'till there's decent prices on all of the burners/meida to where I am actually able to protect my investments in the high definition movies i have bought.



P.S. The main purpose of that whole 'mindless rant' as you call it; was actually in fact just more of a way of saying 'FU** You' to Sony----->Telling by the many schemes they've pulled in the past such as the rootkits on cds; and the overly retarded BD+ on new next gen discs; it is obvious that they're just money hungry bastards that religiously are anti-consumer friendly. So; whoever wants to keep getting dooped into buying the DRM filled products which are produced by Sony; then they can go ahead and do it; but I myself will prevent myself from buying anything produced by them if applicable.
^and that's the REAL reason why I think Sony deserves to lose yet another format war.^

Is this how many they sold to retailers or how many retailers have sold to customers?

good question that is. I would not doubt that it was sold as in sold to retailers but without clarification there is not telling.

Also it is not IMPOSSIBLE to consider that some of these numbers DO IN FACT include the 300,000 discs that came with the PS3. How one may ask does giving something away free with a PS3 count as sold? Simply put: It was sold WITH the PS3. Again clarification of this question would seem to be in order by from the crunchers of numbers.

Also the whole rental (as in Blockbuster Inc.) question while not what the article meant (as has been pointed out countless times) is still a valid question as well. Even if just a FEW discs were purchased by the various movie rental companies when you stretch that out over the US (and/or world since again we are not sure if the article is merely talking about the US or not in terms of disc sales-- though it could be infered that it is merely the states since it was the US BD rep making comments in the article) you can easily see the numbers climbing.

Also is this agency reporting these **facts** really nuetral? What is their agenda? Who supports them? Who helped finance the study? Who's on their board? etc etc. Just dont take somebody's words as meaning that they are innocent bystanders who have no vested interest in the outcome. Newspapers dont answer to car lots until local car lots boycott them because they did an unfavorable story about something or another.

Regardless of these unanswered facts from the article there is a KNOWN fact---What is happening TODAY in no way determines what will happen tomorrow. If anyone doubts that go talk to the BetaMax crowd.

Furthermore, Yes the PS3 DOES INCLUDE a way to watch movies. Is that the driving force behind someone BUYING one? Without an UNBIASED study (lol) who really knows! However the answer to that question can MAYBE get extrapolated by looking at the PS2 which also played movies. Just because a device CAN do something does not mean that the majority of the consumers will decide to do that something on said device. Just HOW MANY people regularly used their PS2 instead of their settop DVD box? How many people decided NOT TO BUY a settop DVD box BECAUSE they had a PS2 and it obviously played DVDs so why duplicate a purchase with a settop DVD box?

Another REAL FACT is that the movie studios are basically trying to DICTATE TO THE CONSUMER what device they should buy and telling them the following: IF you want to see MY Fab movie then you MUST buy this device and not that 'other device' says studio X while studio P says If you buy that device then you can't watch MY movie... hahahah....

The REAL QUESTION is does this mindset from these businesses REFLECT the future of consumerism? I mean we think that ultimately when one device begins to **win** that those supporting the loser will slowly jump ship and join the other side, or that some company will see the potential of increase PROFITS (which is what they are in business for and under law are required to focus upon for their shareholders!)... but WHAT IF they now begin to say fcuk you! Buy it or dont we dont care because we know you consumer media junkies will just fold because Ricky Bobby is like oxygen that you cant live without! The sad reality is that MOST consumer are sheep and these sheeple WILL allow big business to bend them over and give it to them like they were a cheap... well you get the idea

lol

Rather a pointless article. There are more than a million dvd disks sold every day.

They're trying to make a point, and it has been made. Due to the PS3 BluRay is currently the pace car in HiDef content media. You can spin it however you want at this point those are the facts. And I love the person that said "it doesn't matter the number of discs you sell, its the amount of stand alone players"

Stop and think. Does that make any sense at all? Discs are near pure profit (hence why you see lots of $5-10 DVDs) so whichever format sells the most media, they make the most profit. PROFIT wins the war boys and girls. This is why Sony, which is a large financial backer behind BluRay (BUT NOT THE ONLY! THERE ARE SEVERAL) included the drive in PS3. Obviously thus far it has worked. The BluRay team looks to be recouping R+D costs faster than the HD-DVD camp. (Funny how nobody hoots and hollars at Toshiba when referencing HDDVD but always points at Sony with BR. It's a phenomenon.)

