CE-Oh no he didn't! Part LIV: Stringer on flip-flop bender

Man, talk about being all over the map. One day Sony's Howard Stringer is calling the format war a "stalemate," the next he's claiming Blu-ray is "just a better format." Apparently, having a few weeks to think over that last comment made him realize that his heart was more connected to the first proclamation, as the exec has now come forward and acknowledged that the battle between red and Blu is far from over. Specifically, he stated that "[Blu-ray] had momentum," but he followed up by calling the aforementioned momentum "all it had at the moment." C'mon Mr. Stringer -- pick a line and hold steady, will ya?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Pretol @ Dec 13th 2007 5:53AM]

low-res DVD, until computer formats take over... I ain't dealing with these scratchables any more...

[richard knights @ Dec 13th 2007 6:34AM]

This is not a battle, its an irrelevant skirmish. The difference between upscaled DVD and HD is not enought to warrant buying all that kit and paying over the odds for the media.
The DVD format immediatly won over the auidovisual freaks. These same freaks just don't want to know this time around.

[Zed @ Dec 13th 2007 8:25AM]

richard k... You can't be serious? You definitely aren't talking from experience. I am far from an audio/videophile and the difference between upscaled dvd and HD is profound. HD is jaw dropping, upscaled dvd is crisp and nice, but there is no comparison. You need to get your eyes and ears checked.

[JeffnLA @ Dec 13th 2007 11:40AM]

I'm going with Richard on this one. I have a HD-DVD player, a very good upscaling DVD player and a 70" 1080P set.

I compared King Kong HD vs the DVD-9 retail version. Yes the HD was better, but not by a quantum leap. After watching for a few minutes, you forget the differences.

To date I have bought 2 HD movies, Polar Express and 2001. I won’t get suckered into buying junk movies again (ala Twister) just because they look nice on the screen.

[nak @ Dec 13th 2007 6:34AM]

If he really wants to win the format war he just needs a big "Mission accomplished" banner.

[Josh @ Dec 13th 2007 6:59AM]

Technically, Blu-ray can be a better format, but still be in stalemate with a lesser HD-DVD. Not that difficult...

But, saying "[momentum is] all [Blu-ray] had at the moment" is contradictory because if it's a better format, it obviously has more than momentum.

[KC @ Dec 13th 2007 7:11AM]

Wonder if he knows something that the rest of us don't.... maybe he got a call from Warner and they said they are going to go red.

[Aigarius @ Dec 13th 2007 7:14AM]

I see no flip-flops at all. What he is saying that technically Blu-ray is superior to HD-DVD, but that HD-DVD has some companies supporting it for reasons that are far from technical. Therefore from a customer point of view the ony differentiating aspec of Blu-ray is that is gaining the lead over HD-DVD despite HD-DVD having an early start. Same thing as with XBox 360 and PS3.

[farfisa @ Dec 13th 2007 9:00AM]

So, is the flip-flop that there can't be "momentum" in a "stalemate?" 'Cause saying that Blu-ray is better but there's a stalemate isn't really a contradiction...
It's like candidates for President. Who's the best and who's going to win aren't necessarily the same. Except with the President thing, you know somebody will eventually win and the whole ball of crap will end.

[Joe T. @ Dec 13th 2007 1:23PM]

Blu-ray is the better format? What is the format? Profile 1.0? 1.1? 2.0? It's not a finished format. It's harder to program than HD DVD. The only advantage to Blu-ray is capacity.

I have both formats and I haven't seen a difference between them on my 98" screen. But they both blow away regular DVD-- it's like wiping a layer of vaseline off my lens.

[Jeebus @ Dec 13th 2007 1:31PM]

I could not care less about the profiles. Profile 1.0 does all I need, which is watching movies in HD with lossless audio.
It's the better format because of the significantly higher capacity per layer, which allows you to use better bit rate for video, longer movies at a given bit rate, more lossless language tracks, etc.

[sjdurfey @ Dec 13th 2007 1:45PM]

i saw an interesting tag line underneath a video stream i was watching on gamespot last night, it said "due to the limitations of DVD, this stream cannot be HD". clearly an indication one of the HD companies have gotten to them to by broadcasting propaganda. What does a DVD's limitations have to do with streaming HD?

[Joe T. @ Dec 13th 2007 2:52PM]

Maybe Profile 1.0 will do all you need, but not for me. I am a huge fan of extras-- c'mon-- you've never watched Jack Jack Attack from The Incredibles? The green screen PIP on 300 is fantastic as well.

Oh well, you're the one missing out. Enjoy the PS3 your mom bought you for xmas last year.

[lothar @ Dec 13th 2007 3:27PM]

LOL that was brilliant

[mattwier @ Dec 13th 2007 10:31PM]

Owned. lol