i was thinkin about this earlier and wondering if this would even be possible. i'm sure it's not for obvious reasons i'm not thinking of but still curious to know or not from you hd experts.

Could they? anything's possible.
should they? no.

"There Can Be Only One!"

**WINDOWS EXPLODING EVERYWHERE****

they do

Dvd-r/w Dvd+r/w Dvd-ram

Not to mention Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo. There has always been at least two formats in video games, why not movies?

because movies and video games are two totally completely different mediums.

CD's? Nope.

CD, SACD, and DVD-Audio.

I think they will co-exist ...

No shit.

Where are those latter two now?

I think its too late for that - unlike video games where console exclusives have been the norm since the inception, the customer has always had everything available to them in one format, first VHS and now DVD. Formats that came along to compete never really managed to survive in the face of another (Beta, LD, that HD tape format).

I think that if the market continues to make customers choose, they take option 3, not choose and stick with DVD (option 4, neither side caves and VOD services come in and knock them both down)

how many of these threads do we need?

I agree.

Was talking to a friend last night. If HD DVD suddenly died today, I'd just go back to SD DVD and be done with it.

I agree.

Was talking to a friend last night. If HD DVD suddenly died today, I'd just go back to SD DVD and be done with it.

Or the first one?

As software mediums they can coexist I think, onc ewe see more "Dual-Format" players it will make it easier for people to "jump in" that way they dont ahve to choose they can get any movie they want and play it. THis way each "side" can keep their respective formats and everyone can enjoy HD

Apparently 90% of Universals releases for 2007 will be combos. If they were to stop pressing the SD-only titles which are being released as combos, that might cause a lot of people to buy into HD DVD. Think it will happen?

I think it's possible....but I have no idea why this is brought up here.

There's already a thread about that.

I know Sony is still releasing SACDs but DVD-Audio I don't know.

This is a great point and if they want HD-DVD to win this is what they will do. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Universal have the largest library of movies?

DVD-A is dead and buried, but I'm still buying SACDs. Granted both formats were pretty much failures.
If the format war goes on too long though I guess this could easily be the fate of both HD DVD and Blu-ray. Don't know. I showed off HD DVD to several people last year trying to get them excited by the format, but none of them bit on the new tech and continue to watch SD DVDs on their HDTVs. Many just don't want any part of a format war or a $500 player.

That would be Warner I believe. I'm really worried that Warner will go fully TotalHD. I have no idea why that bothers me so much, but it seems a way for disc prices to just go higher and a guarantee the format war will never end.
For some reason TotalHD seems like the death of both HD formats instead of its savior.

I would rather have one fail than both survive. Even if HD DVD died tomorrow, I wouldn't care. Then it would be easier to buy HD product knowing there's no competition.

It bothers me because I don't want to pay for Blu-Ray!

I certainly don't see TotalHD as HD's savior. To date, I think competition has been the best thing for each format. Combining the two has the potential for propping up a failing format (and, no, I am not saying one format or the other is failing at this point) while basically neutering the other. It's kind of like grading on a curve; the kid who sits in the back of the room eating paste and boogers gets rewarded for the efforts of the kid who goes home and studies for 3 hours every night.

Let the formats compete! The world needs doctors AND fry cooks . . .

They're still in stores, proving that downloads will co-exist with physical media but not replace them.

I've thought about why it is different for video games, and the best I can come up with is that games tend to be more "disposable." While there is a collectors' market out there (and they are the last people who should be complaining about two formats; they will gladly buy consoles that stopped production long ago), for the most part people play games and then stop. They "beat" games and then move on to new games.

With movies, people want to hold on to them for as long as they can. Remember how worried people on the forum were when it was unsure whether the new disc players would be compatible with DVD? While backwards compatibility is appreciated with video games, it's not required.

Another thing is that people understand that video games have to be specifically programmed for each system. While there are a lot of ports, there are games that could not be done on another system, especially if the system has something unique like the DS's touchscreen. With movies, there's no good reason why they can't be on one format.