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Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive!

#541
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1/6/08 at 1:12pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
OK. And you extrapolate all that based on one post from AVS, that you admit is anecdotal. Your scenario could end up occurring, but I doubt it. The enormous amounts of money being tossed out by these companies has to be recouped. They still have major competition in the form of DVD. If they start pushing up the prices then they stand to lose a lot of money because there will be no incentive for the average consumer to switch.

If they want to have any chance of getting back some of the money they are burning then they have to mainstream HD. The only way they are going to do that is to make it competitive with SD DVD. As I see it, prices are going to have to come down, not go up, if they want to have any chance of getting people to switch. I still think there will be a concerted push to bring down the cost of HD displays even faster than they have been presently dropping. I also think that there will be a lot more package deals being made available to encourage a faster absorption of HD sets.

Of course, my extrapolations are based on no more evidence than yours. Either scenario could occur.

Everybody is talking like HD being a "niche" would be a bad thing, and in some respects it is since it media prices would likely remain high and breadth of film releases would be thinner; however, other aspects of niche status wouldn't be so bad. For one thing they would have to cater to a consumer block that wouldn't take kindly to poor audio and video transfers. The releases would have to cater more to the tastes of film collectors than casual viewers. If being niche means that I won't have to look at any car commercials on my discs then bring it on.


Actually it wasn't based on the post from AVS, I had been thinking about this for a few days. The AVS post was just my first indication that it might actually be true.

The format war was gift handed to the early adopter and most of them have no idea. If it weren't for the format war we would still be paying $1000 or more for players, and I would bet that movies would be over $30, probably pushing $40.

As you said the powers that be have to make back a lot of money, particularly if blu-ray really did pay Warner to the tune of $250 million or more. They can't make that money back by giving discounts. It's likely that every blu-ray player under $500 is losing money. They won't stay under $500 for long if they don't have to.

Doug
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#542
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1/6/08 at 1:14pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
I read on AVS that (and this is anecdotal) Someone did a search of blu-ray players, and since the Warner announcement, the price of the average stand alone blu-ray player has gone up $100.
Actually a false premise: MSRP has not changed on any players. The $100 off "instant savings" that were prevalent throughout stores for the holiday season has now expired. This has nothing to do with the average price going up due to WB's decision, but rather a natural phenomenon that would have happened even if WB were still format neutral.
Quote:
. BOGO free sales are a thing of the past. The price of a movie is going to creep back up to around $30 or more. And the price of players is going to stay above $300 for a low end player.
Again, it's been 2 days since WB's announcements. Let's give retailers and Amazon a chance to prove that BOGOs are gone before we proclaim it. And having players with substantial profit margins makes stores more willing to stock and push them to consumers, unlike the $40-$50 per player stores were making off of the discount Toshiba players [less if people used their Best Buy 10% off coupons].
Quote:
There is no longer an incentive for blu-ray to compete.
How about to sell product? It's not enough to simply drive HD-DVD out of the market - BD still needs to sell product. Most people have shown they won't pay $35 for movies. They may never fall to DVD prices ($14.99 loss leader new releases, $9.99 catalog titles) but the market (supply/demand) will not allow prices of HD media to stay at elevated levels.
Quote:
Oh yes one format is surely a good thing for the consumer!
Yeah. There should be two competing formats! Like DVD and...
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#543
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1/6/08 at 1:20pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
Actually a false premise: MSRP has not changed on any players. The $100 off "instant savings" that were prevalent throughout stores for the holiday season has now expired. This has nothing to do with the average price going up due to WB's decision, but rather a natural phenomenon that would have happened even if WB were still format neutral.

Again, it's been 2 days since WB's announcements. Let's give retailers and Amazon a chance to prove that BOGOs are gone before we proclaim it. And having players with substantial profit margins makes stores more willing to stock and push them to consumers, unlike the $40-$50 per player stores were making off of the discount Toshiba players [less if people used their Best Buy 10% off coupons].

How about to sell product? It's not enough to simply drive HD-DVD out of the market - BD still needs to sell product. Most people have shown they won't pay $35 for movies. They may never fall to DVD prices ($14.99 loss leader new releases, $9.99 catalog titles) but the market (supply/demand) will not allow prices of HD media to stay at elevated levels.

Yeah. There should be two competing formats! Like DVD and...


First MSRP is irrelevant, what I actually have to pay for a player is what I'm interested in. Before I could get a blu-ray player on sale with 5 free movies or more. I suspect those days are gone.

