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So Toshiba conceded in the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD battle and all of their mates quickly fell with them. Since then things haven’t gotten better for the consumer. Sure your new PS3 comes with a Blu-Ray player and that makes it a nice format, but HD-DVD had affordable prices for both its players and discs, Blu-Ray players are still astronomically priced almost making the PS3 the most economical option.
I like the fact that Blu-Ray is constantly adding new features and overall making its technology a better purchase for the consumer. The broad market for BD players though makes it hard to figure out which one to buy and with some companies pushing the market upwards of $2000 for a Blu-Ray player things are starting to get ridiculous.
Then there is the fact that a single company, Sony, still controls the sole production of a number of Blu-Ray components which almost means that getting Sony’s approval to enter the market is a must. That means that it’s not likely that you’ll be seeing an affordable BD player hitting the shelves under some generic electronics manufacturer’s name, and if competition, such as Microsoft, try and add the technology to their systems, Sony has the power to make that a lot harder task than you might imagine.
I wrote an article last week I believe about the likelihood of Microsoft adding Blu-Ray to their Xbox 360’s and the biggest concern wasn’t how, or whether the hardware would support it, it was whether Sony would allow the OEM who won the contract to purchase sufficient numbers of the requisite parts to make the drives. Then I see headlines fairly regularly regarding the Blu-Ray association limiting who is allowed to produce the disks which will serve its purpose of keeping low quality or knockoff disks off of the market, but will also keep prices of the discs up.
So, what are your thoughts? Are you still grasping tightly to your HD-DVD player and small collection of HD-DVDs? Or have you fully accepted Blu-Ray as your savior and switched your entire collection over to Blu-Ray? Maybe next time everyone will further consider the merits of each format instead of just going with the one that’s integrated into their new gaming system.
I have an HD DVD standalone that was a total bargain (inc 7 free discs), an HD DVD PC ROM drive (that cost peanuts and is only used for HD DVD) and another HD DVD standalone tucked away for any (unlikely) breakages.
I’m covered for the next 10yrs at least.
Until the next high def format takes off and is established.
By any sane reckoning HD DVD has given me far more highly spec’d hardware & content for my money compared to any Blu-ray option
(accepting that - still - not one Blu-ray standalone is close to the HD A35 in price/specs).
But I won’t be putting any of my money into Blu-ray.
I just don’t believe it is a durable format, even if it does outlast HD DVD and I certainly don’t see Blu-ray making it into the mass-market and taking over from DVD.
From now on I’ll be expanding my collection of HD DVDs very cheaply, enjoying HD on my HD TV via my HD DVR & satellite service and downloading whatever I fancy (thanks to BD+ now being broken every Blu-ray movie released to date is now available either as a straight rip or a 1080p or 720p encode.
Maybe in a few of years a Blu-ray burner might (might) be of interest when (or if) their hardware & media prices get to around what DVD burners are now; but tbh I doubt Blu-ray will get that cheap that quickly and I’m not sure they can really afford the take-up being that slow.
Well I’m sticking with HD DVD for now because of the price, I may pick up a PS3 later in the year but mainly for games Blu is just a bonus. No chance of a stand alone player for a long time.
All the HD DVD supporters SCREAMED this would happen but it didn’t matter because most Blu-Ray owners were the VERY loyal PS3 guys (why Sony shoe-horned it in the console in the first place) so the uptake of the format was much higher.
Funny thing is two formats were not the cause of slow uptake, stupid exclusive “incentives” for studios from both camps confused things greatly for consumers but the biggest cause was price. Both formats offer very little over an upscaled DVD to justify the high mark up. In fact with the price of HD DVD crashing with it’s demise I actually hear more and more people getting HD DVD to tide them over for a few years until Blu is much cheaper. Who would have thought….
Yeah it totally better for the consumer. For one the quality is far superior to dvd and if you’re into collecting movies you can rest assured that your disks will last because it is pretty tough to scratch the disks. This latter feature is really nice because it means you don’t have to replace bad disks. The prices aren’t that expensive at all. Amazon is always having sales and most are in the $20 - $30 range which is a pretty good deal. It wasn’t long ago that dvd’s were that price.
I am loving my blu-ray :) and my 52″ 1080p aquos.
Any side winning would have been good news - although as a PS3 owner, I’m happy it was Blu-Ray.
The fact that Sony has the most to gain from the Blu-Ray victory is largely irrelevant, given that Toshiba had a virtual monopoly on HD-DVD.