Originally posted by amb7247:

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Is this how many they sold to retailers or how many retailers have sold to customers?

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Exactly. I take it Walmart has most of them in their warehouse.

First of all, according to the Neilson sales data, it's old news.....so here we are, once again, being treated to some PR spin BS from the BD side.
Manipulative?
Condescending?
Trademark?

1 million might sound an impressive number......until you realise there are supposed to be 3 million PS3s out there and that it has taken them a year.

This merely proves how tiny and immature the BD high def market is.

It's why claims of outselling HD-DVD at anything (depending on the particular month) between 4:1, 3:1, 2:1 or even 1:1 or worse are meaningless right now.

High def has yet to break into the mainstream mass-market, until it does all the noise and waffle about 'leads' and 'being out in front' and most hilariously having already 'won' are just PR BS for the weak thinking and the deluded.

We'll know more in 12mths time once the inexpensive HD-DVD players have arrived - especially those Walmart players (costing them, apparantly a unit price of just $50......how low can they go?), Walmart has 40% of the US DVD market as it is it'll be interesting to see how they go with HD-DVD shortly.

.....and btw with the Neilson figures showing total disc sales still very close HD-DVD is very close to the 1 million level themselves -

Total discs SI as of end of Q1 2007
BD: 1.2 million
HD: 937,500

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Originally posted by halen5150:

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^pfff...1 million discs?? was that whay they said??? Because in my book; the sales from a RENTAL STORE DOESNT NECESSARILY COUNT--I mean; come on; that's retarded to say you've reached a 'million' when in fact Blockbuster obviously is carrying the hefty load of about at least 40,000 of those sold discs......sony...gawd their retards...^

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[quote=NexGen76]Dude..lmao there not talking about the Blockbuster rental chain there talking about movie that was a very good seller in the theaters...lol

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LOL! right when i read the first comment i was going to answer but i checked if someone already corrected him. =] thanks for not being basic.

and for all those who still think HD DVD is going to win. all i have to say is.. pff.

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Originally posted by rihgt682:

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Didn't ps3 came with a movie?

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it was a free coupon was it not?

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the first 400,000 and i think 100,000 got one Blu-ray movie but that was a promo not a sale

why wold an independent research firm try to twist the numbers? anyways, a lot of these rants in here just seem anti-sony as usual. bluray has atleast 3.2 million players out there, all ps3's, plus the standalone players that have been sold. when more ps3 owners have spare cash and blurays come down in price, im sure hddvd will get trampled. plus bluray is alot catchier of a name, its quicker and has a color in it. its early to tell, but bluray seems to be on its way to winning.

Originally posted by anubis66:

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why wold an independent research firm try to twist the numbers?

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- Because in a lot of cases 'independent' turns out not to be very independent at all and actually have several obvious vested interests & direct connections - whch is especially the case with some of the BD backers (like Fox studio/media for instance)

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seem anti-sony as usual.

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- They bring it on themselves.

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bluray has atleast 3.2 million players out there, all ps3's, plus the standalone players that have been sold.

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- BD stand-alone numbers are tiny, BD relies almost entirely on PS3.

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when more ps3 owners have spare cash and blurays come down in price, im sure hddvd will get trampled.

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- Dream on with your wishful thinking.

The mainstream mass-market is going to go for inexpensive HD-DVD, we've seen the Chinese & Walmart deals and BD has no answer, least of all a grossly over-priced mere games console.

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plus bluray is alot catchier of a name, its quicker and has a color in it.

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- LMAO.

HD-DVD has HD and DVD in it, almost everybody knows what it means without even being told.

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its early to tell

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- Not that it's let that stop you for your entire, er, 'rant'? :P

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but bluray seems to be on its way to winning.

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- 1 million discs sold and you think that tells you something significant right now do you?

Tell me, do you know how many SD DVDs were sold last year?
In 2005 it was 732 million ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4640658.stm ).

