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HD DVD officially dead. Universal and Paramount going Blu.
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they just announced that hd-dvd 2.0 is coming out!
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Bill Hunt, right again.
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RED is DEAD....nothing to see here...move along (some more than others...you know who you are) ;)
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Is it official NOW?...no wait, NOW?...how about, NOW?
It ain't official 'til the last disc rolls off the line, McCheesies. |
It was official as soon as Toshiba said it was official.
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Ding Dong, the witch is dead!!
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It's as definitively, profoundly official as it could possibly be. Right now. All that's left are the (apparently very brief) fire sales.
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That's a shame. They definitely had the better system out of the gate and better prices to boot. I really wish they would have prevailed.
Oh well, back to SD until I can get a Blu-ray player and 10 movies for under $300. |
Originally Posted by Peep
Bill Hunt, right again.
He knew his stuff and he called it right. I have him to thank for setting my mind at ease enough to jump in on bluray even before the format war was over. Since that time I have enjoyed many great bluray releases and I clearly made the right choice. Anybody who complains about Bill Hunt's journalistic integrity is being silly. He isn't a journalist. He simply gives his opinion and thoughts about dvd and anything related to it. All he tried to do by staunchly supporting bluray was help dvd fans and consumers make an informed decision about their next steps into the high-def market. |
Originally Posted by Truffaut Fan
Ding Dong, the witch is dead!!
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Engadget has a transcript of the press conference up, and I just read something very interesting from the Q/A session at the end:
Q: How many HD DVD players and recorders, exactly, did you sell? A: 600,000 players in the US -- 300,000 of which were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 730,000 units worldwide. |
Originally Posted by RoboDad
Engadget has a transcript of the press conference up, and I just read something very interesting from the Q/A session at the end:
So, all of the reports of over a million HD DVD players were apparently fairly exaggerated, unless I am missing something significant. And half the players sold in the US were XBox 360 add-ons. This is actually from the horse's mouth (TOSHIBA) I am assuming???? Paging all the HD-DVD supporting FUD spreading fanboys...SPIN THIS !!!!...now is your time to shine... rotfl |
Originally Posted by RoboDad
Engadget has a transcript of the press conference up, and I just read something very interesting from the Q/A session.
Could you please paste and post the entire script here, if it isn't too much of a hassle. I keep trying to get to the site but I can't. Not sure if too many people are reading or what but I can not access it. Thanks. Pro-B |
I guess I will start preparing to buy a Blue Ray Player once I finally upgrade to an HDTV. Glad I didn't get caught up in this HD DVD/Blue Ray hype.
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Here you go:
5:00PM - Right on time, Toshiba's president, Nishida-san, takes the podium. He is talking about how great and advanced HD DVD was. WAS. He is also speaking about how Toshiba shared a good partnership with Warner. "There was a difficult decision. Multiple standards have a huge impact on consumers." 5:15 - Now he's just reading from the release, more or less. They're on to bigger and better things: two new NAND factories in Japan, one will be jointly-operated with SanDisk. 5:21 - Q&A time! Three part Q: what was the cause of HD DVD's failure? What is Toshiba doing with its Aomori HD DVD factory? And what about the timing of the announcement? A: From an objective, fair point of view, we were clearly in a good place until last December and January. So we were very, very surprised by Warner's announcement. As for the Aomori factory, nothing is final at this moment. Q: Any plans to adopt Blu-ray? A: No plans at all, not at this moment. More after the break. Q: Are there no plans for next gen optical disc at all? A: We don't have any plans to announce at this time. Q: Is there any risk of a class action lawsuit against Toshiba for the format war? A: [For early adopters] there will be always be a risk in buying, that is how it works in the US. We are just hardware maker, so our legal risk is relatively low, we believe. Q: What is the next-gen NAND flash memory you'll be producing? What does that mean, exactly? A: 3D NAND is a possible candidate, but just one of them. To avoid any confusion, we cannot say which next-gen memory technology Toshiba will choose to pursue. Nothing is final. Nishida-san's now answering why the construction will take such long time on the new factory, explaining about how its construction will make it virtually earthquake-proof. Q: How about the process size of new factory? Is that 32nm? A: I can't answer that. [laughs] Q: How many HD DVD players and recorders, exactly, did you sell? A: 600,000 players in the US -- 300,000 of which were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. 100,000 units were sold in Europe. And about 10,000 players and 20,000 recorders in Japan. So about 730,000 units worldwide. With regard to future media availability, should disc companies will cease production (oh they will!) Toshiba will buy enough discs for current Japanese HD DVD recorder users and resell them online. Now Nishida is talking about how upconverted DVD still looks great. |
Thank you so much.
edit: That's what I thought. The last paragraph pretty much confirms that if anything they will only cater to media storage demands. Pro-B |
Can't believe they asked about a class action lawsuit. Where's my money for my Dreamcast?!