I'm not talking about the fact that BOGO sales from the Christmas season have ended. I'm saying that I doubt seriously that you will see very many more of them. I mean for a while there blu-ray had a BOGO almost every other week. Those days are gone because they don't have to do it to win the weeks sales charts.

Doug
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#544
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1/6/08 at 1:24pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott-S
Downloading movies is NEVER going to work. There are very few homes that have the internet speed fast enough to make downloading an HD movie reasonable unless they are ok with ultra-compression. To download a Blu-Ray quality movie would require 50G. Have you every tried to download a 50G file?

That would take more than a few hours for most people.

I am certainly not in favor of the "download movies" idea, however...

I was talking to a friend of mine about this a few hours ago and he pointed something out to me. The truth is, the average consumer will not care what quality the movie he buys is in, so long as he/she can download it quickly. That can sell us regular TV quality movies and I am sure people will buy them.

So yeah... that's one reason why I am not sold on the idea of downloading movies either. But he has a point... that is why we _really_ need this silly format war to end.

F

Frank

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#545
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1/6/08 at 1:29pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin_B
So basically if you "hear the story" that makes you feel better you believe it and if it doesn't make you feel better then you don't.
Becuase it "makes me feel better"...? My feelings do not play into why I choose to believe these sources.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin_B
Frankly it's not worth getting into a pissing match over. What's done is done.

Agreed! What's done is done and now it's time to move on. Personally I'm just glad we're on track for a single format.

DVD & Blu-ray - It's all about the movies!
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#546
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1/6/08 at 1:30pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert Crawford
...

At this time, my concern is for the consumers and the membership of this forum. Over the last two years, too much emotional investment has taken place in this format war for much too long by so many people that were once on the same page about enjoying the HT experience to the utmost. Hopefully, we can get back to that and move forward by adjusting our focus on enjoying even more films in high definition with advanced audio codecs. IMO, that's what is really important here.






Crawdaddy


My thoughts exactly! Thanks Crawdaddy!

DVD & Blu-ray - It's all about the movies!
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#547
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1/6/08 at 1:33pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
First MSRP is irrelevant, what I actually have to pay for a player is what I'm interested in. Before I could get a blu-ray player on sale with 5 free movies or more. I suspect those days are gone.

I'm not talking about the fact that BOGO sales from the Christmas season have ended. I'm saying that I doubt seriously that you will see very many more of them. I mean for a while there blu-ray had a BOGO almost every other week. Those days are gone because they don't have to do it to win the weeks sales charts.

Doug
You're right. 5 free movies are gone. You can now get 10 free movies if you buy the Panasonic player from Best Buy. Oh, and 5 free still if you buy the Sony. Woe is us

And again "not caring about MSRP just selling price" is fine, but that discount of $100 per player was due mostly to the holiday selling season than the format war. You know, discounting to boost holiday sales have been happening for decades now. It's not something that just happened because BD vs HDD was taking place.

And I get that you "doubt you'll see many more". But since neither of us are Nostradamus, I'm saying let's actually let some more time pass before proclaiming your prediction as fact (especially given how your "no more 5 free movies" worked out).
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#548
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1/6/08 at 1:41pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
You're right. 5 free movies are gone. You can now get 10 free movies if you buy the Panasonic player from Best Buy. Oh, and 5 free still if you buy the Sony. Woe is us

And again "not caring about MSRP just selling price" is fine, but that discount of $100 per player was due mostly to the holiday selling season than the format war. You know, discounting to boost holiday sales have been happening for decades now. It's not something that just happened because BD vs HDD was taking place.

And I get that you "doubt you'll see many more". But since neither of us are Nostradamus, I'm saying let's actually let some more time pass before proclaiming your prediction as fact (especially given how your "no more 5 free movies" worked out).


Well thats my point. Yes you can get 5 free movies or even 10 free movies now. But the incentive to do that is pretty much gone now. I don't think the 5 or 10 free movies will last much longer. Sure you will see sales around the holidays, but we were getting sales every other week. I don't you will see those kind of deals on a regular basis anymore.

Doug
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#549
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1/6/08 at 1:42pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

People keep posting the same annoying response. 'Well that's the risk you took by getting in the Format War'. Different consoles exist and most companies support all of them. Of course there are some exclusives, but in general a great deal of the same games show up on all platforms.

