Will HD DVD have an answer to the "W" bomb?
 

All signs (so far, CES cancellation) point to no but I simply can't see Microsoft or Toshiba giving up on HD DVD that easily. There has to be a move they can make. What do you guys think? Is HD DVD really dead?

No. There is really nothing they can do. I said from day one that Warner going exclusive to either side was the end of the war and it is. They are the studio with the biggest catalog and the most influence. HD DVD is done.

I see them cutting hardware even more as that is really all they can do. Expect Universal and Paramount to bail as soon as they can.

It's over.

Dead as a door nail.

It's near end game, though. Within 2 years, Toshiba will give up, and by then I'd think Paramount and Universal would've at least gone neutral if not all the way blue.

OT: Do you think once HD-DVD is officially dead, will Sony try and go after the HD-DVD title (logos, etc)? Or will they stick with "Blu Ray"?

No need to worry about HD DVD as a name. They have established Blu-ray well enough.

Definitely stick with Blu-ray.

Would be interesting if MS offers WB, say, a shitload of cash and offers to pay for the manufacturing plants--hey, maybe Sony did this. Then WB makes another pressa announcement. At this point, who knows. It's interesting to watch it, though.

Come on, Disney, take that M$ money and make it fun again.

They may want to consider dropping the "Disc" from the name, since nobody bothers to say it.

It's called "Blu Ray Hi Def" now.

Only thing MS can do is pay money for Disney and LGF to go HD DVD only. It won't happen.

LGF isn't worth paying to go exclusive. They're a good company, but their titles are not what's going to draw a mass audience to a format.

Microsoft has always said the future of HD movies was downloads. They really don't care about HD-Dvd. They wanted the format war to kill both of them so they could push VOD. Now that it's over, I doubt they'll do anything except push downloads. And Disney is completely pro-Bluray and would never switch. They've been one of the major Bluray advertisers. Game over man.

HD-DVD porn free with players?

I agree.

Although someone opined that MS offering money to Disney might get things going back the other way, I wouldn't hold by breath. With Steve Jobs being Disney's single largest stockholder and part of Disney's board of directors, not even MS has enough money to swing that deal.

I doubt Toshiba is just going to roll over. As I see it, their only real options are to 1) continue to slash prices on players and 2) push their studio partners to substantially cut prices on discs in order to entice consumers.

However, it's probably too little, too late.

I think if they had aimed for lower media prices than BR, but still kept them higher than DVD, they would have made significant inroads at the consumer level and made things more difficult for BR. HD-DVD's really significant advantage was that discs were easier and less expensive to produce than BR. They failed to take advantage of this. Probably because they couldn't... with below cost retail prices on players (there's no way $100 HD-DVD players are anything but below cost) and only one significant HD-DVD player manufacturer (Toshiba), their only real money had to come from royalties on media sales, so media prices couldn't go lower.

I've always held the opinion that the cost of media (content) is more important than the cost of the hardware that plays the content. Although a different media, Apple's iPod is a perfect example of this. Content (music) is relatively cheap (or even no cost)... the player is expensive.. even moreso than a lot of competitor players.

A lesson too late to do Toshiba any good, I think.

I'm sure they have some kind of contingency plan, but I doubt it will change the inevitable outcome. Even the supposed "HD DVD drive in every 360" rumor, which has been consistently denied by Microsoft, would be a pointless gesture, I think.

Well, this is like blaming Sony for something Paramount decided to do on their own. Toshiba never had control of the movie studios, and they went where the money was. If anything, it was Microsoft who didn't step up to the plate more aggressively when it came to PC/HD DVD integration and video game console integration.

Since the 360 launch, we've seen Elite, premium HDMI, and Falcon. Those re-issues of the 360 should have focused on internal HD-DVD, with an ad campaign to counter PS3/BD. Oh well, as I posted in another thread, I'm glad to have an HD-DVD player that uses the same inputs on my AV Receiver as my game console, but still...

Rumor has it that Bill Gates was/is going to announce a new variation on the XBox 360 with a built in hd-dvd player at the CES. The MS press conference will be interesting.

