This weekend saw the launch of the , which many in the industry consider the Golden Goose that will give the Blu-Ray format the much needed push to win the format war. Now that it's out, I am sure it won't take long until those 'analysts' will have to eat their words. They will do so gracefully, of course, and pretend they never said anything like that or simply gloss over the fact that their predictions were entirely pulled from the realm of wishful thinking. As I pointed out on numerous occasions, the majority of people buying a PS3 will do so in order to play games. , people! And a pretty expensive one at that. While a certain portion of people will test-drive the Blu-Ray disc, chances are . Why? Because chances are they haven't even hooked it up properly or run it in a 480p standard TV mode or some such. The high price point of Blu-Ray discs compared to DVD will also keep deterring people, no doubt, as will the clunky handling that comes with using a video game console to play movies. Who knows, maybe I will be wrong, but to me it just doesn't' make sense that the PS3 should be the Blu-Ray savior, just as little as the Xbox 360 will truly help expand the HD-DVD adoption.
jonny
jonny
12/2/2006 2:52:31 AM
Rod Linford
Seems to me to be the old story of "VHS" and "Betamax" battle, for those of us old enough to remember those days. One thing that springs to mind for me is the inability to play your existing DVD collection, whether in HD or not. A lot us have spent a lot of money collecting our DVD's, and to me i would like to keep them. As a result the HD-DVD format is the one for me, as i can play "upscaled" bog standard dvds. I appreciate that this is not true HD, but of course when I purchase new DVDs they will be of the HD_DVD variety. So in my opinion from a consumers point HD-DVD has the edge - because of the backawards capability. I would not want to replace my entire collection with a blu-ray format. In the meantime I've opted for a "upscaling" DVD player (Xoro HSD8500) linked to my Philips 1080p LCD TV. http://www.smarthomeentertainment.co.uk for more information.
11/30/2006 4:53:16 AM
Svante
Well, talked with friends that planned to buy the PS3. But because of the delayes etc. They went for Xbox360 and the coming Wii instead. I think the world is getting sick and tired of Sony´s world domination and their bullshit. The ones that I have talked to that still is going to buy a PS3 want´s one for GAMES and not movies. They don´t care about Blu-Ray.
11/27/2006 9:02:29 AM
Perspective
I think that a new format war is ridiculous!! I was one of the first adopters of DVD once it came out. I loved the idea that the picture didn't fade over a few years and the fact that I could jump to my favorite scenes without having to fast forward. I think that DVD's are great. Although having Star Wars in 1080p sounds great, I am just not ready to change formats yet. I disagree with Microsoft and Sony about offering two different console packages. That is just dumb. Now offering them in 10 different colors is a great idea. I have not yet been impressed with the PS3 as of yet. I do think that the machine itself looks cool. It does not have any "must have" titles for me at this time. The graphics don't look much different than the Xbox 360. I plan to own a PS3 eventually, but not in the near future unless I can get my current debts paid off. Hopefully I will be able to win one. :D
11/26/2006 10:54:42 PM
Aaron
I sold my entire DVD collection (1000+ Titles) after purchasing my first Toshiba HD DVD player. I was sold the mnute I popped Phantom of the Opera into the player. A HUGE ASS DIFFERENCE! I now have nearly 90 HD DVDs and I will never look back. High Definition is here to stay but its growth will be paced as people migrate to HDTV displays. Once they see what their displays can produce with upgraded images they will surely be hooked.
11/24/2006 5:17:43 PM
OBIWAN
The only people who are aginst HD movies are the ones who can't display them them in HD. Once you have it you don't want anything less. And DVD is far less than BD or HD-DVD movies. I bought the PS3 as a movie player first. We should embrace HD not jump away from it. The PS3 is the best BD player pout ther but Talledega nights is the worst HD movie manufactured yet. It is terrible looking. I picked up Memento and Underworld Evolution after I baught my PS3 and they look absolutely amazing. If HD-DVD fails they stop manufacturing players but if BD fails you will always have a Sony Plyststaion to play them on. Always. Now that the games are on BD they can't ever go back. So, BD movies are no gamble.
11/24/2006 1:57:36 PM
Paul
The PS3 will advertise BD to the public, but I doubt it will convert people into a new format entirely.
I waited around one of them line-ups & asked a few people what they think of BD & if they wanted it for games or BDs? 40+ people I asked said they wanted it for one of the launch games. 28 didn't own a tv capable of HD rez. 4 people knew about HD DVD & BD. When asked if they cared that it can playback BD movies? The responses were,
huh? whats that? don't really care
11/24/2006 2:46:22 AM
Douglas
Picked up my PS3 and 8 blue ray movies to go along with it. So far I think Corpse Bride and Kingdom of Heaven are the best to show off the new technology. The system is extremely well made, looks and feels like high end electronics. I am very happy with the value this system gives as both a high end game machine and blue ray player. I can't believe people are against the natural progression of technology and still pro dvd. Why does absolutely everything have to be a conspiracy theory? When I am plugging into my holodeck in 20 years, perhaps the fence sitters will be just transitioning to the current HD formats. Their loss.