Maybe some didn't see this as a 'war' but a 'choice'. Some people chose xbox, some chose playstation. Some chose BD, some chose HD-DVD based on assurances from some companies (Paramount, Warner) where they stood. Well they turned their back on the consumer. They broke their promises. Sure its legal what they did, but your word means something to people. And justifying it by the 'well that's the risk you took' comeback doesn't cut it, and I'm sure it won't cut for a whole lot of people out there.

People have a right to feel upset, the companies did the people wrong. And that's an atmosphere to build trust on for a new format? BD and HD-DVD have a whole lot of work ahead of them.
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#550
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1/6/08 at 1:44pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Borges
People keep posting the same annoying response. 'Well that's the risk you took by getting in the Format War'. Different consoles exist and most companies support all of them. Of course there are some exclusives, but in general a great deal of the same games show up on all platforms.

Maybe some didn't see this as a 'war' but a 'choice'. Some people chose xbox, some chose playstation. Some chose BD, some chose HD-DVD based on assurances from some companies (Paramount, Warner) where they stood. Well they turned their back on the consumer. They broke their promises. Sure its legal what they did, but your word means something to people. And justifying it by the 'well that's the risk you took' comeback doesn't cut it, and I'm sure it won't cut for a whole lot of people out there.

People have a right to feel upset, the companies did the people wrong. And that's an atmosphere to build trust on for a new format? BD and HD-DVD have a whole lot of work ahead of them.

Well as I said before, this was going to happen eventually one way or the other. There wasn't going to be 2 formats forever. Honestly DVD will be going away probably with in the next 5 to 10 years also. Hell television as we know it is going away next year!

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#551
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1/6/08 at 1:50pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
Well as I said before, this was going to happen eventually one way or the other. There wasn't going to be 2 formats forever.
Doug

According to who? Why can't 2 formats exist? Actually aren't there 3 now or something? Do we all have to eat the ACME brand or something?

A lot of people out there probably believed that these 2 formats where here to stay and went ahead and bought an HD-DVD player. Even Sony president was saying both formats where here to stay.
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#552
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1/6/08 at 1:52pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
I don't know about that. I've read plenty of posts on here, where people state they won't buy in until players are less than 200 or 100 dollars. BTW, that doesn't include you.
I'm one of those people who's waiting for $200 HD players. I don't know why being a movie fan means I should also be in a rush to spend thousands on consumer electronics?

Like they say, it's all about the movies. And DVD plays the movies quite well.


Practically, for me, a BR upgrade entails a TV upgrade -- my 36" HDTV Sony Wega probably doesn't even truly resolve 720p. And a (equivalent) 28" widescreen sub-720p display won't benefit much from 1080p BR. So a $300 BR purchase is really a $5000 upgrade when the display, new cabinet, etc. is all accounted for. Oh, and my wife wants bedroom furniture.

So, yeah, I'm really interested in a <$100 BR player And maybe a <$1000 50" Plasma screen!
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#553
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1/6/08 at 1:52pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Borges
According to who? Why can't 2 formats exist? Actually aren't there 3 now or something? Do we all have to eat the ACME brand or something?

A lot of people out there probably believed that these 2 formats where here to stay and went ahead and bought an HD-DVD player. Even Sony president was saying both formats where here to stay.

If there were two formats that all studios were publishing on, like in the days of VHS and Beta, then both formats could co exist as VHS and Beta did for about 20 years. But when you have exclusives, it can't last.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
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#554
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1/6/08 at 1:56pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveF
I'm one of those people who's waiting for $200 HD players. I don't know why being a movie fan means I should also be in a rush to spend thousands on consumer electronics?

Like they say, it's all about the movies. And DVD plays the movies quite well.


Practically, for me, a BR upgrade entails a TV upgrade -- my 36" HDTV Sony Wega probably doesn't even truly resolve 720p. And a (equivalent) 28" widescreen sub-720p display won't benefit much from 1080p BR. So a $300 BR purchase is really a $5000 upgrade when the display, new cabinet, etc. is all accounted for. Oh, and my wife wants bedroom furniture.

So, yeah, I'm really interested in a <$100 BR player And maybe a <$1000 50" Plasma screen!