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Q: How many HD DVD players and recorders, exactly, did you sell? A: 600,000 players in the US -- 300,000 of which were Xbox 360 HD DVD drives. |
Originally Posted by Hammer99
So 1/3 of all US HD DVD SA were sold during the WalMart A2 fire sale weekend? :eek:
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Originally Posted by Hammer99
So 1/3 of all US HD DVD SA were sold during the WalMart A2 fire sale weekend? :eek:
Pro-B |
^^^ +++1....trudat ...trudat....mods feel free to censor this post....thank you for your time...
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Some preemptive MOD NOTES:
(1) Please continue to discuss this in a civil manner. We really don't need any hootin' and hollerin' from the Blu-ray side, and we really don't need any bitter, defensive remark from the HD DVD side. (2) While many may disagree as to whether this is good news or bad news for the consumers in the short run, I think we can all agree that this--having one HDM format--is a good news for the consumers in the long run. So let's try to focus on the positives of this news instead of all the negatives. We already had the negative discussion in the now-closed HD DVD is near death thread. This can be a very emotional time for many of you. Some because of the excitement, some because of the disappointment, and some because ... you seem to be always emotional. If the past performance is any indication of future behavior, then I suspect that there will be a lot of mod actions needing to take place in the next few days. Please do your best to maintain your composure, and we won't have to be so involved as moderators. Thank you for your cooperation. namja Moderator, DVD Talk Forums |
Well, this is a sad day. Whether you were pro-Blu, pro-HD, purple, green, or rainbow colored, it's hard to deny that HD DVD was a solid technology (aside from those goddamned combos) that helped Blu-ray achieve the high performance standards it has reached today. I for one cannot wait to grab as many cheap discs as I can get my grubby hands on, and will probably get a 360 add-on and an XA2 for backup use.
Meanwhile, I sincerely hope that the studios outdo themselves trying to top DVD, with awesome A/V encodes and special features we haven't even thought of yet. |
too soon!
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Originally Posted by Frozenhamster
I don't even get the animosity toward Bill Hunt. The guy called it, way before anybody seemed willing to, because the stats clearly showed that bluray would have the better chance at winning. At first I wasn't sure to believe him, but by November I realized there wasn't a chance, even with the Paramount defection, that bluray was going to lose it. I bought a PS3 mainly as a bluray player over the xbox 360, which was my preferred choice, because I listened to Bill Hunt.
He knew his stuff and he called it right. I have him to thank for setting my mind at ease enough to jump in on bluray even before the format war was over. Since that time I have enjoyed many great bluray releases and I clearly made the right choice. Anybody who complains about Bill Hunt's journalistic integrity is being silly. He isn't a journalist. He simply gives his opinion and thoughts about dvd and anything related to it. All he tried to do by staunchly supporting bluray was help dvd fans and consumers make an informed decision about their next steps into the high-def market. I am so relieved this thing is over! Sony/BDA needs to release some positive statements about HD-DVD and the excellent competition it provided, as soon as possible. They won this thing, but at times they seemed to be leading by the skin of their teeth. Who could overlook such a valiant effort by Toshiba, when they clearly didn't have much momentum behind them to start with? Universal showed loyalty, and even though I've been waiting on them to go Blu, there's really something to be said for that as well. Then of course there's the Paramount deal that almost evened the war out (just ask Howard "Stalemate" Stringer). As a Blu-ray supporter, HD-DVD was a pesky competitor, but it simply couldn't be ignored! I don't know about anyone else, but the rise, fight, and fall of HD-DVD will vividly remain in my memory, unlike the Betamax's and Divx's of the world. Today I have nothing but high praises for Toshiba and HD-DVD, but I'm not neutral- I'm 100% Blu and it's a beautiful thing! |
I've been a Blu-ray supporter since late 2006, when I purchased my 20 gig PS3 from Wal-Mart for the low low price of $500. My original plan was to wait until the format war was over, but when I saw the PS3 sitting there on the shelf, I decided I'd buy it, then let it sit for a week before I opened it. In the meantime, I spent a lot of time at all the media forums (here, HTF, AVS) reading about the pros and cons of each format. Just from a technological standpoint, I liked Blu better, and at the time, had the hunch that it would eventually win, but would be awhile.
