HD DVD booklet from CES explodes with irony
By Paul Miller 
posted Jan 20th 2008 7:17AM
posted Jan 20th 2008 7:17AM
[Thanks, Rye C.]
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Are you sure that wasn't just the "Beta"?
Beta! Good one ;)!
This must've been made before the Warner Bros. defection. Right now, "Hang On For Dear Life" would be more appropriate.
Yeah... that was the joke.
Well done Raymond you worked out the joke.
But more importantly Engadget bends over for it's parent company.
What I find Ironic is:
The "article" above and this posted yesterday.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/18/want-to-write-for-engadget/
I think it's great that when 80% of the writers here wee favoring HDVD you all weren't concerned with their bias, but now someone points out a humorous irony and you piss and moan.
I would be equally annoyed if the HD DVD love came through some unfunny joke about BluRay.
On the scale of humour from above I would think "BluRay? More like BluGay." would be on par.
I can't remember Engadget making some lame joke story at BluRay's expense.
lmao...getting desperate much?
who? engadget or HD-DVD?
Both.
you mean for stories?
Michael Bay sent his Transformer to destroy HD-DVD.
Actually, I think there's more than the title going on here. Notice the characters? They're all running away, constrained by an exclusivity deal they didn't want. The photographer knew it was futile to ask them to pose nicely.
Anyone with eyes in their head and a sense of depth in 2D can tell that the disc is superimposed in front of them, not behind.
Then let's say behind them is a wall, perhaps made of litigation bricks and PR department cement. Forward, vaulting HD-DVD is the only option!
Heheh. What's the tagline for Blu-Ray? Isn't it something ridiculous as well, like "We got the Blues". Either way, these guys both need better marketing departments. How about, "Now Blu is the new Green." Get it?
No I don't get it, could you explain further?
wrong sir, I believe that is Macaroni.
I see what you did there.
I get it...or maybe they should borrow one from Star Trek "Resistance is Futile"
I created this just for you, LegendZ28: http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/3051/bluraywebrr9.jpg
It should be
"Don't bother hanging on, you are just prolonging the inevitable"
Why wont you just concede defeat and die in the corner like a dead format should?
Sure, and you will be paying US$600+ for a BR player, since there is NO competing format...
Just like we're paying $600 for DVD players right now since there are no competing formats, right? Jeez, just hold onto your pants, prices will fall. Last time I checked, Sony isn't the only company making Blu-Ray players.
I already have a PS3, and I am about to get the Samsung BD-P1400, would like a Sony, but the only HDMI 1.3 costs £500, so I decided on the £300 Samsung. If HD-DVD drops out, Blu-ray players will have to go down in order to get mass market appeal, all the money is made on the software anyways, so the players will go down to £200/ $300 very quickly. At the moment the Blu-ray camp isn't doing that because they want to make more money on the players while the market is small and made-up of enthusiastes rather than Joe Bloggs Public, but when the market opens up they will have to drop the prices.
I don't know why so many here are so hot for a format that Sony is so hot for--there's something deeply unsettling in adopting a format that the Format Nazis are pushing so hard. Sure, they may not be the only ones pushing it, but their track record of picking the wrong one--and their smugness and arrogance while doing so--is too consistent for me to root for BR. Perhaps BR will be the turning point of them finally doing something right, who knows...
@patsy,
i whole-heartedly agree you.
@patsy
The Format Allies don't push their format??
Give me 1080p+ resolution even if I can barely tell the difference. Oh, and I don't play PS3.
BTW, Goodwin's Law. Sorry.
@ patsy
I never understood why Sony gets such a bad wrap based on it's various media format innovations. The overall trend seems to be that Sony RnD comes up with an amazing format, and then a large group of companies makes a competing format that's cheaper to manufacture and of lower quality. For instance, BetaMax came out before VHS and Betamax was able to record better quality than VHS, but consumers wanted longer recording time at a lesser quality. So consumers got the crappy S-VHS and the professionals (i.e. broadcasters) got Betacam.
Shouldn't the tag be "No Thanks!"
