How would you change the outcome of the format war?
By Darren Murph 
posted February 22nd 2008 6:30PM
posted February 22nd 2008 6:30PM
From the get-go, Toshiba proudly proclaimed that its format wasn't a work-in-progress, and while Profile changes left early Blu-ray owners out of luck when trying to access more advanced features, sales numbers just seemed to always fall in Blu's favor. Truth be told, we know many of you simply wish the two would've nailed down a pact from day one and cranked out a single next-generation format, but being that said scenario didn't exactly pan out, how would you have done things to change the outcome of the format war? Would you have tweaked the approach of either side to get this mess over with months ago? Do you feel the "best" camp won out? And would you have bit the bullet and offered up a combo drive in the Xbox 360 if you flew the flag in Redmond? We've all ideas this one's going to get raucous in no time flat, but for everyone's sake, try to think more with your mind and less with your heart, cool?
bluray bouys out HDDVD, makes a subsidary blu ray format outta HDDVD and then get's killed by digital downloads right after bluray's profits of over 5 billion dollars in one month :P
um...
that's my exact response right after I posted that. I can be stupid at times and I even notice it.
The push strategy that HD DVD and Blu-Ray decided on was really crappy. Consumers had NO choice in the matter, and frankly, I still don't know the differences between the two. HD movies are simply not ready for mass markets; people are happy with their DVD players and don't even realize that movies *can* look better. Case in point, I think that instead of the race to get the product out to the market, both companies should have just taken the time to develop their products further and waited for the consumer demand to increase.
I'm close to that. Instead of Digital downloads though-
Some telecom gets rights to distribute everything on TV and DVD for a monthly fee. They can be viewed on a set-top box or PC.
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD become high-density data storage.
Who cares? DVDs work fine. There's just no need for HD media right now. Sure, some people will go for an HD format, but for myself and almost everyone I've spoken to, plain old DVDs will more than suffice while HD downloads go mainstream.
DIGITAL MEDIA DOWNLOADS will not mature until the average home gets a 15MbpsDown/ 10MbpsUP FIOS connection.
In order to get High Definition media (and even standard media) over lines it takes a long time. I have Verizon Fios (5/2) and it takes me 20 minutes to download 1.8 Gigabytes. The industry won't commit to high speed downloads until speeds are drastically increased.
The really disturbing part is that you can openly walk the streets as a CUBS FAN.
Forget the format wars, this is a sure sign of the apocalypse.
I live in Chicago, so there aren't really people yelling at me or cussing, except for the bloody white sox fans.
also, what's your basbeall team? Marlins?
well they are both crappy standards. and the fact that the one full of drm from a company with "great customer experience" history (sony: rootkits, as closed products as possible - mylo which died because of that, the darn sony memory stick and so on) won is not helping either. For now lets just say that 4,6 gb of hd xvid will do just fine for me :)
Completely irrelevant, and I apologize for that, but I can't help it. I hate to break it to you Cubswillwin, but in the who-can-even-remember number of years since the Cubs last won the series, the Marlins have won it TWICE. And they've been in the league for like 15 years... Seems the baseball situation is better in South Beach than on the North Side... Yeah... and those South-siders have even won it.
@ CUBSWILLWIN
Really, you live in Chicago? I never would have guessed by looking at your name and your avatar. Nope. Not a clue how anyone could have ever known.
I have a toshiba gigabeat, v60e and my software is no japanese, I just can not make it work on my pc, need some help downloading drivers or programs, or where can I purchese a new disk software for this wonderful hdd, and video mp3 player.
thank you
Go Big Blu!!!
Let's see...
perhaps instead of buying exclusivity agreements with millions of dollars, you, as Toshiba, foot the bill and provide free drives to Microsoft to install in their X-Box 360's... or subsidize the cost of the add-on and make it free via a rebate.
But what do I know?
Fact is, Microsoft probably never wanted to commit completely to HD-DVD. If it did, it would have been quite natural to make a version of the Xbox 360 with a built-in HD-DVD drive; and the format would not - probably - have died this sudden death.
How would I change it? It would never have happend to begin with. Blu-Ray was the way to go from the start.
Umm, having a unified single format from the beginning?
That would have been like, totally awesome.
Too bad Sony decided to be whiny brats and split from the unified format to make their own.
Sony asked for a single format early on, but Toshiba told them to go pound sand and the war was on. I am glad Blu-ray won and I think it is better that they did not compromise. The only thing I would have changed was a shorter war, or no HD-DVD to begin with.
Travis.John,
It's the other way around.
well sony knew they had the better product and refused to back down. and thank god they didnt. capacity wise hd-dvd couldnt compare. not too mention those bright red cases were horrible.
HD DVD came from the DVD forum, the group in charge of DVD. It was Sony who insisted on switching to a blue laser, to increase their profit. When the consortium said no they took their ball and went home. The higher capacity won over some hardware backers, but I bet they didn't count on Blu not being complete for years after red (it still isn't complete).