Is it ever going to dawn on the deluded BD sheep just how minute the total high def market is yet and why these tiny tiny numbers and those absurd percentages and ratios mean absolutely nothing yet?

if they mean nothing, then say the same about hddvd and get on with your life.

Wow a whole lot of mud slinging going on with this article. There is now way to tell the true stats of this article.
#1 Who payed "HMR" for this survey or stat following? I gareentee they did't do it for free. And if Blu Ray paid for it of course they are going to make Blu Ray look good.
#2 As in the world "sold" was is sold campared to? Does it consider sold as in how many are out of the manufactors warehouse, or how many came off retailers sheves?
#3 Does anybody know when the first Blu Ray disc can out compared to when the first HD disc came out?

I could care less who wins. I have just learned that reading articles that throw numbers and stats are very ummmm untruthfull. For exapmle....... Three out of five people interviewed are Dallas Cowboy fans.(Well, those interviews were done in Dallas) Or, I have sold 150 units of a product, well some of those I sold for a quarter of the price, anouther quarter I gave away, but I still count those as part of the 150.

There is no way to tell where "HMR" got there stats, but I only read so far into it.
Just my thoughts
LD

Just buy one of these and your problems will be solved.

Originally posted by anubis66:

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if they mean nothing, then say the same about hddvd and get on with your life.

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- I think you'll find (if you're really that interested in the truth of this) that it isn't the HD-DVD side making these idiotic 'we've won' claims.

I just enjoy providing the truth & bursting the puffed up sad little PR lying BS the BD side are constantly making their hallmark, thanks.

hughjars

Tell me this how is it that everything that is posted is PR spin & proper gander...How would you know this or how is the info you provide is the truth please give it a rest dude.

Originally posted by hughjars:

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Tell me, do you know how many SD DVDs were sold last year?

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Who cares this is so off topic we taking about Hi def market right now not SD market you can't bring up a market that been out for 10 years..lol Everyone with a brain know that it takes time just like the SD market it took 3 year before it got in mass demand so this issue from you is point less.



Blu-ray gets first quarter victory by a landslide
by GamePro Staff | 04/24/2007 | 9:33:40 AM PST

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Recent research data for the year so far pins Sony's Blu-ray as the eventual winner of the HD format wars, as 70% of hi-def discs sold in the first quarter of 2007 were Blu-ray discs.

By Eugene Huang
Casino Royale, the top seller for the first quarter, did much to advance Blu-ray's popularity

Casino Royale, the top seller for the first quarter, did much to advance Blu-ray's popularity

The scales have tipped in the hi-def format war, and the advantage is now all Blu-ray's. According to recent sales data provided by Home Media Magazine and Nielsen VideoScan, Blu-ray is beating HD-DVD by a substantial margin of 70%-30% within the first quarter of 2007.

The figures cite that 1.2 million high-definition discs were purchased from January 1st to March 31st, but of those purchases, 832,530 units were Blu-ray while 359,300 were of HD-DVD format. In terms of total units sold since the initiation of both formats, Blu-ray has sold 1.2 million units while HD-DVD has sold 937,500.

Although HD-DVD held an edge over its rival as late as Q4 2006, the balance of power showed a major shift earlier this year. As GamePro previously reported back in February, the HD home media market began to show signs of significant change as Blu-ray began outselling HD-DVD at a rate of 2 to 1. Within the following month, Blu-ray began outselling HD-DVD at a rate of nearly 3 to 1, or more specifically, 335,980 Blu-ray discs to 119,570 HD-DVDs.

In instances when a specific video title was offered initially in both formats, research shows that Blu-ray has consistently come out on top. Sales data for the film The Departed states that, when released simultaneously on February 13th, consumers purchased 53,640 copies of the Blu-ray edition while 31,590 were sold to HD-DVD users.