It's saddening really, I like the HD-DVD format, but I guess I'll be happy when one of them finally wins out so I can actually commit to one of the formats...
Maybe HD-DVD will give Bluray a last minute Dick Punch and win over...
I'm not rooting for one side or the other, I'm rooting for myself, the customer. I've been more than patient, which is especially hard for me since I love gadgets, I don't want a last minute dick punch, I want HD-DVD to go away so I can finally commit.
Yeah, gotta watch out for those dick punches.
"Hang on. Our quasi-parter is investing in digital downloads."
Exploding booklets? I wouldn't want to be associated with that format either, what with the lawsuits and all...
I don't see how that title would have made sense, even before the Warner defection.
They both lost. Downloadable is King.
Time remaining on my BitTorrent of "300". 24 Days, 19 Hours, 4 Minutes.
wow get a better connection buddy..
currently DLing TMNT @ 236KB/s (which is only a mediocre speed) 3% done and its expected to finish in 50 minutes
Indeed, a faster connection is required! But I was leaning more towards the Apple (HD Rental) business model, and similar, as opposed to the bitTorrent model.
Each to their own.
Bittorrent speeds depend way more on how many seeds there are versus downloaders, which is often terrible due to the lack of a sense of sharing of those who supposedly believe in the freedom of media.
50 minutes @ 236KB/s means you've got about 708MB to go. Something tells me that your TMNT quality won't really be comparable to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, so your point is totally moot.
Sorry, this booklet hit retail stores back in mid-Nov. of 07'.
So this CES booklet was made way in advance of the WB decision.
*covers face with hands and sighs*
Some people just don't get it. Okay, just for you, if it's not ironic, let it be prophetic.
The ad only features characters from two different movies. When you choose HD DVD you choose less selection. Thats what I get from the ad.
3 movies, there's a star trek ship in there too.
Hold on... I believe there may be a 4th movie reflected on the disk..
not just the tagline, but notice only 2 movies are shown? The explosion tries to make it look more filling, but in reality shrek and transformers are the only movies hddvd can boast about.
Come on universal/paramount, I want Apollo 13 on Blu-Ray!
Do you people really think the Enterprise is from Shrek? ._.
Shhh, that's only the USS Decepticon...
What idiots. The Enterprise is clearly from Transformers. What do you think Optimus Prime would drive?
I think the player also says "No Disc" on the front when you enlarge it. Very telling.
It says "08 106430"
in the blue, not the white/grey
It's actually the HD-DVD logo.
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2205059450&size=l
@ Josh
I think he means that blue blur (shudn't it be red?) above the buttons in the center, not the grey (and fairly readable) numbers on the left...
cool, i think it does, jagged.
Nope, it's the HD DVD logo.
Guys, *everybody* knows that "08 106430" means "no disc."
Everybody.
Urgh. n00bs.
*flogged fiercely for ignorance n00b-usage....more so the latter*
That's the Toshiba HD-EP30, but it looks like the *removed* the hd dvd logo.
Closeup pic: http://www.materiel.net/album/12178.jpg
GIS: http://images.google.com/images?q=+Toshiba+HD-EP30&btnG=Search+Images
>> Guys, *everybody* knows that "08 106430" means "no disc."
How do you get that definition? I have searched Google for this numeric sequence "08 106430" and I don't get any result that associates it with "no disc" except for this same stupid Engadget entry. Did you make up that definition? Please don't confuse our readers with such numeric nonsense if you don't have any documentation or proof that attests such numeric sequence as having a meaning.
I don't know what made laugh harder, derX's witty 'n00b' comment, or Leroy Vargas' inability to interpret the statement as humor.
Star Shrek
Donkeymus Prime
Is there really this much difference in manufacturing an HDDVD vs a plain DVD player?
Could have they started selling them at reasonable prices to begin with?
I have inspected a four year old Koss DVD palyer that was purchased for 149.00 and sure there was quite a bit more stuff in the Toshiba ...not sure if it was worth four times the money they were charging for it.
Also how about a burner for a PC?
What garbage! Make enough simple burners for the PCs and we will burn enough discs that everyone will buy the standalone players to watch them. Just don't sell those burners for 900 bucks.
