It still isn't all bright and sunny even with this victory. Sony literally gave away their extremely lucrative video game dominance to Microsoft in the US and UK and Nintendo pretty much world wide to have Blu-ray and the Cell in the PS3.

Blu-ray next has to be a winner not over HD DVD, but over standard DVD for any of this to have been worth it. They still have a slim chance to catch up to the 360 and Wii, but that chance looks about as slim as HD DVDs chances were when this war started and we see how that ended.

Sony still may be the big loser in all of this if Blu-ray remains a niche format.

BTW, I also think Toshiba's next move is to go combo player. They may be the first company to actually make a good one. I hope so as that ends any worry about what percentage of the collection is HD DVD or Blu-ray.

Josh, why don't you hold Gizmo to the same standard? Pro-b's points are addressed by by Warner executives in these 2 articles:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g...aSU3QD8TVDBLO0
http://www.n4g.com/News-97212.aspx

1. One exec says explicitly that standalone sales were greater for Blu-ray in December and the other could be seen to imply that by saying they saw HW sales accelerate.
2. Both sides have had BOGOs and HW sales. No excuses. Even when HD DVD had BOGO sales recently Blu-ray still won the week.
3. Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, is cited in the first article as mentioning that international sales were even greater. So apparently international did matter.
4. As for looking at the big picture, Tsujihara talks about looking at 4th quarter sales, how HDM wasn't taking off liked they hoped, and that even DVD sales were being affected. So they were definitely looking at the big picture and what they felt was a "window of opportunity" they didn't want to miss.

Pro-b was spot on with his points.

Then you haven't read enough of his posts. He's very connected. He knew about the deal discussions, which happened last weekend. And pm'd several of the long time members on AVS about it.

Blu!

Let's talk more about the gaming angle. I always felt that Microsoft's refusal to integrate a HD-DVD player into the 360 would come back to haunt them. It appears that it has. Had Microsoft stood to take a hit financially from reduced 360 sales, maybe they would have been convinced to pony up to FOX to come on board. Or to lure Disney previously.

With the rumored 360 Ultimate, too little too late.

I think the next format, whatever that may be (quick & cheap HD downloads?), will catch on before that would happen.

Because, aside from Pro-B himself, I've never known Giz to treat other members condescendingly and disrespectfully with such disdain that he was almost booted from the forum for it.

He also makes it clear that he is stating his opinion, not facts without support.

And for the record Jim, I DID call Giz out in this thread once. :D

I am relatively certain that BD will be the last physical media for video. In the future, it will be on-demand streaming and downloads.

I thought they did a pretty good job with DVD. :rolleyes:

Without WB (and Toshiba) DVD might have become just another niche product.

It will be sad if Blu Ray becomes the only HD format. HD DVD seemed to do everything right: no region coding ever, inexpensive compared to Blu Ray etc. I could never see why so many buyers supported Blu Ray.

My Toshiba player has given me a lot of pleasure over the last year and will continue to do so. I have a large number of HDDVDs and will continue to buy them, hopefully cheaper if the format is going to die. If the only HD format in the future is Blu Ray or more likely the films I want to watch come out on Blu Ray only, then I will buy a BD player. I can't see any reason to sell my player or HD DVDs. They will continue to look and sound great.

And I'd like to see WB's references as well.

BOGO sales sucked for HD DVD owners. WB didn't offer shit for sales with BOGO promos over the last few months, and holy fuck, no wonder. They didn't want HD DVD sales to increase. So, figure that one out. Looks like to me you shouldn't take WB for their word, and with a ton of salt.

By "facts" I hope you mean the same as the "fact" that Sony just spent $1 billion to woo two studios.

The primary motive was a financial one. It's pretty plain and simple.

If you guys want to point to a real reason to speak ill about Sony, just read their CES press release, which touts the Best Booth of ALL TIME:

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/s...96&newsLang=en

Actually it hasn't. MS didn't lose much in HD DVD losing and by not using a HD DVD drive they got their hardware out first and kept it cheaper than the PS3. They are now destroying Sony in hardware and especially software sales in the US and UK. Microsoft was right since winning the video game war was their main focus.

Microsoft, while very involved with HD DVD, is not invested to the level that Sony is. It doesn't make sense to include an HD DVD drive internally into the 360, as it would slow the read times on the games considerably, as it has with the PS3. They had less to gain from HD DVD winning than Sony had to gain with BD winning, so it didn't make sense for them to sacrifice the capabilities of the 360 just to get more HD DVD penetration.

As you should be aware, I am referring to WB's handling of HD content.

I'm not talking about their dealings with DVD in the past, nor how Albert or Harry made a smart move with starting the business which showed movies on a primitive projector to entertainment deprived miners.

I'm talking about WB's handling of HD content. :)

You have to be kidding (no, seriously, I hope that's a joke). It's a three sentence little blurb and it says "This year's HOTTEST BOOTH".

I saw last night that they changed the name. Good times.

And FREE CANDY! :banana:

Thing is though, discs from Japan are the same region as the US and Canada. Also, some discs from the UK..and maybe Europe (not sure) are region free as well.

Daniel, the title is "First Look at Blu-ray CES 2008 Best Booth of All Time"

:lol: I didn't even notice that. Still, that's not the kind of thing that would worry me about Sony. At least they didn't call it the "Best Booth EVAR!" ;)

So, now that WB is on board, are we finally going to hear some high profile title announcements across the board at CES?