Given that the majority of the major film studios are currently backing Blu-ray -- some exclusively -- some analysts predicted HD-DVD to go by the way of Sony's Betamax as early as 2008, but recent sales figures indicate that the toppling of HD-DVD has come much sooner than expected. So far, Universal is the only major studio that caters exclusively to the HD-DVD format, as it claims that the discs are easier and cheaper to produce

http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=109828

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Who cares this is so off topic we taking about Hi def market right now not SD market you can't bring up a market that been out for 10 years..lol

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uhhhh when you think about how many in the world don'tdon't have a next gen player; [or even an HDTV for that matter] it actually would only make sense to bring up SD DVDs in an HD media article; because when it comes down to it--the average consumer does not give a flying **** about a 'better' picture when in fact many don't own a t.v. over 27" [LOL]. I can guarantee you that most will stick it out with standard dvds for as long as possible because of the simple fact that they have something that they can work in simplicity; and they don't want to undergo the overwhelming task of learning about all of this 'new' technology.


..Even though this article isn't *brand new,* it stills offers a good perspective on my view of this subject: http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/10/sobering_though.html




[chill out bd/hddvd fanboys, it's just a joke--->] Besides, who cares about High Definition when you can get ULTRA HIGH DEFINITON!!lol! [see link] >>>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_High_Definition_Video

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Originally posted by anubis66:

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if they mean nothing, then say the same about hddvd and get on with your life.

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- I think you'll find (if you're really that interested in the truth of this) that it isn't the HD-DVD side making these idiotic 'we've won' claims.

I just enjoy providing the truth & bursting the puffed up sad little PR lying BS the BD side are constantly making their hallmark, thanks.

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amen!

who cares right now.....

why start fan boy wars before these formats have fully taken off?

why back one company and not the other when clearly niether has won yet?

i mean do you lot get boners say $ony got PWN3D !!!!!on111111!1111TEH11111!!!1111!1!!11ZOMG!

let them battle it out first......

all of this crap talk is pointless, most of the time these kind of discussions are started by the companies when they start running gossip about the other company, i think that those who support HD-DVD are making a decision way too fast, i am neutral and don't quite care right now about supporting a company, the fact is that BD looks like one of those things that will only be used for backing up, since they talk about making 50 gb discs, and they also say they will make them with even bigger capacities, same thing happens with computers, they had a big fight about macs and pcs, in the end pcs are sold to people who don't care about "big" capabilities, does anyone with a pc have 3 terabytes of hard drive??? i don't think so, or 16 gb of ram?? don't think so, that's because a mac can go easily over 20 grant, same thing here, those who just don't want to pay for quality same a lot of bs about BD, whenever they need to back up their 80 gb hard drive in a dvd, they will shut their mouth and buy BD, me, i don't quite care about either one really, i will wait until we find out who ran out of money for trying to outrun the competition, when these format are the standar i will worry about it, for now, regular dvds woohoo!!!

mglez86/REAM
when you stop and look closely at BR and HDVD you notice a ferw things BR has at max 20GB more space tougher DRM and a higher price most of their decisions have been sloopy at best the only real thing they have is backing from studios and thats waneing.

Hdvd has had a clearer vision of the future its a bit cheaper to make they have a HDVD+DVD disc that can run on normal DVD players and the HD side on HDVD player the HDVD design is similar to DVD.

All in all Hdvd is a bit better off but even if its "true" or not the war will rage on for at least 3 more years.

hddvd is nothing but dvd on steroids. it doesn't utilize much if any new technology. why should we stick to old technology? lets try something newer and get better with it.

anubis66
because the newer tech needs allot more polish and is to costly,much like with beta max v VHS war consumers are cheap and will go to the cheapest thing avabliable and because of its price BR is on shaky ground .

Both formats are so evenly matched saying one is better because its newer is silly all BR has is space the DL discs are still having issues all in and all HDVD is running a tighter more clean ship thats why I think it will survive I'd rather have BR with more space to archive on but realistically if they don't get dirty with the price war and under cut the competition in price they wont get anywhere.

i think we should try both old and new, than have an opinion, everyone runs their mouths without something to back them up other than the gossip created by both companies! i don't have an opinion yet, so i don't support either yet, both sound good for those who want more quality, one is cheaper and the other has more space, even 20 gb is more either way you look at it. so i'll just wait, and just for those who want it, ok cheaper sounds good.... for now.

