...because it's soooooo GOD DAMN confusing.

Do I pick the Red Case or the Blue Case...what about the Black cases? Is 1080i better than 1080p? Do I buy Monster Ultra Premium cables or do I go with Monoprice? What the FUCK is happening on LOST? Will my HDMI 1.0 receiver decode HD audio codecs? What happens if I interface my HDMI 1.3 TV with my HDMI 2.0 switch and cross it with my 1.2 Receiver while using HDMI 1.0 cables in order to get my BTB test to pass? Where are my Extras? Why are they not in HD? Fuck MPEG2.... VC-1 is better... no wait FUCK THAT! AVC Rules All.... no wait Japanese VC-1 encodes are better because they are from Japan and the Japanese are great SWORDMAKERS!!!

Other people who want to buy a backup player will have interest in your player, and when there are fewer on the market, you're likely to be able to get more than you would when the market is being flooded by people who are looking to get out ASAP. Assuming that your discs include titles which are exclusive to the HD DVD format, consider that you can't yet replace them with BDs, and it may be quite some time before you can.

DVD had been around and flourishing for several years before many of my favorite titles became available. In fact I wound up buying a laserdisc player (two, actually) and half a dozen laserdiscs a few years after my first DVD player. None of it came particularly cheap, either. This is just my personal preference, of course, but even after a year and a half of being HD DVD exclusive, there are still more titles that I want on HD DVD than on Blu-ray! Counted them up just the other day, in fact, and I think so far to date there have only been 8 Blu-ray titles that I'd like to eventually pick up.

You certainly don't have to take my advice, though, and -- frankly -- a lot of people would hope you don't. I for one hope to take full advantage of those who are planning to sell their collections now.

Your HD DVD player and discs still work, and you can still upconvert SD DVDs. What's the rush?

to the guy who said " beta won this time" what's that mean?

if you mean the more superior and high priced product, i guess you're right.

to anyone blaming Warner- how can you blame them?- the word came straight from Toshiba on how many players were sold, and that's small percentage compared to the number of blu-ray players out there. they clearly went with the format that had the highest number of users, and who was buying the most dvd's.

i wonder where posters got their numbers on the number of hd-dvd players sold.? hell the other day, someone was claiming 1.5mil standalone players, not to mention 360 AO----hahaha, man that was way off.


goes to show you this war has been dead for awhile- blu-ray had more players as soon as ps3 was introduced- the initial 1st quarter sold more than all the hd-dvd players total.

the war should have been dead for over a year now.

Can someone babelfish that last post so it makes sense?

Beta actually was the better of the two in terms of video quality.

...and it was the more expensive of the two.

Sad day for dual owners as Universal and Paramount will probably take a long time to release new catalog titles as they have to catch up on blu-ray.

According to Netflix, neither format has caught on that well. They claim very few people renting high definition movies in either format. Warner made their decision because blu-ray outsold by a small percentage among two underperforming formats.

I'm really happy that the format war is basically officially over, because I was starting to get sick of having to worry about an eventual winner making some of my discs obsolete and having to worry about which version of a film to buy.

Think I'd still be able to return some unopened HD-DVDs to Future Shop/Best Buy? They're still on sale for a while, right? I guess it just matters as to whether they've been briefed or not.

The difference is the demographic. Video game enthusiasts keep up on what's going on and know which platforms have what exclusives. Joe Schmoe wants to pick up a DVD in the checkout lane at Wal-Mart to watch that night. He can't be bothered with being informed on which studios or movies work on certain players.

Why not two formats. Joe Schmoe has a tool collection which has several different sizes of screwdrivers for every different kind of screw and bolt he might need to unfasten. He also has a car, which he chose out of several other makes and models. There isn't one type of car so Joe can easily decide because he an idiot. Assuming Joe Schmoe couldn't deal with two different formats, goes against what's already in the electronics industry (i.e., DVD and now Blu-ray--uhoh! Two different formats!), such as digital cameras requiring different memory cards, computer peripherals requiring USB or FIREWIRE, or different types of memory.

Shit, don't even get me started. There are so many different kinds of the same products already on the market that the argument two HD formats would confuse consumers is just bullshit. Take a survey of any product and you'd get a confused reply. But consumers still buy.

We do have those who report consumers are confused, but Jesus Christ, consumers are always confused. But they still manage, like me, and figure it out.

The big problem was, the HD industry was more concerned with numbers and competition, than actual providing of information. No wonder there was confusion.