Anyway, I finally went ahead and cracked the box of the PS3, and haven't regretted it since. I still mostly watch titles I rent from Netflix, but have bought around 25 or so titles as well. Even if it's an incomplete format (still), I've been greatly impressed with it. Early this year, after the Warner announcement, and the subsequent firesale on HD-DVD players, I also picked up a Toshiba A30 player. I figured that as a format, it would hang on for at least most of 2008, and I would just rent titles I wanted to see from Netflix. That plan went out the window of course, so now I have an HD-DVD player with 3 titles (300, The Bourne Identity, and Zodiac), that I'll probably put on eBay as soon as I can't rent HD titles from Netflix anymore (I'd like to at least get through S1 of Battlestar Galactica, which I haven't seen yet). I have to say I haven't been terribly impressed with the durability of HD-DVD discs... 3 of the 5 discs I've received from Netflix have had issues. In any case, I'm very happy this format war is over. I'm hoping we see announcements from Paramount/Dreamworks and Universal announcing their move to Blu, and hope that all the studios start to step up their release schedule, and for some studios, drop the MSRP on new titles (I'm looking at you, Fox!). I don't really expect Blu-ray to take over from DVD, but I think it'll be more than just a niche product, too. |
I think will Bill Hunt, people didn't hate so much of what he said as how he said it.
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Originally Posted by DJariya
Glad I didn't get caught up in this HD DVD/Blue Ray hype.
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Well, I bought an HD-DVD player duing the Amazon sale last Christmas, and I don't regret my decision. For around $150 I got a perfectly good upscaling DVD player that can also play some high-def movies, plus 10 free HD movies. Sure, I won't be able to buy any new movies in this format, but I take a Buddhist view of these things. Nothing is meant to last forever, although more than 2 months would have been nice.
Still to quote another bit of entertainment that died much too soon, "I may have been on the losing side. I'm still not convinced it was the wrong one." |
Originally Posted by Truffaut Fan
Ding Dong, the witch is dead!!
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Hey, after a few years of this back n forth we're entitled to do the blu-ray happy dance.
HIP HIP BLU-RAYYYYYYYYYYY! HIP HIP BLU-RAYYYYYYYYYYY! HIP HIP BLU-RAYYYYYYYYYYY! |
Originally Posted by Frozenhamster
I don't even get the animosity toward Bill Hunt. The guy called it,
I have zero regrets and will continue to use my remaining HD DVDs. |
How many standalone BluRay players were sold (so far)?
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I guess the question now is, how long will the remaining studios put out HD DVDs? Or will they stop immediately due to this announcement?
There were still a few releases like "I Am Legend" that I was looking foward to. |
Originally Posted by RoboDad
Q: Any plans to adopt Blu-ray?
A: No plans at all, not at this moment. Yeah, you can bet they will have Blu player out by 4thQ. No doubt. They are not going to announce that HD DVD is dead and annouce their upcoming Blu Ray plans on the same day! The press release states that will continue to "Support" HD DVD owners. I don't know what that means, but it doesn't look completly unlikley that Tosh will make a BR player that supports HD DVD. |
Originally Posted by sbelli
I guess the question now is, how long will the remaining studios put out HD DVDs? Or will they stop immediately due to this announcement?
There were still a few releases like "I Am Legend" that I was looking foward to. |
Now that HD-DVD is officially phased out, let's hope that the new Blu-ray player chipsets will drastically reduce the cost of players so we can get Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) players under US$250 by this fall. :D
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With HD-A3 price going down to $100 and it being a great upconvert machine, I just may get one. HD movies can be had for $10 and they are dropping with people getting rid of their collections and stores clearing out. Now is the time to start a collection like what happened with Laserdisc. There is some great stuff currently in HD that has not yet been put on BRD. I've been thinking about getting a machine and the 2+5 free and clean up on some of DDD sales on HD with another $100 or so. I've been thinking about this for a week and still have not decided. Note: I already have a BR machine and about 40 movies.
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I don't regret getting an A2 back when they dropped to $100, plus I got 10 free movies with it. Do I wish this would've turned out another way? Sure. But I invested in a PS3 in January to prepare for the day to come. And it has. At least I can still enjoy HD movies that aren't available in BD yet.
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