Well the $1000 50" plasma or LCD is probably not that far off. Maybe 6 months with a good sale. You can already get a 47" 1080p LCD for about $1200. The $100 blu-ray player? Anyone's guess.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#555
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1/6/08 at 1:59pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I don't see BOGO sales going away. The simple fact that since launch, most titles haven't been 'flying' off the shelves at existing prices (sans BOGO). As time passes on, the launch titles as well as titles released since get 'stale' (for lack of a better term), and retailers need a way to move them. Bad example, but a title like "Hoosiers" or "Flight of the Phoenix" aren't appealing at $28 (Amazon pricing) and thus just sit and take up inventory space. But at $14 with a BOGO, it moves inventory that is older, and while generating less revenue than $28 price point, better than unsold stock.

I liken it (kinda) to the airline business - airplanes sitting at the terminal are not making money. HD/BD discs not selling aren't making the retailer any money. BOGO move inventory, may make retailer little money, but chances are high that it might drive another sale on an impulse item to consumers that are brought into a retail or online store. Even if only 20% of consumers purchase something additional, it's 20% more revenue that the retailer otherwise wouldn't have made.

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#556
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1/6/08 at 2:02pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I think alot of the Buy One, Get One sales were going away anyway since the holidays are over. There will still be the occasional sale but for the last couple of months, it seemed like a near weekly occurence from one retailer or another and that's going to slow down just because it's a slow time for retail now.

And they'll still have occasional Buy One, Get One sales to lure people to make the switch to high definition. It's like how the first week sales on SD titles used to be around $15 or even a little cheaper. Once SD had really penetrated the market, the prices went up- not when DIVX died.
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#557
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1/6/08 at 2:06pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Borges
According to who? Why can't 2 formats exist? Actually aren't there 3 now or something? Do we all have to eat the ACME brand or something?

A lot of people out there probably believed that these 2 formats where here to stay and went ahead and bought an HD-DVD player. Even Sony president was saying both formats where here to stay.

The worst case scenario is that we end up with a HD/SD DVD split of the home video market, similar to laser disc/VHS.

I have yet to see a video format war end up with the two competing formats co-existing. I did not expect this one to end up any different.

VHS beat BETA.
LD beat CED.
DVD beat DIVX.
BLU-RAY has most likely beat HD DVD.
BLU-RAY beats??? DVD or at the worst co-exists with DVD.

There is not one single case where two video formats performing the exact same function co-existed. How could anyone think that this time it would be different. Because the companies said so? They'll say anything to sell their product: right up until the time they pull the plug and leave the end user high and dry.

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#558
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1/6/08 at 2:09pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
Okay here is my take on the fall out from Warner's choice.

I read on AVS that (and this is anecdotal) Someone did a search of blu-ray players, and since the Warner announcement, the price of the average stand alone blu-ray player has gone up $100.

I think the fall out of blu-ray winning is that HD optical media is now going to be a niche format. BOGO free sales are a thing of the past. The price of a movie is going to creep back up to around $30 or more. And the price of players is going to stay above $300 for a low end player.

There is no longer an incentive for blu-ray to compete. As a result blu-ray will just be a format for the high end consumer and it will never reach the mass market.

Oh yes one format is surely a good thing for the consumer!

Doug

Douglas,

You are correct in the short term. In the long term, like next Christmas prices will be lower and the sales will be back.
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#559
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1/6/08 at 2:10pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick_S
For those who don’t think it will happen because people like to have physical media, I have one word for you, iTunes.
The success of iTunes came after the music labels refused to listen to their consumers and practically forced them out of the music-buying market. iTunes essentially revived the singles market after the music labels stupidly decided that consumers should have to buy a $20 CD to get the one song they really wanted. Consumers rebelled against that and now, after years of trying to stop the Napsters and their clones, the labels have finally supported a legitimate way to purchase singles again.

Plus there's a huge difference between listening to a downloaded song on your iPod vs. trying to download a film at the same quality that can be had via physical media. There are so many variables that need to be in place at nearly 100% saturation (such as fast computers, high speed Internet, the knowledge of how to get the movie from your computer to your television, etc.) before mass adoption of movie downloads can even be considered. There are millions of movie-buying customers who don't even have home Internet, let alone the computer upgrades and technical know-how needed to handle the immense file sizes and transfer the files to a playable format for their televisions.

