Has VC-1 debuted on BluRay yet? (1 Viewer)

[Grant H]

Judging by the 2nd gen Toshiba's pricing, I think the player cost difference between the two formats is going to disappear soon.

Now, software...HD-DVD has had somewhat better pricing, except for their hated combo discs, which are starting to chip away at that advantage. Still, at this stage in the game, paying $5 more for a title on one format over another isn't a big deal, not when it's all slim pickins.

Availability has frankly surprised me. It took much longer for DVD's to hit the mainstream stores, and it, too, was priced at a premium. $30 discs at Ames (department store) was normal for B&M. I was buying exclusively on the Internet for years.

 

[ppltd]

I don't believe the PS3 will tank, Sony will not let it. But I am in the camp that the PS3 will not have the impact on BD sales after the initial novelty wears off, and the studios will follow this closely. It is a little unsettling that the studios and BD hard core are putting so much emphasis on a video game system release. It is almost like saying,' we can't sell the technology for it's real purpose, so let's slide it in the back door', While the strategy looked good on paper, much like Combo disks, I do not think it will work in the long run. But, that is just my opinion.

Since I own a Samsung, and have never much cared for Sony game systems (even through they have been fine pieces of hardware) the PS3 is not in my buying future. But even if I did not own the Samsung, I would not touch the PS3 as a central BD player. Can't see how they can make a quality BD player, which has much of the internals dedicated to game playing, for the price. They can not even produce a stand alone player for under 1000.00. This price discrepancy gives me concern. Hopefully, I am wrong.

 

[MarekM]

Thomas, I think if Disney, Fox and Sony will put out same amount of movies as Warner,.... numbers will change more and more in favor of Blu-ray..

Marek

 

[ppltd]

While I agree that this makes sense, so far, the release schedules do not reflect it.

And it assumes of course that Disney does not defect and support both formats. If the sales of the PS3 and the HD add-on continue as well as the pre-sales have been, Disney, and I believe Universal may make a move to support both camps. If that happens, Fox will not be far behind. I think the next 8 weeks will be very telling for both formats.

If the HD add on fails, or the studios don't see a sustainable customer base for the PS3, we might be seeing a nitch product not unlike LD's. This is the last thing I would want to see. I am enjoying my HD and BD movies way too much to want to see releases dwindle down to the speed that LD saw releases.

My opinion is not based on any rumors or solid facts, but rather possible market conditions.

 

[Ryan-G]

I see, IMO, alot of signals that indicate PS3 may fail. Lack of exclusives, very high entry fee, Sony Trademarked schizophrenic approach to the devices function*(See end of post). Further, there's no immediately apparent improvement between it and the X-box 360 justifying the price disparity.

But I definitely do not see HD media ending up as LD.

LD had problems from the get go, expensive hardware, expensive software, inconvient to use due to flipping, and absolutely no backward compatibility with the currently dominant format. A person had to buy a LD Player, and seperate media, and everything they already owned was useless.

HD media is different. It'll be fairly cheap just by virtue of the computer market ramping up production for storage. The software is within the realm of tolerance for the most part, Hitting right around the same premium DVD commanded when it started going mainstream ~$25. It's as convenient as DVD. Most importantly it is universally compatible. Not only will it play DVD's, it'll play on standard TV's as well at SD resolutions.

The worst case scenario for HD media is that instead of a rapid ramp up, or even an average growth curve tied to HDTV's curve, is that it simply slowly replaces SD media as existing players fail and/or new purchases made following SD Player's current sales curve. Since it's universally compatible, and it's pretty much assured of cost parity due to the computer market demand ramping up, it'll just slowly replace SD Players over time.

HD media won't be a niche product under any circumstances, format war or no. Even if the format war isn't resolved, universal players will show up. No matter what, it'll end up being the defacto player sold if only because it can easily perform SD duties as well as HD duties.

Key thing to remember on HD Players though, the computer market will cause prices to drop as production ramps up. The computer market is starved for storage, and 30 or 50 gigabyte mediums will sell well. Drives are pushing 500+ gigabytes now and the dinky DVD's just don't cut it anymore for backup.

*Sony's got some kind of schizophrenic egotistical need to try to compete not only with other consoles, but with PC's as well. Which is fine, except Consoles are special purpose machines, with special purpose hardware, and cannot compete with PC's in general purpose use. Especially with consoles lack of privacy. Sony spends too much time and energy attacking the PC market with each generation, with a product that cannot compete.

 

[Cees Alons]

They can't. No studio can put out as many movies as Warner. The sheer number of A-movies in their vaults is a multitude of the number in any other studio's vault.


Cees

 

[ppltd]

While I agree that the HD market will probably make it, the facts of the LD release closely mirrors HD. Currently with HD we have expensive hardware, inconvience, (no backward compatibility was not a factor with the LD, since there was no Dominant product at the time of it's release as it predates both VHS and Beta for user acceptance at the time of it's releases. Both video tapes formats, at release, had limited recording capacity.) and limited quality releases. In addition, no one owned equipment to view media in their home at the start of the LD release, nor was media readily available to the general product.

But to see if this could end up as a niche market, one only has to look at the competing High Resolution CD formats to see where this could go.

 

[JediFonger]

that reminds me. do the current BluRay players play SD-DVD? just curious =).

 

[Ben_Williams]

Yessir! The Sammy, Panny and Philips all play SD-DVD.

 

[Gekkou]

Don't forget though that the PS3 is sold at a considerable loss, whereas standalones are sold at a profit (if I am not mistaken).

Of course there is still no guarantee with the quality as a BD player, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the pricing strategy is different.