I am purple and I loved the format war. I witnessed something in Q4 2007 that I had never seen before in my 30+ years of life. Big companies aggressively cut prices and battled to screw each other. Toshiba HD-DVD players were on sale for $199 at major retailers with 10 free movies. The BDA companies followed suit not long after with similar price cut and free movies. There were BOGOs after BOGOs on both sides. Harry Potter 1 to 4 were on BOGO one week on HD-DVD and the next week on BD. Companies from both sides were bleeding money competing for my purchase.

Now that HD-DVD going out of the picture the check & balance is starting to disappear. Studios now only have to focus on finding the magic price point of how much more over DVD can they charge to make the most profit from the HD crowd. The focus is shifting from screwing the companies on the other side to screwing me the consumer.

People having saying that a single format is needed for HDM to gain mass market penetration. So what if the war never ends? I only care about the quality of my purchase and how much I paid for it. If the price structure, release schedule and promotions were at the level of last few weeks then the winning side is the consumer’s. This is what competition is all about. To become more efficient than the competition to gain higher market share through higher quality and cheaper price. I really felt like for once I had the upper hand over the studios and the CEs. I will miss the format war.

Just my opinion.

I do agree for the most part and I will miss the prices, should they disappear as it appears they may. There was real benefit to the consumer in this format war, and I don't really care about having one single end format or about widespread adoption.

To me, high definition media is inevitable. It may take a long time, but it will come for everyone. Those in a rush to see one format and quicker adoption are entitled to their opinions, but I don't really see the great benefit. For me, it's always a question of when, not if. And since I'm already part of the adoption, the when doesn't really matter to me. I guess I'm in it for myself and not the "greater good", but one format does seem like it'll me me worse off.

the consumers do not win if both formats failed, that's what prolonging the war would've done

even with the format war over, movie & player prices will continue to come down because there will still be competition between the different companies

Not from a movie stand point. I have nothing to back this, but in my mind prices for the movies are going to go up. Even tho I am a HT Hobbies, I will not buy many movies at $25. I ONLY bought HD and BD movies because of all the deals. When you can pick them up for $10 or even $15 why not.

And since these have be $10 and $15 SD movies that the general public is mainly buying were often $7, $8 for a good movie. Let alone $5 and $6 for older less popular titles. I think BD is going to have a hard time unless they keep their movies at $15. If they go up to $25 which I personally think they will try to do, then I don't believe they will expand beyond a niche market.

I'm glad the war is over. I'll probably buy a ps3 now. Will I be willing to buy a $25 BR disc vs $15 SD disc? Only the really good ones. The classic movies, and the technically amazing discs. I think at a $19.99 price point I'd buy all BR. I think that would be the smart price point to grow the BR business.

Not if the BD group really wants to expand HD beyond a niche market. Movie prices will have to come down.

IMHO, unless you're talking sales, those prices sound completely unrealistic. Where do you live? Seriously.

Ignoring sales and release day pricing, the major B&M retailer (Fry's) where I live usually charges a few dollars less than MSRP, which puts most titles in the $15-$20 range. And that's SD releases. I have no expectation that typical HD pricing is going to go that low for quite sometime. Not until DVD is being phased out... which it will be if HD discs are going to become the dominant release media.

Personally, I would have no issue with paying a premium for HD content. I wouldn't expect to pay SD prices, but nearly double what "typical" (but not MSRP) SD prices are... is waaay too much. A $5 to $10 difference is reasonable IMO, but $15 to $20 doesn't fly. I do splurge and pay full MSRP on occasion (a handful of Criterions), but not often.

I disagree, but I've said that before. The backwards compatability of blu-ray would make the switch inevitable, even if it took a while. And let's face it, people talk about a potential niche market, but Blu-Ray already is bigger than most niche markets right now. I just don't buy that HD media would fail. It's adoption may be slow, but it would never fail.

I would agree that hardware prices should trend down. I'm skeptical about software prices, however. They've remained pretty much the same for DVD over its 10 year life, with only the stuff that's been out a while falling in price. The stuff for new releases is still about the same now as it was in 1999.

HDM will always be a niche market at least until the majority of the US households has HDTV. This niche is also a market segment that is likely to have disposable income and higher purchasing power. I see no reason to drop the movie prices. It is not like BR or nothing. They can still sell the DVD if the people are not happy with the prices.

I would also say that companies like Target, best buy and Circuit city who got checks for perfered display space will miss the format war since they wont be getting the $$ (or at least the amount they are now). The studios who were getting $$ to stay with a one format or the other will miss the format war since they won't be getting the $$ anymore. The consumer will miss the format war. I have always believed that that high def dvd market would be like that laserdisc market where only a select % of the public will get into. I cant wait for about 5-10 years to pass where we all just have a small box next to our T.V. where we just download the movies and instead of having a couple hundred DVD's next to our T.V.'S.

Yes, but each year prices have dropped faster and lower for the "stuff that's been out a while." It's a lot cheaper collecting DVDs than it was 10 year ago.

Live in Dallas and buy a lot of SD titles at well under $10. Mostly in the bins at BB, CC and Walmart just when doing other shopping. For example had to pick up soap and got Master and Commander for like $6.00. I'm sure it is an "old" disc and there is a new one or something. But it is wide screen, a decent movie for $6.00

As for BD and HD prices, I've been taking advantage of the BOGO free deals (last two I purchased were $19.95 meaning they were $10 each). And I bought some of the B3G2 free deals which for what I bought worked out to about $15.50 per title including tax.

That is what we have been regularly seeing with both HD and BD. But your right I think they will go back to $25. I went to BB today to try to use the Disney $5.00 coupon, and I was amazed that the vast majority of their BD and HD titles were $25, $27 & $29! I have a dedicated theater room and setting up a 2nd system in the living room and I wouldn't spend that for a movie. Well, I might spend that on the 3-4 blockbusters/event titles that come out a year, but I'm not going to do on the vast majority of releases.

Heck last night I almost ordered the Harry Potters for $10 each after BOGO free, but ended up passing.