11/22/2006 9:41:36 PM
Jack Black
The biggest lie of all is that we even need these new technologies to have HD video on a disc.
DVD video has been around for almost 10 years now, and since then vastly superior video compression technologies have been introduced, namely MPEG-4 and all its variants (h.264, DivX, XviD, etc). These compression formats are absolutely amazing in regards to size vs quality. A hi-def movie in any of these formats could easily fit onto a dual layer DVD, which holds about 9 GB. The only problem is that you can't really 'update' your existing player. In the consumers' best interest, what they would do is release new DVD players that not only supported these newer formats, but also had the ability to be upgraded for future technologies. We wouldn't need these expensive blue lasers to fit more data on a disc. Unfortunately, this solution doesn't line the pockets of shareholders and executives, so it is unlikely to happen
11/22/2006 3:29:24 AM
jw
I AGREE... The public is not ready for a new format already. A lot of people have spent a lot of money building their DVD collections, a format that just became mainstream ~5 years ago. Do you really want to go out and replace all of those movies? These new players will be backwards compatible with your old movies for sure, but if you just blew a grand on a shiny new player, you're going to want to watch your favorite movies in all their HD glory, right?
The jump from DVD to the next generation does not provide any benefits other than higher resolution, which to be fair is a great reason to want that upgrade, but there is nothing else. Cool menus and new interactive layer? People just want to watch the stinking movie. Better sound? Bah. 5.1 channel Dolby or DTS is pretty much the best it's going to get. Do you really want more speakers behind you than in front of you?
11/22/2006 3:27:22 AM
Marty McFly
These format wars are a waste of time. Why? DRM!!!! Hollywood's plans for Digital Restrictions Management, supported by Intel, IBM, Microsoft and SONY, are an outrageous attack on your freedom. They are also an attack on free software, since free software may never be able to read these disks. Business conspiracies to restrict technology (ie HD-DVD & blue-ray) should be illegal; until they are, you should prohibit them from your home and your life.
11/22/2006 3:21:57 AM
MTG
I disagree with your comment about the price of HD/BR disks being the cause for the format not catching on. Those statements were said years ago when VHS movies first appeared on the market ($90 a movie now you can't sell them), again when DVD hit the market (40 bucks for a disk when I can buy a VHS movie for 23 bucks??? -- who's gonna buy them?). What's stopping the HD/BR disks from catching on?? The price of a player and the idiotic format war.
I'm considering the PS3 right now because it looks like a good solution for: 1) avoiding another PC upgrade (2K vs. 650) 2) the BR player in the box (1200 vs. 650) 3) cool controller that sounds like a nice compromise between keyboard/mouse and a standard gamepad. 4) Games coming out on a BR disk may have more content than PC or XBox games. 5) price of PS3 is about the same as 360 + HD player (360).
PS3 expensive? sure, unless you start looking and using all the functionality that it provides.
The real concern is the format war: BR doesn't catch on and HD DVD does. Nasty but might be worth the risk. In the mean time, still pick up the occational DVD and be aware that BR disks might have to be replaced one day with HD DVD or some other medium (Downloaded content? which brings me to xbox 360 and them promoting downloads at the same time as releasing HD DVD player - talk about confusing the customers)
11/21/2006 11:35:21 PM
AnubisGOJ
I have both the HD-DVD player for my 360 and the PS3. King Kong on HD-DVD is outstanding, and shows off details that had me watching certain sequences over and over, transfixed. Talladega Nights on Blu-ray looks soft, with the colors muted. I tried Full Metal Jacket on HD-DVD, to see how an old movie would stack up against Blu-ray- and it too offered a much more vivid image and better sound. I may pick up another BD just to give the Sony system a fair shake, but overall the entire PS3 experience is rather lackluster.
11/21/2006 9:22:13 AM
VWR
I agree. The PS3 will not bolster Blu-Ray significantly, mostly because of the complete lack of market saturation. Can't push a format successfully when only 1 out of 100 people have a PS3, and probably won't until sometime in early 2007. I do, however, disagree with your 360 comment only because I bought the HD-DVD player for my 360 and LOVE IT. In the two days after I bought mine, I picked up 14 titles. Of course, I'm not the norm, but it did finally push me into the HD DVD realm. I truly despise the combo format titles, but love the fact the XBOX converts the picture to 1080i since my 65" Mitsu can do neither 720p or 1080p.