Originally posted by anubis66:

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hddvd is nothing but dvd on steroids. it doesn't utilize much if any new technology. why should we stick to old technology? lets try something newer and get better with it.

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but they both run under the same basic premise; Use a blue laser to read smaller pits.

check the aperture sizes. we need to get advance our parts, not keep them the same cheap and old designs so some big wig makes more cash off it. plus, where is the creativity or ingenuity?

Originally posted by anubis66:

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check the aperture sizes. we need to get advance our parts, not keep them the same cheap and old designs so some big wig makes more cash off it. plus, where is the creativity or ingenuity?

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Bought and sold and hidden away from the consumer because creativity and ingenuity tend to bring lower prices for more product(example digital distro).

if BR had "working" 100GB discs that could run on all players and only be a bit more in cost I would vote for BR now but sadly BR has a ton of issues and HDVD seems to focused on where its going BR needs more lab time to become a finished product HDVD is more or less ready for the consumer,now given its going to be 3-6 years till a winner is made BR has a chance to gain the full attention of the consumer still.

I have to admit that i was more for HD-DVD until i recently went tv shopping and have learned that br is the only way to get 1080p true hd. i have to admit that after learning this it would seem logical that br will most likely be the domenant format in this war. i for one have decided to buy a new generation samsung LNT series LCD flat panel and br will be the dvd player i opt to go with.

Originally posted by cappyx:

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I have to admit that i was more for HD-DVD until i recently went tv shopping and have learned that br is the only way to get 1080p true hd.

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uhh...

I think someone lied to you.

that doesn't say much does it? if you are gonna say that someone is lying probe it, i think it would help him clear his mind, cheers.

x_x

oofRome is correct. Someone gave cappyx the wrong information.

The Toshiba HD-A20 and HD-XA2 can output 1080p thru HDMI.

You can also get 1080p from the XBox 360 HD-DVD add-on thru VGA if your display supports this (like the later model Samsung DLP's).

eatsushi:
is that toshiba 720p upscaled to 1080p or is it true 1080p?

everyone, thanks for the input i did some research and found this to be true that HD-DVD is 1080p compatible. looking at the dvds on circuit city it is difficult to determine what format any is recorded in or are they all done in 1080?

looks like i'm back to where i was wait for the winner and in the meentime maybe get a ps3 which plays br dvds.

cappyx: ALL HD-DVD's (and BluRay for that matter) are encoded at 1080p on the disc - this is required as a spec. So if you play an HD-DVD on the models I mentioned the signal is NOT UPSCALED. It's 1080p from the disc and 1080p at the HDMI output.

eatsushi: thanks that is very helpful. off hand do you know who has most of hollywoods support? ie which format has the most new release big hit movies.

There has been a theoretical study done of the movie numbers each 'side' can field.

It worked out to 40k titles for HD DVD and 48k for BD.

As things stand now (or rather then).

Right now each side has around 140 titles available.

Nominally BD has the larger studio support but HD DVD has better global support (which is how come many titles that are BD exclusive in the USA are not elsewhere and are available on HD DVD......it also helps that HD DVD has no region coding).

But things change.....just look at the BD exclusive hardware manufacturers and what has happened there.

BD announced 250 titles would be released this year at CES 2007 and the HD DVD side announced 600 titles would be available at the end of 2007.
So, this year HD DVD will have the better 'support' in terms of available content.

It's also true that BD's content is kind of one-dimensional, there's a lot of adolescent Fox action type stuff......ie the PS3 demographic.
Some do not find that especially appealing at all.

But as we have seen with the previously 'ex-BD exclusive' hardware manufacturers (LG and Samsung have recently abandoned that stance and gone over to making HD DVD hardware too or dual format players) nothing is certain.

If the Toshiba HD DVD stand-alone continues to sell well - particularly as the price drop throughout the year - and the 3 inexpensive Chinese HD DVD players (which are coming in addition to any Walmart deal) prove to be the volume sellers many expect
then we could well see some of those previously BD exclusive studios going to a dual format neutral stance.