Heck, I'm kind of medium-level HT and computer savvy, but I'm still using a computer I purchased in 1999 that nearly chokes loading HTF, let alone trying to download a film. Hoping to upgrade this year, but who knows? Then after that, I still need to get an HD-capable display of some sort, which may be at least another year away after the computer.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan_Ohio
Retail outlets will force acceleration to switch to one format. My prediction is that stores will only carry one format for Warner Brothers. I think it will happen soon. By the beginning of February, you will see a different look at your local stores. At my local best buy the HD DVD player was turned off. This may have nothing to do with the announcement, but no one seemed to care. I think the HD-DVD players will move to the upscale DVD section of the store to still sell the player.
Yep, the true "end" to this war will be decided by the retailers. Whether they continue to give shelf-space to HD-DVD players and software for awhile longer, or whether they yank them almost immediately.

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#560
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1/6/08 at 2:11pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian-W
I don't see BOGO sales going away. The simple fact that since launch, most titles haven't been 'flying' off the shelves at existing prices (sans BOGO). As time passes on, the launch titles as well as titles released since get 'stale' (for lack of a better term), and retailers need a way to move them. Bad example, but a title like "Hoosiers" or "Flight of the Phoenix" aren't appealing at $28 (Amazon pricing) and thus just sit and take up inventory space. But at $14 with a BOGO, it moves inventory that is older, and while generating less revenue than $28 price point, better than unsold stock.

I liken it (kinda) to the airline business - airplanes sitting at the terminal are not making money. HD/BD discs not selling aren't making the retailer any money. BOGO move inventory, may make retailer little money, but chances are high that it might drive another sale on an impulse item to consumers that are brought into a retail or online store. Even if only 20% of consumers purchase something additional, it's 20% more revenue that the retailer otherwise wouldn't have made.


I wouldn't call a title selling under 1000 copies "flying" off shelves.

Doug
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Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#561
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1/6/08 at 2:13pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
The worst case scenario is that we end up with a HD/SD DVD split of the home video market, similar to laser disc/VHS.

I have yet to see a video format war end up with the two competing formats co-existing. I did not expect this one to end up any different.

VHS beat BETA.
LD beat CED.
DVD beat DIVX.
BLU-RAY has most likely beat HD DVD.
BLU-RAY beats??? DVD or at the worst co-exists with DVD.

There is not one single case where two video formats performing the exact same function co-existed. How could anyone think that this time it would be different. Because the companies said so? They'll say anything to sell their product: right up until the time they pull the plug and leave the end user high and dry.

Well VHS eventually bet Beta but only after they lived side by side for 20 years. The reason they could is that studios published in both formats. And VHS really only survived for about 5 years after the demise of Beta as the dominant video format.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
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#562
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1/6/08 at 2:16pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Malcolm R
The success of iTunes came after the music labels refused to listen to their consumers and practically forced them out of the music-buying market. iTunes essentially revived the singles market after the music labels stupidly decided that consumers should have to buy a $20 CD to get the one song they really wanted. Consumers rebelled against that and now, after years of trying to stop the Napsters and their clones, the labels have finally supported a legitimate way to purchase singles again.

Plus there's a huge difference between listening to a downloaded song on your iPod vs. trying to download a film at the same quality that can be had via physical media. There are so many variables that need to be in place at nearly 100% saturation (such as fast computers, high speed Internet, the knowledge of how to get the movie from your computer to your television, etc.) before mass adoption of movie downloads can even be considered. There are millions of movie-buying customers who don't even have home Internet, let alone the computer upgrades and technical know-how needed to handle the immense file sizes and transfer the files to a playable format for their televisions.

Heck, I'm kind of medium-level HT and computer savvy, but I'm still using a computer I purchased in 1999 that nearly chokes loading HTF, let alone trying to download a film. Hoping to upgrade this year, but who knows? Then after that, I still need to get an HD-capable display of some sort, which may be at least another year away after the computer.


Yep, the true "end" to this war will be decided by the retailers. Whether they continue to give shelf-space to HD-DVD players and software for awhile longer, or whether they yank them almost immediately.

1999? Are you still running windows 98? Can you even run any new software?

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#563
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1/6/08 at 2:29pm
  • Joined: August 2000
  • Location: BritCol. North of a Black Hole and West of The Centre of the...
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
Well VHS eventually bet Beta but only after they lived side by side for 20 years. The reason they could is that studios published in both formats. And VHS really only survived for about 5 years after the demise of Beta as the dominant video format.

Doug

Well, I don't know if rentals on Beta were available to you fellows South of the 49th for the whole twenty years, but in my case they weren't. If they had been, I wouldn't have had to buy a VHS player. I consider a format war lost when I can't get readily accessible media. For all intents and purposes when rentals became unavailable, Beta was dead and became a zombie format. Being a zombie doesn't qualify as co-existing.......at least not to me.