So, uh, about these four word posts...
A picture is worth a thousand words
That's it?? No actual copy on the matter?? Beep.
Wow, engadget wasn't joking when they said they needed writers. It looks like the requirement of "wit" wasn't well communicated in the past.
Please tell me you aren't applying for the position.
A post doesn't have to be long to be witty, a picture says a 100 words. Though your pithy pithy posts does the same, something to the effect of: the only thing I lack more than a sense of humor is an appreciation for simplicity.
...you read Gizmodo, don't you?
@derX A post certainly doesn't have to be long to be witty, but this one blurs the line between respectable gadget site and middle school blogger.
"A post certainly doesn't have to be long to be witty, but this one blurs the line between respectable gadget site and middle school blogger."
Oh yeah, because the establishment of a connection between current events--the inevitable fate of the HD DVD format--and an advertisement as well as the proper identification of that connection as being ironic--well, a certain other person might call it prophetic--is sooooo juvenile.
And presenting this connection coherently--enough so that all of us got the point--with a pithy comment makes it that much more juvenile.
This would have been a great post even if they didn't add the four words. More would have certainly not made it better.
As many have said, this is the perfect example of a picture that's worth a thousand words.
Blurayers wear the fanboism like peacocks. A passion for a format isnt just strange, its sad.
This format issue has been going on for so long now that it really has become pathetic. I could give 2 $hits which becomes adopted. I hope this giant blunder fails for both sides and something else comes along that makes them both go the way of the LaserDisc.
I care about which format wins, but I wouldn't say most people were passionate about it. I just want to watch my favourite films in HD, without going for some downloadable option, where I have:
- DRM restricting where I watch the movie. I can take a disc to a friend's house and play it in his player. I can't take a downloadable movie and watch it on his PC. Besides, I don't like watching movies on a PC.
- large downloads for HD quality movies. Meaning long waits to get a movie that I can't store locally because I don't have a 1TB disk.
Which format wins means a lot to those of us who enjoy movies.
As opposed to supporting Sony's restrictive DRM schemes they seem to weasel into EVERYTHING?
Securom: Making life hard for legitimate gamers in the name of stopping a few pirates.
RootKit: Can't do what you want with that album I purchased AND a free place for virii/trojans to hide? That's like, two for one!
I can only expect the same anti-user propaganda from BRD.
I love movies as much as anyone. I go to several a month. I think I easily have over $10,000 in my current home audio/video equipment setup (DVDs not included). But since this format war started, besides '300' I haven't bought a single DVD or a HD format movie, whereas I used to buy every movie that interested me on DVD every tuesday.
If this stupid format issue never happened and there was one adopted from the start, they would have had me for an early adopter player sale, a second later model sale, AND all of the overpriced movies I would have bought since then. I now am happier spending my money at the bigscreen and using my home setup for HDTV, and rented upconverted DVDs.
This whole thing was a blunder.
HD DVD has final standards in place, internet ready, cheap to manufacture, region free, and affordable players. Too bad Blu-Ray fan boys can't see the benefits and are just too hooked on that Blu-Ray crack to realize the benefits. I hope Sony DRMs the crap outta Blu-Ray with content flags, maybe then the fanboys will wake up and see why HD DVD format is better. I don't care about disc capacity either. Try another line please, because it comes down to the quality of the movie itself, not capacity! Just ask all owners of the Blu-Ray players who spent hundreds for first gen. players that are not firmware upgradable AKA paper weights.
With HD discs taking up such a small percentage of the market at this time, it's still relatively early in the game. Bluray's technical specifications will be long since finalized when the average Joe is ready to buy. Those bleeding-edgers that bought profile 1 Bluray players already knew they were taking a chance investing so early in the game. Yes, if they want pip commentaries, they'll have to upgrade but something tells me they won't mind spending the money when they probably have $3,000 plus TV's/projectors in their movie room.
As for capacity, some people buy TV shows on Bluray and capacity does make a difference in the number of episodes you can get on one disk. Did you know that the Lost Season 3 Bluray package has over 8 hours of 1080p extra features? Capacity does matter, maybe not for your average 2 hour movie, but add some 1080p special features and the GB's start adding up fast.