Yeah, if you can’t afford the price of a Blu-Ray player, then how are you supposedly affording the TV to play it on?
Morne
Btw, I’m absolutely happy with the performance of the BD Version of Planet Earth on my 47″ LG HDTV running at 1080p. Gotta love it.
“HD-DVD had affordable prices for both its players and discs.”
First of all, Toshiba lost 1 billion dollars selling HD DVD players. And secondly, the Blu-ray discs were the same price and $5 cheaper than the HD DVD/DVD combo discs.
“Sony still controls the sole production of a number of Blu-Ray components.”
Name one. There’s ALMOST no component difference between an HD DVD player and a Blu-ray player.
Wow, talk about bitter!!! LOL! Can’t say i blame you though, investing in all the HD -DVD gear like you did…take the column author’s advice, “next time further consider the merits of each format”…sucker…HAHAHAHA
I did not purchase either format and for now I am satisfied with my upconverting dvd player.
This article was written by an uninformed bias person all who read it should know that sony
1. must make a profit from their investment
2. will obviously never sell the disc at the price of a regular dvd that would be billions of their own dollars wasted on a product that wont make them any more money than what they already make
3. Is NOT the sole proprietor of blu ray, its technologies, or components.
4. Has openly invited every company under the hd camp to join in the blu ray campaign. and originally before the format war asked toshiba and its member to help in the creation of blu ray
5. is already working with microsoft to create a blu ray system to work with the xxxbox garbage.
6. will obviously not give all of its technologies to the competition. thats just stupid. its a business.
7.will never allow a blu ray game to be released for the xbox 360. come out with your own 50 gb disc or continue making disc 2 disc 3 and disc 4 to play one video game. (haha)
do your research dont feed the public bashing slander towards the blu ray camp and face the fact that the CONSUMER CHOSE blu ray over hd (buy a ps3)
lol you got Betamaxed!!!!!!
i love blu-ray BUT you wanna know the best thing about PS3??? …… NO red rings
60gig PAL PS3 game…looking forward to most GTAIV & HOME & LBP
i dont mind being called a sony fanboy because its true, hell they make the best stuff!!! now if i was sayyyy a Philips fanboy i would be shamed lol
This pretty much underscores the fact that Sony sucks donkey balls.
I’m just puzzled why people think upscaled DVD players offer nearly the same as a full hi-def player. I guess people who are blind with crap TV just can’t tell the difference?
Owning both a ps3 and the Toshiba HDDVD player I can say that I’ll be using both. Spent $100 on the HDDVD option and got 5 discs, that’s already worth it. If people cry BD is too expensive, odds are they have a shitty TV anyways.
who give a damn about hd-dvd anymore, just stop crying because you bought the losing format.
plus the damn hd-dvd red-pink case was ugly.
It is over, stop whinning.
I have both formats- I have an A3 with 22 HD movies (HD DVDs are cheap if you can still find them!) and a PS3 with four movies. I also have about (80+ DVDs. I generally buy movies for the content- not for the resolution they come in I doubt i would really appreciate Ghostbusters or Blazing Saddles at 1080p)
I think the current price of BluRay movies is insane- they are back up to $30 for an old -*** movie that I can buy for $10 in standard DVD format (or $5 on sale at BestBuy/WalMart). The BluRay movies I do own comprise of two used movies for $15 each and a ‘buy one get one free’ sale at Target. $15 is about the price BluRay should be if the BDA hopes to gain acceptance in an ‘average’ household (I know they are trying to recoup some of their losses, but they need to think a little more long-term and accept a slower recovery).
If/when BluRay discs every get down to $10-$15 each (and much less when on sale) I may consider upgrading more of my favorite movies to HD (but every HD DVD I buy also means one less BluRay purchase). This is where good ‘ole NetFlix comes in- I can watch 15-18 BluRay movies for $20/month and wait until the prices do drop! :o)
The public “DID NOT CHOOSE” blu ray at all , It was sony paying $100 mil + to best-buy ,block buster , circuit city etc… that choose blurray for the general public .
Now all you ignorant tard fanboys can suck it up while sony forces you into crazy insane monopoly pricing over the next 10 years while keeping other HD camps at bay.
I cant wait to see the complaints of you retards when you have to start replacing them low quality built bluray disc that scratch with the breeze . Sony does not build the best quality merchandise .
In 10 years things will not be as you think they are at this moment in time after the nazi sony camp starts the sand paper cornholing thats on the way …