Anybody else thinking that this pretty much seals the deal for both formats remaining niche products? Every mainstream article I read talks about how consumers are confused and are waiting things out. I think eventually they'll get tired of waiting for a winner and just continue choosing standard DVD. Congrats to all of the companies on both sides for this incredible clusterfuck.
This is the most non-consumer friendly move for the high-def formats since the war started, IMO. It's one thing to be putting out no releases and then announce support for one format (Starz), but it's a totally other thing to be supporting both formats and totally drop one. Even those of us wanting Universal to support Blu-ray didn't expect them to drop HD-DVD, but rather just go neutral.
Anybody else thinking that this pretty much seals the deal for both formats remaining niche products? Every mainstream article I read talks about how consumers are confused and are waiting things out. I think eventually they'll get tired of waiting for a winner and just continue choosing standard DVD. Congrats to all of the companies on both sides for this incredible clusterfuck.
According to a post by Robert Zohn he has spoken with "top executives" and all new releases will be HD DVD exclusives. I take this to mean that everything currently slated for Blu-ray, including Blades of Glory which streets next week, will no being seeing a release.
This is beyond bizarre. I had just purchased a Panny Blu-Ray player this week after having been HD-DVD exclusive for a year. If I had seen this news first, I probably would've waited. So now the question is, which of my players is going to be a $500 brick?
Well, I think I'm gonna order all the Blu-ray Paramount releases I have yet to pick up, and then say "see-ya" to Paramount products for the foreseeable future.
Just when I finally go to Blu-Ray and buy a PS3 Paramount/Dreamworks taps out of Blu-Ray. At least I didn't buy a dedicated player.
Going forward the only piece of HD Hardware I will even consider buying will be a combo player when the prices are not ridiculously expensive and they can fully support all features of both formats.
From what I read, the logic (Paramount and Dreamworks) is based on the cost of the player. Low machine prices is where the masses will go. The old tape wars pretty much ended because of the cost of the player and not the IQ of the medium.
But "most people" will be enthusiasts like us. All J6P sees is two incompatible players that don't play every hi-def disc. Every article I read says something like this for instance...
"The competition between Blu-ray and HD DVD has kept confused consumers from rushing to buy new DVD players until they can determine which format will dominate the market."
This is from the Yahoo article today. The longer this thing drags on the less the average consumer will care. Heck most of them can't even tell the difference between regular DVD and hi-def. For enthusiasts like us, we'll probably end up buying both players or a dual-format machine. But not average consumers.
Yeah, hope of HD being an endless niche and never getting off the ground before the horror show known as "direct downloads" takes over. Microsoft HATES disc formats and this just proves it even more.
sigh. i totally agree with you. i LOVED HD-DVD in the beginning, however, lately I've been totally okay with giving in to Blu Ray lately (even re-bought the Sopranos in this format - mostly for the lossless audio) just so this stupid war could end and HD movies could catch on with the main stream. now, who knows.