Sorry! Blue Wins! The Empire has won!

If Bill Gates really wanted to, he could change this outcome very easily.
Oh well, Sony and MS are both pretty evil and customer hostile IMO,

maybe they can get exclusive rights to Brentwood or Goodtimes, and flood the HD market in stores like Big lots, and Dollar General.

No. I think the war is over, plain and simple. This is the media equivalent of dropping the A-bomb. There is no recovery, only acceptance of defeat. I'm done with my HD buying until BR players drop in price.

rotfl

There isn't much that they could do in response to this. Outside of buying one of these studios and forcing them to HD-DVD. Or maybe buying Sony. :lol:

For anyone still waiting for a response, the HD DVD PRG has now canceled its One on One Executive meetings in addition to the 2 hour CES Press Conference.

Here is the link:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=10234

:lol: That's a great picture on the article!

You can just feel the depression coming off the HD camp in that statement.

Not really. I know Toshiba was not in this alone. The whole HD-DVD group is responsible... but Toshiba could have (or should have, if they weren't) pushing partners into keeping disc prices as low as possible. Lower than BR, but higher than DVD. The one real consumer advantage of HD-DVD and disadvantage of BR was disc production costs. HD-DVD studios chose to monetize that difference rather than take advantage of it to grow consumer marketshare.

Content is king and cheap(er) content can move markets.

As for MS's involvement, I think MS has a tendency to become involved in some things more for the purposes of muddying current waters (HD disc media) for their own later advantage in another arena... movie downloads. Where MS is still trying to sell the studios on their brand of DRM and the advantage they can bring to the market with the ubiquitousness of their OS/software in the PC/TV convergence arena.

But the studios aren't buying. They're greedy, but not stupid (at least not completely). They don't want to give up anything, particularly money or control, and MS is a control freak of a corporation that desperately wants to get their fingers into as many pies as possible. I think this, more than anything else, is why the studios haven't climbed into bed with MS. They've read the news... they know how MS treats partners and that MS can't be trusted. For the most recent example, look at how MS pulled the rug out from under it's "Plays For Sure" associates. IMHO, MS is it's own worst enemy.

And just because I'm ragging on MS doesn't mean Sony gets a pass. I think a lot of those in the HD-DVD camp are there because of Sony's rootkit debackle, and who can blame them. But, as far as partnership arrangements are concerned, I think Sony learned from the BetaMax fiasco, where their failure is primarily attributable to trying to go it alone. By the time they got a clue, it was too late.

I hope this isn't dragged out. I wish Universal and Paramount would cancel all their upcoming releases and re-release them as blu-rays.

Why re-release? Offer free HD DVD releases. :up:

That would work too.

I'd settle for neutral releases.

No reason to stop those willing to buy already announced HD DVD's from buying them if they want to.

Personally I was going to buy both Zodiac and Into The Wild, but at $25 each, I think I will wait for things to settle or buy them if they show up under $15.

This will NEVER happen, but they could come to an agreement and start to make combo discs for Blu and HD. One side Blu the other HD. Everyone still happy.

An OT ?... I know the Blu Ray players need to be updated via firmware updates and usually require you to download files and burn them on to discs that need to be placed in the players and then they install. Does the PS3 download these updates through the PSN and eliminate the need to burn the discs and go through that process?

That's the one thing I liked about HD DVD, a network connection was REQUIRED and firmware updates were delivered when you needed them. Not as big a chance of having a problem then having a person have to burn it themselves.

Except all the rational people who DETEST COMBOS!!

I update firmware on my PS3 by downloading the file on my PC, copying to a USB flash drive, and plugging the drive into the PS3, and updating...

As you said; This will NEVER happen

Not required at all. You can d/l and burn the updates from Toshiba, or get on their mailing list and they'll send you update CDs as they become available.

I know that is an option, but is it the Blu Ray firmware updates, or the Playstation updates?

I guess what I am really asking is when Playstation sends out their updates for the PS3, do they include any Blu Ray player firmware updates, or do you have to update the firmware of the Blu Ray player separately?

It is an all in one firmware update.