Also, in my case, it didn't take twenty years to see Beta disappear as a viable format. It took less than 10.

When you have to shoot...shoot. Don't talk!

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#564
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1/6/08 at 2:32pm
  • Joined: November 2006
  • Location: Phoenix, Arizona
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
Well, I don't know if rentals on Beta were available to you fellows South of the 49th for the whole twenty years, but in my case they weren't. If they had been, I wouldn't have had to buy a VHS player. I consider a format war lost when I can't get readily accessible media. For all intents and purposes when rentals became unavailable, Beta was dead and became a zombie format. Being a zombie doesn't qualify as co-existing.......at least not to me.

Also, in my case, it didn't take twenty years to see Beta disappear as a viable format. It took less than 10.

We had a beta only rental store here in Phoenix until about 1999.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#565
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1/6/08 at 2:41pm
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  • Location: BritCol. North of a Black Hole and West of The Centre of the...
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
We had a beta only rental store here in Phoenix until about 1999.

Doug

Wow. That is amazing. Where I live, the stores started 100% Beta, transitioned to 50/50, and finally ended up 100% VHS. Just goes to show a format war can end for some but not for others. Pockets of resistance can continue to exist, even when the main hostilities cease.

When you have to shoot...shoot. Don't talk!

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#566
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1/6/08 at 2:53pm
  • Joined: November 2006
  • Location: Phoenix, Arizona
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
Wow. That is amazing. Where I live, the stores started 100% Beta, transitioned to 50/50, and finally ended up 100% VHS. Just goes to show a format war can end for some but not for others. Pockets of resistance can continue to exist, even when the main hostilities cease.

Did you know that Sony sold the last Betamax machines in 2006? Thats the consumer beta not the professional betacam format. Sony still makes blank Betamax tapes.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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#567
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1/6/08 at 3:04pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein
That format was was the best thing that ever happened to us.
If not for the competition, there would be no sub $200 HD-DVD
players and no sub $400 Blu-ray players.

That's right! No BOGO sales, either. Those BOGO sales were
designed to spike weekly sales numbers in an effort to show
increased buying activity towards a particular format.

My personal speculation is that it's all over!
If you're correct about this (and I think you are) then Blu-Ray will be the next Laserdisc--an expensive, niche product for hi-def enthusiasts. It won't likely gain wide appeal.

---------------
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#568
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1/6/08 at 3:07pm
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Monce
Did you know that Sony sold the last Betamax machines in 2006? Thats the consumer beta not the professional betacam format. Sony still makes blank Betamax tapes.

Doug

No. I didn't know that. Now, those purchasers had to be some serious diehards. Betamax, where I live, disappeared off the store shelves a long, long time ago.

Funny thing is I still have my SL1500 portable Betamax and the camera that went with it. I don't use it and it has been a long time since I have seen a blank Beta tape in the stores. When I think about the size of video cameras now, compared to my 2400, I get a good chuckle. These new cameras aren't even as big as the lens on my old behemoth of a camera.

When you have to shoot...shoot. Don't talk!

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#569
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1/6/08 at 3:09pm
  • Joined: September 1999
  • Location: Northeastern Oklahoma
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Great! the less chance J6P and his ignorant demands won't screw the format up. I can see it now "Full screen BR titles"

LD had 10,000+ titles and lasted over 10 years. Hardly a niche that sucked for the enthusiast. AFTER ALL, this IS an enthusiast site last I looked.
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#570
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1/6/08 at 3:11pm
  • Joined: November 2006
  • Location: Phoenix, Arizona
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Re: BREAKING NEWS!! Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin-S
No. I didn't know that. Now, those purchasers had to be some serious diehards. Betamax, where I live, disappeared off the store shelves a long, long time ago.

Funny thing is I still have my SL1500 portable Betamax and the camera that went with it. I don't use it and it has been a long time since I have seen a blank Beta tape in the stores. When I think about the size of video cameras now, compared to my 2400, I get a good chuckle. These new cameras aren't even as big as the lens on my old behemoth of a camera.

I knew a guy who bought a VHS machine just so he could transfer movies to beta to watch them! Now thats a diehard! I think he sill uses his betamax.

Doug
"I'm in great shape, for the shape I'm in."
Bob Hope in The Ghostbreakers
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