Topic For Discussion: HD Format War

[calviin]

So if you haven't heard, at 3 am EST today, Toshiba has finally announced the end of the HD format war. HD-DVD is packing up shop, Blu-Ray is the winner. Frankly, I don't care because I don't own an HD TV and I don't have any problems with DVDs, but one question did come to mind. Did Sony's decision to put the Playstation brand behind Blu-Ray have

Comments

As for the medium taking hold,

[hercshman]

I realize that it has taken that much time for DVDs to take hold, but I don't think it will take so long for the new medium to become big. New college grads have disposable income, and we're in a paradigm shift where HD TVs are replacing SD TVs. In most cases to take advantage of an HD set you either need a digital signal or digital cable, and an HD player (upconverting DVD or blu-ray). Otherwise the movie looks like blurry on the HD set. Retailers will likely push BR because most players can upconvert DVDs which saves people from having to replace their whole collection right off the bat. The only down side here is the price, which has only just started to approach most people's threshold of purchase.

Digital signal is good because it's free and you get HD versions of local channels. It's what we use, and with the release of most serial shows on DVD I can save what I would pay monthly for cable and watch a whole series in one shot.

Digital cable comes with On Demand which is nice for the free movies and shows it makes available if your willing to pay the price, and new movies can be watched for a price (akin to downloading). You can also take advantage of TIVO and whatnot too, but again if you are willing to pay the price.

Re: As for the medium taking hold,

[hercshman]

I like a tangible medium. I like having a CD that I can say is my own, rip whenever I want to, and still have the music when my computer crashes. Call me a Luddite but that's the way I feel.

The idea behind digital downloads is nice in theory, but there are a few concerns I have on top of the download speeds you mentioned. What if a hard drive fails (viruses are on the rise), or the company you download from goes under (Wa mart closed their doors a few months ago)? Those are the two main reasons I haven't downloaded more than one VC game, because I don't know if I'm going to be doing it again when Nintendo releases it's next player.

At the same time, is downloading media really saving us anything? I can typically wait 2 months to buy a new release and get it for $10 or less at Best Buy. I fully expect this pricing model to carry over to the BR standard, given time. On the same token I can preview select movies from Apple TV, for slightly less and pay the remainder of the full cost to own a non-tangible form. I suppose the user dictates which they prefer, but I know Divx was all ready attempted and it was too confusing for the public at large who just wanted to buy movies.

Re: As for the medium taking hold,

[hercshman]

Eh, I had a couple of other points that I wanted to make earlier, but at this point I've sort of lost my train of thought...

um... I'll just ago ahead and say I think the PS3 put more BR players in houses than they would have gotten otherwise.

That, and a fat sack of cash dropped off on Warner Bros. doorstep.

Re: As for the medium taking hold,

[calviin]

Well, I agree that the PS3 helped sell Blu-Ray, but is asked if it was a worthwhile effect. Maybe I need to define worthwhile better. DVD sales took 10 years to overtake VHS. I submit that Blu-Ray sales will never be as successful as DVD because digital distribution will spoil it for them.

Re: As for the medium taking hold,

[calviin]

I hear the argument all the time asking what to do if the hard drive crashes. How is a crashed hard drive something that people still consider to be an issue? Companies have long been protecting their data with back up servers. With the falling prices of memory, I can find a 500GB HDD through Google for under $100.00. At $0.20 per 1GB, this is exactly the reason why home servers are on the rise. If that option isn't good enough, burnable disc mediums are constantly falling in price as well, so you can make space consuming hard copies if that is your thing.

As far as the company going under, this is why I address DRM in the post and state, "Slowly, the music and movie labels are beginning to realize that they need back off with DRM." Music is further along in this regard than movies, but just as the music labels are being forced to adapt to DRM-free thanks to many influences (music labels needed to start offering DRM-free downloads just to compete against pirate torrents. Legal or not, it's still competition and they gotta match them with features to stay competitive), movies will too once the broadband speeds pick up.

The idea of having a movie collection is also something I've heard, but music collections haven't stopped iTunes from selling 30% of music sales last year, a percentage that continues to grow. I don't want to keep using the music industry as the example for the movie industry, but they do keep following the exact same path.