The 'war' such as it will be won't really begin until the end of the year and may last 12 - 24mths - although if PS3 attachment rates stay so low it may not last particularly long.

this story sounds all to familiar. Sony has decided to ban porn from its catalogue as they did with betamax and now HD-DVD is going to have low priced budget players available from china. the writing is on the wall here from what i can see and reviews i have read concerning br it will most likely not succeed and HD-DVD will more than likely win this battle. while some manufactures will make dual format players really most people want one single format that they can go to the store and pick a title off the shelf. I am almost tempted to go ahead and jump in on the HD-DVD camp and grab a player.

Samsung abandoning their previous 'BD exclusive' hardware manufacturing status was a massive indicator IMHO.
Ditto LG.

Samsung were the first and biggest seller of BD stand-alones.

Obviously they could see BD was becoming little more than a PS3 proprietary format and so have jumped ship to get as big a return as they can out of both formats
(the initial BD investment was huge and cost those involved loads).

Anyone wanting to dip their toe in the water and who has a reasonable decent and recent PC should just go for a XBox 360 HD DVD add-on.
I gather these are selling in some US stores for between $72 and $100.
http://news.punchjump.com/article.php?id=4099

I've seen £113 in the UK -
http://mediaatlantic.com/product.php?xProd=107456

Talk about a bargain.

There will be 600 HD DVD movies available by the end of this year and there will be even more coming next, no matter what happens in this so-called 'war'.

With a decent PC running the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on and supplying the software all of the sound limitations seen when using the XBox 360 base unit vanish (although full DTS sound is coming for that later this year which will improve matters significantly).

more so than not the HD-DVD add on for xbox 360 is 200 dollars. it appears as though one person got some kind of extrrem discount.

i would just buy a stand alone HD-DVD player if i were to get on board the HD-DVD camp and for gaming a ps3. the ps3 comes with the br player built in and ready to go so if br fails no big loss the ps3 will continue forth as a gamming unit. the ps3 is the best unit for me as all audio and video support is via one HDMI cable and while xbox has the HDMI option it is limited by audio which currently does not support 5.1 or DTS via HDMI connection. simply for me the days of (rats nest) wires are over and i want one HDMI cable via a switch or reciever to go to the tv. all audio formats must be supported in this connection as the tv has an optical output that can channel to the reciever. no more switching tv video sources no more rats nest essentialy every thing supplied by onr HDMI cable, one power wire and one fiber optic wire ie three very thin wires vs the 20+ fat wires i have now!

my prediction is that just like in the 80's sony will start making hybrid players that support both formats.

CrappyX
yes the 360 has incomplete HDMI however how many people use their TV for more than 2 channel sound?
I understand some have a full receiver box thos tend to be 300+ by them selfs all in all its a annoyance but nothing 2$ worth of wire ties wont fix,in some ways its better than sonys ps3 thats 250 more(20-50$ for HDMI cable)

all in all the more they fix the 360 the more it needs to be fixed and the PS3 is still way to costly.

In the next 10 years
45%Dual formats is the new format
25%HDVD is the new format
20%BR is the new format
10% both formats wind up PC storage/replaced by something else.

zippy,
Again just like microsoft does with a pc the xbox requires tie wraps and patch cables. the HDMI is suppose to be a single connection that will support all audio and video data.. did microsoft forget this? if i have a audio reciever that accepts HDMI why would i want 2 cables tie wraps and patch jobs compared to a clean installation???
the real question here is why does xbox make you pay 200 bucks for an add on to play HD-DVD and does not have full audio support of HDMI... oh i forgot that's how they design thier pcs.

cappyx
ya but that add on is "optional" and it can run on the PC.

Don't get me wrong MS has screwed up the 360 and elite by skirting on the cheap,however MS offers a better all around package $ for $ than the PS3 dose.

