Not since the infamous
PS3 crime wave of late 2006 have we seen anything like this. According to a notice posted on the heavily trafficked
AVS Forum, the HD DVD and Blu-ray sections are being closed to new posts "for a short time," and the reasoning behind such a severe action may shock you. Apparently, a number of hot-headed posters have not only been dissin' supporters of (insert rival format here), but some have lashed out at other members with "physical threats that have involved police and possible legal action." While it's not exactly clear what pushed these extremists to the edge, there's no denying that the recent
price drops on standalone HD DVD players have given the HD community as a whole
a lot more to yap about, and we guess some folks just didn't know where to draw the line. The format war just took on a whole new meaning, and it's not one to be proud of.
[Via
CNET, image courtesy of
Olive-Drab]
posted November 7th 2007 5:41PM
First they fight for the Tribe, then they fight for the King, then they fight for the Nation, and now the Corporation. Humanity will really never, ever change.
First they fight for the Tribe, then they fight for the King, then they fight for the Nation, and now the Corporation. Humanity will really never, ever change.
The sooner this ends the better. What happened to caring about the consumer? The money is in our pockets. If they want it then they'll stop fighting, come together, and settle on one format. They'll both make more money and we'll be happy.
-- Karim Baz
I ended up getting a $98 Toshiba at Wal-Mart so I voted with my wallet. I'm definitely going to play it safe and rent HDDVD movies, but worst case scenario I have a great upconverting player.
Price will always be the factor so blu-ray really needs to come down in price if they ever want to "win" this "war".
Next we'll hear about angry Blu-Ray owners do a drive-by shooting of people standing in line on Black Friday waiting to get a low price HD-DVD player.
Full Disclosure, they partner my podcast, but even before they came on board, I found myself spending less time at AVS and more time at Home Theater Shack for just this reason (among others).
Marshall
----------
The Real HT Info Podcast
That's exactly the point: almost all HD-DVD releases have been 30GB and the vast majority of BR releases have been released on 25GB discs (with the movie only taking up around 20GB). If the extra space that BR touts to the public was really relevant/necessary, why are Sony's own releases taking up less than 25GB? It's like claiming that cereal A is better than cereal B because, even though both boxes contain the same amount of cereal, cereal A comes in a bigger box.
I know, at least, that the name of HD-DVD will confuse some people. Say it out loud.
I personally am happy to wait the battle out until the winner is decided. No-one's forcing me to watch HD movies, right?
(Yes, I do have a HD TV)
HD-DVD will win,
Because Microsoft said so.
If HD DVD wins, it will likely be because Wal-Mart said so.
Damn... And I thought the whole Mac v. PC thing was bad.
(please don't start flaming each other over this)
I did the research as well, looked at trends. I bought a HD-DVD player the other day. I'm happy with it. That's all that really matters. I got a coupon for 5 free movies, I got three free with it, and the first season of Heroes. It was a pretty tough deal to pass up.
While it may be the 360 drive it produces some pretty damn good images. I don't have a True HD reciever so sound doesn't matter to me, it's a fine little player. Am I a fanman? Probably. I can certainly say I wouldn't pay $500 for a player to watch movies. So $180+ the free goods was the perfect option.
I have always been a 3-way man myself, I am not falling into the argument of one over the other. I have a Blu-ray/HD DVD player with up-scaling for DVD's. I can enjoy both formats and own the movies I want the way I want. Some movies (comedy’s, etc) are not worth buying in HD or Blu, so with the little boost from the up-scaler DVD's look just fine on my 50" plasma. I cant see it now soon we will argue over HVD's with UHDV and either OLED or SED TV's to watch it on, oh the arguments that will ensue lol.
BLUE-RAY is the best !!
Warner Brothers is a huge Blu supporter
All the extra features on 300,
Matrix Trilogy with Picture n Picture and internet access, Some day...
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/exclusive/the-state-of-blu+ray-320077.php
Let's think about download times for a minute. The 15GB that a single layer of an HD-DVD disc holds would take about...
624 hours to download on dial-up
45 hours to download on basic DSL service (768kbps)
11 hours to download on premium DSL service (3mbps)
7 hours to download on basic cable or FIOS service (5mbps)
2 hours to download on premium cable or FIOS service (15mbps)
And that presumes you get the maximum rated speed for your connection type (not going to happen, rarely get speeds like those even behind the OC-12s at work). We won't get into how much it would cost to serve HD video on a large scale basis (both in infrastructure and bandwidth).
There's plenty of room in the market for a high capacity physical format. :)
Blu-Ray will eventually fail and I'll tell you why. Sony's own track record. This format is yet another example of Sony's unyielding desire to have a media format that they can use to lock consumers into their products. They don't want to compete with anyone, they want to be the only option. Consumers as a whole will not play along. EVER. AATRAC, Minidisc, UMD, Memorystick, Betamax. It's a damn shame that they continually head down this road because a company like Sony would most likely be dominating in every area it touched just through sheer innovation. Instead we get expensive proprietary formats that lead to you having to buy more expensive roprietary formats because NOTHING will work with any of the standard formats. I mean really, who the fuck would try to compete with MP3's by bringing their own format to market and expect people to eat it up because it's a Sony. I just wish they would pull their heads out of their asses and start to innovate instead of trying to force people into half-baked drm'd to death, useless formats.
You're all morons!! Laser-disc is gonna beat everyone out.
I'm writing an article about flame wars that get out of control and I was wondering if anyone here knew exactly what was said at the AVS forum to close their forums for three days? I know that some people were threatening violence over a HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray debate. Anyone got details?
Thanks,
Don Lipper
212-380-1515