I love higher capacity (I am a geek after all), but red is more complete, as a format. And more robust. I chose red for those reasons and I don't regret it. But when a profile 2.0 player is available for $200 or less I will buy one. Until then my hi def discs are red (I own albout 50 and if the fire sales are as cheap as I hope I'll pick up another 50-75). Besides if I really, really want to watch a blu movie I can grab the ps3 from my living room and do so.
@ genaldar
What are you talking about? Sony went blu laser to increase profit? First both hd formats are BLUE LASER. Sony is not the only bluray backuper, just the company who risked more (ps3) And yes hd dvd was a very complete format and cheaper.
yeah, awesome if your communist.
That's my vote too. It sure didn't hurt DVD adoption or prices!
TavisJohn and genaldar - What the hell are you talking about? Did you both port in from an alternate reality.
Sony and Toshiba each had proposals. So did Matsushita, Pioneer, and others. Sony and Toshiba both tried to start consortiums - Pioneer, Matsushita, and just about everyone else joined up with Sony. NEC and Sanyo joined with Toshiba, who was already working with Microsoft on HDi.
Sony didn't split at all, and Blu-ray is a group effort - Sony is believed to only own about 30% of the IP in BD. HD DVD, on the other hand, is almost all from Toshiba. *Toshiba* was the break-away company, NOT Sony. People let their 'Sony hate' blind them.
And genaldar, HD DVD did not come from the DVD Forum. HD DVD was originally called AOD by Toshiba. They developed it and THEN took it to the DVD Forum for a vote. It *FAILED* a vote to be accepted as the next standard, twice. It was only after the DVD Forum added three more voting members *and* change the voting rules that it passed on another vote and became HD DVD - and Toshiba just happened to chair the DVD Forum while all this voting on their spec was going on.
And both BD and HD DVD are blue laser - exactly the same blue laser diodes even.
you sure de howstuffworks says he-DVD is a refined red laser
They both use 405nm lasers, which is a BLUE laser, as opposed to the 650nm red laser used in DVD.
Megazone nails it!
And I'm sorry genaldar, but if I don't see how HD-DVD was complete or more robust. Did you ever try buying an HD-DVD burner? No? Because you couldn't -- not unless you forked over $3000 for a Toshiba laptop, as that was the only way to get one. All for a whopping 15GB.
Blu-Ray burns at 6x already, and can do 50GB.
-Pie
I didn't know that both HD DVD and Blu-ray use the same laser... so can anyone tell me what makes Blu-ray player a lot more expensive than HD DVD player? I don't understand that how can HD DVD player be a lot cheaper while Blu-ray disc is cheaper to produce...
But Esat, that would save people money!
@ benjasmin - Because Sony makes products that last for like 100 years. Seriously, I can still play my PS1. Sure the graphics aren't as cutting edge but the thing still works. XBox? I think not. That thing broke about 2 years after I bought it. Also, Sony's players output at 1080p, so you're paying for an adapter that takes the image on your TV from great to downright killer. If you ever see a Blu-ray disc on a blu-ray player hooked up to a 1080p Sony TV, you know what I'm talking about. It's freaking surreal. Side by side comparison, Blu-ray was better. Besides, Sony lost the VCR war, they had this coming.
kt, thanks for the reply. I guess that's one of the reasons, too. But I believe there are other reasons as well, since Sony is not the only company that makes Blu-ray players...
When new formats like DVD and VCR came out, the price was high, too. If you look at that way, Blu-ray player's price is actually normal. New technology almost always come with a premium. HD DVD didn't follow the normal trend. I guess Toshiba must did something to make their players so cheap. Maybe selling the players at huge lost? or maybe they made some deals with the movie companies? I don't really know...
Would have been better if HD-DVD or BluRay was never even here and we had 1 format from the start! But then again, prices would have not been so competitive
Ummm. Hmm. I wouldn't have changed anything, Let me be real low-ballish here.
Ahem.
WE WON YOU LOST! NA-NA-NA-NA NA-NA-NA-NA HEY! HEY! HEY! GOODBYE.
I know boasting is totally off-topic here, but GOD did I hate HD-DVD supporters.
Isn't that the song from the Tide-To-Go commercial?...
HD-DVD is not dead! It is just a flesh wound!
and like 50 nail wounds!
FINAL nail wounds
hahaha! i'm not even gonna read further comments i'm satisfied now.
OH THAT'S GOOD! HAHAHAHA
austin++
1) I think the name "HD-DVD" was really boring when compared to "Blue Ray". If I was Toshiba I would have looked for a better, more attractive name.
2) When you compare storage capacity, HD-DVD sucked when compared to Blue Ray. I would have increased capacity if I was Toshiba.
3) I would have forced Microsoft to have an HD-DVD with in every XBOX 360.
it's blu ray, without the E and capitals. No capitals are always sexy. :P
Besides, Blu-ray has 2 syllables, HD-DVD has 5.
I know which one I prefer.
CBSWILLWIN
pardon me for my spelling mistakes...I guess I'm not nerdy enough to remember how blu ray is spelled correctly.
If you didn't notice, I was kinda joking around there.
CUBSWILLWIN
no harm meant...not being nerdy, is not always a good thing in this forum ;)
"VHS" was a lot more boring than "betamax."
ya, and betamax had better quality...that one was kinda weird.