Now I might see the PS3 as nothing more than a game system thus why I will not pay more than 400 for it it dose offer the better Hdef hardware MS is being arrogant and sloppy in its approach to Hdef sony is being arrogant and sloppy with its manufacturing/marketing and price..

zippy.. exactly this is how i see my game system " a seperate entity from my dvd sysytem" i just have no need of a HD-DVD player on my pc i don't care to watch movies on it instead i have a panasonic 30" HDTV right next to me in my office for tv, dvd etc.

i agree that 600 is steep for a ps3 however eventually it will be 400 then i'll get one i'll use it for games and br rentals from net flix while i wait for HD-DVD players to become 200 bucks.

it is just silly that ms has done this with thier HDMI connection and now i have no use for thier system. i'll be honest it really wouldn't matter at this point if ms decided to make the HDMI connection fully adaptable as they have already lost me as a customer with the bs they have pulled with not only this issue also the over heating issue and thier resolution to it.

juat to show you how much the HDMI single connection means to me i am getting ready to order the new tv, replace my dvd player with a upscaler recorder full HDMI, and a new 1600 dollar yamaha HDMI switching amplifier. all this so i can have one fully digital cable connection. what this means is that the signal will be digital until it hits the screen or speakers but there will be no more need for optical cables, analog cables, tie wraps or rats nest of wires. it will be a very clean and pleasing looking wall installation and that samsung also has a (power tilt and swivel option)when wall mounted controlled from its remore. it will be so nice to see all these cables and wires just go away and unfortunatly xbox does not fit into this picture.

Originally posted by cappyx:

---

zippy.. exactly this is how i see my game system " a seperate entity from my dvd sysytem" i just have no need of a HD-DVD player on my pc i don't care to watch movies on it instead i have a panasonic 30" HDTV right next to me in my office for tv, dvd etc.

i agree that 600 is steep for a ps3 however eventually it will be 400 then i'll get one i'll use it for games and br rentals from net flix while i wait for HD-DVD players to become 200 bucks.

it is just silly that ms has done this with thier HDMI connection and now i have no use for thier system. i'll be honest it really wouldn't matter at this point if ms decided to make the HDMI connection fully adaptable as they have already lost me as a customer with the bs they have pulled with not only this issue also the over heating issue and thier resolution to it.

juat to show you how much the HDMI single connection means to me i am getting ready to order the new tv, replace my dvd player with a upscaler recorder full HDMI, and a new 1600 dollar yamaha HDMI switching amplifier. all this so i can have one fully digital cable connection. what this means is that the signal will be digital until it hits the screen or speakers but there will be no more need for optical cables, analog cables, tie wraps or rats nest of wires. it will be a very clean and pleasing looking wall installation and that samsung also has a (power tilt and swivel option)when wall mounted controlled from its remore. it will be so nice to see all these cables and wires just go away and unfortunatly xbox does not fit into this picture.

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=====================================================================
Sony misread the tea leafs and MS ate them both are suffering from delusions of adequacy....blah

Originally posted by cappyx:

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i just have no need of a HD-DVD player on my pc i don't care to watch movies on it instead i have a panasonic 30" HDTV right next to me in my office for tv, dvd etc.

---

- What's so hard about a streaming wi-fi hi def DVD player?
Or a discreet cable link?

Presumably you will still want some sort of SD DVD player for a while so a high res streaming DVD player (like the Buffalo, Zensonic, Kiss or AVeL).
HD VMD will also offer an option for downloaded HD content too using DVD5, DVD9 & DVD18, all with existing inexpensive red laser tech.

Taking high def content from your PC is an option more and more people are going for - in fact downloading and running off of a PC is IMO a much under-rated competitor whilst the entire high def market is so small and immature (particularly as the entire 'library' of high def movies released to date are avialbale as either straight rips) or (usually) DVD5 or DVD9 sized h264, x264 or HD Xvid/HD DivX high quality compressed files (and if the source is HD DVD or BD they really can be of very high quality).

ps3, wii, and xbox360 are all winners cause they are getting all the fanboys money. lol when will these fanboys stop that loyalty crap

diableria: thank you very well put. I for one will buy what i feel suits my needs at that time and who ever is making the better product will be getting my cash. i guarentee you that xbox and ps3 don't give a crap about thier fan boys.

hughjars: i have dish network HDTV via hd-dvr why would i want to use my pc to stream a dvd? i use my pc for pc type items and my tv for tv type items. i tried the tuner cards in that past and all that bs and found a much happier solution to plant a tv next to me for that junk. my computer runs so smooth without games and streaming hd-dvds on it i would not want to change that.