Everyone's pullin straws here why hd-dvd died. Pure and simple it was content. I didn't choose blu because it was sony, I went blu because they offered more movies I wanted in hd.

What everyone else is forgetting is "we" the general public bought more blu than hd. Why is this so taboo in these discussions?

Honestly, all this talk of buying 2, or 3 extra players of a dead format strikes me kinda strange. To state the value can only go up now because these players will be "rare"? I donno. Hey to each his own. What works for you is all that should matter.

My response was actually a joke

The mindset is that some HD-DVDs may take a while to be released on BD or not at all.... so why wait? Enjoy them now.

For me some of the imports and catalog titles come to mind.

I was responding to Michael Corvin.

I did laugh at your post.

OK, seriously I have a question:
Do you guys think Blu-ray will survive? It seems to me most people are sticking with DVD and have no interest in A hi-def format.

This guy thinks so:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showpost.ph...1&postcount=77

The studios have a small window of time to convince people into buying into it before downloading of hidef content takes over. They decided to kill off hddvd to make bluray look more successful to convince people to convert now before the best buys of the world lose in electronic downloading.
Most of the general public does not have the equipment to enjoy much of the benefits of blu ray over upconverted standard dvd at this time.

Downloading high-def requires broadband, and a reliable connection. Most people don't have this. Probably never will. So, downloads aren't going to be competition for Blu-ray at all. Microsoft seems to think so, however.

I do believe that Blu-ray will not only survive, but thrive now that the format wars that turned off consumers have ended. With a large number of owners of widescreen HDTV's that sport HDMI input connectors, there is a ready market for Blu-ray players.

(And don't say that downloaded HD movies is the trend of the future. Even with Verizon FIOS, download times for even a 720p resolution two-hour HD movie can tie up your connection for several hours, and with many Internet Service Providers imposing download limits per month, that could make downloaded HD movies not very practical.)

IMHO, BD has a good shot.

Keep in mind that even the studios were probably waiting for an end to the war. Now that it's over, you should start seeing more BD releases. In fact, I'd expect that for new releases, BD and DVD will start matching day and date very soon.

Plus, I'm sure that studios will start to look at the bottom line again and realize that there's more profit to be made from a $30 Blu-Ray, than from a $15 DVD. They'll eventually start to push people towards making the switch completely.

If the worry is adoption of hi-def, you've got a market which is practically being forced to upgrade to Hi-Def with the end of Analog TV broadcasts. In most surveys, respondents felt that they would probably upgrade their TV rather than go with the government sponsored digital set-top converter. So, you should be seeing a predominantly hi-def market by next year.

As most of us can probably attest, once you start watching hi-def content, you typically want to see more. I know that I barely pay any attention to the standard def content on DirecTV now, unless it's a show I know isn't available in HD.

The biggest competitor now is Digital Downloads. But let's be real, if you assume that most people have a 1.5Mbps download speed, a single hi-def movie (we'll call it 5 GB?) will take about 9 hours to download. Even with streaming, you'll see a good 4-5 hour delay between when you can start watching and when you start downloading. I think that most consumers would rather stick with a Blu-Ray which is more instant gratification.

True...it did last longer but Laser Disc put them out of business real quick.


OK here is another issue we have with Blu-ray let alone with HD DVD what it was alive. They must release ALL new release movies in Blu-ray going forward. Come on I just purchased Zapped on DVD last week (I know weak 80s movie) but would have loved to see Heather Thomas nude scene (I know they were not really her boob) but let re-master them to Blu-ray and I will go crazy buying.

I'm not sure why people keep saying downloading is going to rule the roost. Even downloading a paltry 1GB movie would be an excrutiating experience for many. Downloading two or three movies at the same time would be sheer lunacy. Factor in that extras like special features, alternate soundtracks, etc wouldn't even be included in that download, and there's no way downloading will take off any time soon.

To be fair, the people who are pointing to downloading as the dominant form of getting movies aren't expecting it to take off any time soon.

Great. Just remind me that I had a video disc player growing up, and then went with HD-DVD as an adult. I guess there might be a pattern forming here.

Its now about downloaded movies, its about VOD. I was sick over the weekend and got to catch up on some films I hadn't seen inawhile like In the Line of First HD. Was it as good as HD DVD or Blu Ray? No, but it was better than DVD. And it took all of 3 seconds for the movie to start.