The reason Blu-Ray won: When VHS beat out Betamax, people were simply scrounging for something, ANYTHING that worked because nobody had such technology. In this light VHS was the better regard. However, anyone upgrading to HD these days is looking for better quality and willing to pay more to get it. Thus, HD DVD was mistaken in thinking people would take cheap over high-tech. The world is different.
@brando: interesting argument. I think that I kind of agree. The early adopters of this generation's market definitely were willing to pay more as a whole, I think. It always seemed to me that the BDA's strategy was "don't sweat the price too much fellow BDA-mates, just win the battle of perception and win on our superior features, the mainstream prices will take care of themselves once we hit mainstream." They basically focused on winning the early adopters first on the stuff that matters to early adopters before looking to mainstream, whereas HD-DVD seemed to want to hit the mainstream market immediately. Which, if you have read the Chasm series of marketing books, is a no-no.
Plus Sony did a much better job building an alliance of companies around their technology than Toshiba did - that part's pretty plain.
@brando, the reason blu-ray prevailed is really simple. More studios on board, and the imbalance never tipped over in HD-DVD's favor. MS/Toshiba could've done a couple of things to improve their chances: 1) Release lo-cost RW drives to get the geeks in line. Didn't happen, so they never got the leap on blu-ray technology. 2) MS could've went whole hog and released a XBOX360 with an internal HD-DVD drive. The fact that they refused to do so says more than anything else that even they didn't have full confidence in the outcome.
As far as tech, no, most people didn't care about 7.1 surround or an extra theoretical capacity. The picture was good enough for both. But if you don't have the software, it doesn't matter how good the hardware is.
1 thing i believe could have had a huge effect on the win of HD-DVD: Xbox 360.
If MS included inside the 360 an HD-DVD drive instead of a standard DVD drive... the year it had over PS3 (a huge chunk of blu-ray support) would have been immense. i understand the decision on MS's end, but i think toshi should have shelled out the additional cost to them just for that leg up.
You know... Everyone keeps saying Microsoft should have put an internal HD DVD drive since the start. I actually think other wise. Not putting HD DVD drive is one of the many reasons the 360 is much more successful than the PS3. I find it pretty obvious why MS didn't bother putting an internal HD DVD drive. Putting a HD DVD/Blu ray drive adds so much more cost to the console, not to mention delaying it getting into the market as we have seen with the PS3. This is why the PS3 isn't so successful; it's late and expensive. This is why the 360 is much more successful; it's early and cheaper.
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Looks like Sony is finally going to win sweet revenge after losing out to VHS back in the day.
The reason Blu-Ray won: When VHS beat out Betamax, people were simply scrounging for something, ANYTHING that worked because nobody had such technology. In this light VHS was the better regard. However, anyone upgrading to HD these days is looking for better quality and willing to pay more to get it. Thus, HD DVD was mistaken in thinking people would take cheap over high-tech. The world is different.
@brando: interesting argument. I think that I kind of agree. The early adopters of this generation's market definitely were willing to pay more as a whole, I think. It always seemed to me that the BDA's strategy was "don't sweat the price too much fellow BDA-mates, just win the battle of perception and win on our superior features, the mainstream prices will take care of themselves once we hit mainstream." They basically focused on winning the early adopters first on the stuff that matters to early adopters before looking to mainstream, whereas HD-DVD seemed to want to hit the mainstream market immediately. Which, if you have read the Chasm series of marketing books, is a no-no.
Plus Sony did a much better job building an alliance of companies around their technology than Toshiba did - that part's pretty plain.
@brando, the reason blu-ray prevailed is really simple. More studios on board, and the imbalance never tipped over in HD-DVD's favor. MS/Toshiba could've done a couple of things to improve their chances: 1) Release lo-cost RW drives to get the geeks in line. Didn't happen, so they never got the leap on blu-ray technology. 2) MS could've went whole hog and released a XBOX360 with an internal HD-DVD drive. The fact that they refused to do so says more than anything else that even they didn't have full confidence in the outcome.
As far as tech, no, most people didn't care about 7.1 surround or an extra theoretical capacity. The picture was good enough for both. But if you don't have the software, it doesn't matter how good the hardware is.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
@Comradz
1 thing i believe could have had a huge effect on the win of HD-DVD: Xbox 360.
If MS included inside the 360 an HD-DVD drive instead of a standard DVD drive... the year it had over PS3 (a huge chunk of blu-ray support) would have been immense. i understand the decision on MS's end, but i think toshi should have shelled out the additional cost to them just for that leg up.
You know... Everyone keeps saying Microsoft should have put an internal HD DVD drive since the start. I actually think other wise. Not putting HD DVD drive is one of the many reasons the 360 is much more successful than the PS3. I find it pretty obvious why MS didn't bother putting an internal HD DVD drive. Putting a HD DVD/Blu ray drive adds so much more cost to the console, not to mention delaying it getting into the market as we have seen with the PS3. This is why the PS3 isn't so successful; it's late and expensive. This is why the 360 is much more successful; it's early and cheaper.
I bet Toshiba wishes they would have gave Microsoft a killer deal on some HD-DVD drives right about now!
Blu-ray won for the same reason VHS won: higher capacity.