DVD Empire speaks on the format war (1 Viewer)

I love DVDEmpire and they, along with Amazon have gotten the majority of my online dvd money but I didn't realize they were run by 15 year olds

linkage

Sounds more like Rodney King: "Can't we all just get along?"

I don't understand why they are making a stink about it. They seem to be making money off of both formats. Silly, silly people.

As far as they and most retailers are concerned, the format war is causing them to make less money then they could. Money is being left on the table from all the customers that won't buy any titles until the format war ends. You can check out the "High Definition DVD: What is Holding You Back?" thread here in the hardware subforum if you want to see just how many people refuse to get involved until it ends.

If it weren't for the format war, I wouldn't be renting as much as I do. There are easily 25-30 titles I would buy today for my PS3/HD-A2, but will just rent most of them for now...and just buy a few.

A format war at the same time as a change in basic connectivity caused by copy protection (DVI, component, HDMI 1, 2, 3, 4?).

I'm suprised the formats are doing as well as they are.

They wont get any more of my money. Stoopid move IMO. Both formats can produce VC-1 and Lossless Audio. Burying one now wont prove anything or help anyone , certainly not if youre interested in being Region Free and BD+ free too.

I believe we've gone already too far to have a last man standing scenario . Downloads will probably be already available by the time the studios realise its Dvd-A and sacd all over again :frowning:

~M~

Yep, plus sales they're losing right now by people in a single camp who won't/can't buy a title from an exclusive studio that would've been a sale for them with a unified format.

many actually believe that HD on Demand is the eventual winner and MS wants that ultimately.

little bit off topic

Casino Royale BD entered TOP 100 on Amazon.com within 5 hours of it's launch
(#91 now..)


Marek

Manus, can you tell us exactly what BD+ does and why it's worse than AACS? I'm just asking it because you're mentioning it an awful lot.

Right on, Dave.

But MS is not the only one....

Apple is scheduled to ship appletv this month, along with Airport Extreme (wireless draft N). At present, there is no HD content available, but appletv does support HD, and with these two products, Apple has the pieces in place to make HD available.

And yes, it will work with PC's as well as Macs, so long as you run iTunes. I have mine on order, and did so simply because I wanted to have a simple, clean way to stream my lossless music and digital photos to my HT room. But the video part of the puzzle is really positioned to be the killer app.

So, while Sony and Toshiba argue over who's dick is bigger, Apple will be in position to eat both of their lunches, right from your couch!

Brian

PS: I do have a vested interest in this, as an A2 owner, but I could not agree more that non-physical media is where this will all end up.

yep. Not what I want.
I want physical software.
I believe Gates is quoted as saying he believes that an ondemand scenario is likely the final scenario. Which is why I believe he and M$ doesn't want any format to really succeed. That's why I went with BD.

I like having the actual disk in my possession, too. On the other hand, many disks which I have bought over the years I have only watched once, and I'm running out of space, big time (2,400 DVDs). I see some advantage in an on-demand movie service, particularly for movies I'm curious about but maybe don't want to own.

I have HD DVD, but that's because it came first, by a mile.

I think you have it backwards. Many of those that want to get into HD on disc will not pay until there is one format. There are many people just on this forum alone that would be willing to pay the $500 or $1000 if they felt there was only going to only be one format and they were making a long term investment. As it is, it feels like you are picking a horse in a race. Even if you can't understand it, most people do not want to end up with a library of movies and player from the format that eventually loses.

I agree that there are many people on this forum that are will to spend the money, but if every HT enthusiast purchased one or both players, it would not make a dent in the content sales. Until you can get the hardware into the hands of the average buyer, the numbers games means nothing at all.

I will add that I believe that the only way one of these formats will actually make a difference is when the studios decide to stop making SD's and only release HD or BD disks and this can happen only when stand olone players cost little more than current SD players. I do not expect this to happen this decade. These are currently nitch products, and they have little possibility of moving into mainstream products any time soon.

Even if the PS3 continues on it's sales rate, I do not see any reason the average consumer will spend 30 dollars on a BD or HD disk when he can buy the SD day of release for 15 or 16 dollars at his local BB.

Personally, I really don't care that the price is high, I will pay the price to get the content, but I am not the usual customer.

I'm not so sure about that. Many people on these forums tend to be collectors with exorbitant amounts of DVDs they have purchased. I myself have over 1000 DVDs at this point. It would take many many normal consumers to equal the purchasing I have done. If there is anyone the studios want to get involved, it's people like me that are willing to buy and buy and buy. The fact that I have 0 HD-DVD or Blu-Ray movies just shows how much money they are leaving on the table. Even worse for the studios, I have almost completely stopped buying feature films in anticipation of buying then in HD, and have been doing this for about 2 years now. They are losing money every single week that goes by that there are 2 formats. So yes normal consumers matter a lot, but if thier core collector audience isn't getting on board, they are really losing out.


Exactly. The consumers they need the most are us. The people that frequent forums like these and have large collections of DVDs. We are the ones willing to spend large amounts of money to rebuy titles we already own. The problem is that most people won't rebuy until we have a single standard that allows us to build a long term collection. Consumer confidence leads to a comfort level buying products. When consumers do not have confidence in a brand or format, they do not invest large amounts of money in it. A lot of people do not have the confidence in either format to get involved right now.

Yes they certainly need us. But we will not make these product mainstream products. Only the general consumer will. And if that does not happen, then HD content on disks will turn into the next LD. Limited places to buy, limited content and continuing high hardware and content price.

Simple marketing. For every Sax, there are 100 Walmarts, for every BMW or Jaguar dealer, there are 100 Chevy and Ford dealers, for every HD buyer, there are 10's of thousands of DVD buyers. If the market doesn't grow substantially the retail outlets will begin curtailing their supply. We can not influence that.

Just curious, Toshiba is a "studio"? (Check the bottom table, category called "Who's Who, Only Major Studios Listed)