PS - Movie companies like the extra capacity too. I have a few discs with 13 or more different 5.1 audio tracks. That pretty much means they only have to make one disc for a very large portion of the world.
> "maybe then the fanboys will wake up and see why HD DVD format is better."
HD DVD isn't better if it doesn't have any movies. End of story. The studios picked Blu-Ray. I'm not a fanboy, I just know which format has more movies.
ell oh ell.
Are the star trek films available on HD-DVD? I know they are Paramount, but I haven't seen them available.
Don't worry you'll see the star trek films coming out ... as soon as Paramount's contract with HD-DVD is up. They'll be coming out on Blu-ray! LOL!!!!
I heard that there was a clause that meant if Warner broke contract, Paramount where no longer contractually obliguated to stay with HD-DVD.
So your joke maybe closer to the truth than you think.
i've seen them at my local Best Buy in VA a few times.
Toshiba should release their HD-DVD RD-A600/A300 over here with the 2TB hard drive and DTCP-IP protocol connection. That way I can download all the ripped Blu-ray/ HD DVD movies right to my HD/DVD player. With the average DIVX HD coming in at 8GB, I can store(cough)steal(cough)around 250 movies! That would be sweet revenge for the movie studios that sold them out.
I'm starting to think this war is even farther from over than we thought, HD DVD players are selling like hotcakes over at Amazon, the #1 selling DVD player is the A3, with all 3 current Toshiba players in the top 10, the highest selling Blu-ray player is #12.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/172514/ref=pd_ts_e_nav
Seems to me WB made a very hasty decision based on a fat check from Sony.
clearance sale?
You have to remember, even though this is #1 selling on Amazon doesn't really mean much. Most people are not reading engadget or other sources for that matter on what studio has dropped HD-DVD and the whole format battle. People see a HD-DVD player on sale and they jump...
More prophetic than ironic really.
Hang on.... We're coming to Blu!
Im completely at a loss why all the Blue Ray Crack addicts here and everywhere else dont understand how crap and DRM infested Sonys Blue Ray is !
Is everyone that retarted to start cheering for a Standard such as ( Blue Ray? )from a Company that brought us Rootkit along with DRM infested cd's and not to mention there wonderfull SonicStage !! . Just ask someone that owned a Sony CD player and walkmen how wonderfull that was ??
Sony is all about proprietary and control , they are the WORST consumer related company that there is when it comes to the bottom line.
Mark my words ..If Sonys DRM infected Blue Ray standard wins the standards war you ALL can expect more grief and pain when you go to purchase your vidoes and hardware , just wait and see.
Fail.
You fail to remember that Sony wasn't the sole inventor of Blu-ray. Sony is just one of nine companies that invented Blu-ray, all of them sharing a fair proportion of its patents (just like the case of Compact Disc: it was invented by both Philips and Sony and both shared its patents). Just look it up at Wikipedia and see it for yourself that I'm right. If you criticize Sony for Blu-ray, then you must also criticize Panasonic, LG, Thompson, Samsung, ...
Wait until the Red-ray and HHDDVVDD-BVD wars...
Download from a different server idiot. And do you really expect top notch download speeds from some personally hosted bittorrent server most of time???
Blu-ray R U L E S ! ! !
Haha, no. Unfinalized specs for the loss.
Man, I hate Shrek. And Donkey.
ESPECIALLY Donkey.
Shrek is the most forced pop culture icon I've ever seen. I love Mike Meyers. Dig Eddie Murphy. HATE their animated alter-egos.
They're sticking Shrek on everything. He was even in "I Am Legend", which was downright insulting. I think Shrek and Donkey had more lines in "I Am Legend" than any other character! (not to mention, it's a total departure from the book's Neville, who was listening to classical records to keep himself sane and drown out the vampires at night.)
Enough with the Shrek!
Yes, Shrek, Optimus Prime, the USS Enterprise & Donkey are running towards a Blu-Ray pressing plant. :)