Holy Grail of Hi-Def: Are universal players around the corner? (1 Viewer)

[Ed St. Clair]

OUCH!!!

Greedy...

 

[Paul.S]

"A DVD Combo? Don't Hold Your Breath"

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I'm gonna go out on a Limb here and Predict HD-DVD is going to Win this Format War. Don't take that as a indication of what I would prefer. It's just my Gut feeling from Selling Electronics to the public way back in the day. We'll see in a year if my Gut is right.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

To Dave's gut;
Why, price? Availability?
Burp up an answer please! ;-)

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Price will Play into it. If the disks contain both DVD and HD-DVD, it will play into this. And don't underestimate the Letters DVD, as in HD-DVD. What Will "Blue Ray" mean to Mr. and Mrs. Consumer. Not Much.

 

[Jeff(R)]

What Will "Blue Ray" mean to Mr. and Mrs. Consumer. Not Much.

I think that advertising by Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Disney, etc. will have an enormous impact on what "Mr. and Mrs. consumer" know about Blu-ray in the coming months (think of the numerous commercials by these individual companies, and print advertising too); probably a much larger impact than Toshiba or RCA with its rebadged Toshiba can muster. The letters "DVD" might also contribute to confusion for HD DVD.

Assuming Blu-ray maintains its stronger title availability and studio support, the Mr. and Mrs. might be influenced by that too don't you think? I also suspect that the larger number of consumer electronics companies producing Blu-ray players will mean more shelf space dedicated to their hardware and that initially high def disc hardware will be purchased by early adopters who are more educated about the merits of each format.

Jeff
(and then there will be the PS3 owners who will have the capability of playing Blu-ray discs).

 

[Kelly Grannell]

I think Mr. and Mrs. Consumers will be more attracted by the $500 player rather than a $1000 player. Who got the $500 player? Who got the $1000 player?

Picture quality is never an issue for the average Mr. and Mrs. Consumers. Price is.

 

[Ricardo C]

Why would you ebay them? You still have an universal player, what's stopping you from still enjoying the discs?

 

[Jim Smith]

Well consumers who don't care about quality will probably just stick with DVD and not buy either format. So this arguement doesn't float. I think it really is going to come down to which can get High Defintion over components and which play on my Playstation 3.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

If you want to nit-pick on semantics, fine.

So alow me to rephrase:

"I think Mr. and Mrs. Consumers who want a hi-def player will be more attracted by the $500 player rather than a $1000 player. Who got the $500 player? Who got the $1000 player?

Picture quality is never an issue for the average Mr. and Mrs. Consumers. Price is."

In addition, the average Mr. and Mrs. Consumers who want an hi-def player usually bought their hi-def TV (albeit low-end and crappy) in the past 2 years that (surprise suprise) have HDMI.

 

[Brent M]

2 players = NO sale for me

Universal player = A sale for me

Simple as that.

That article linked by Paul S. doesn't sound very promising, though, so it looks like I'll be sticking with standard DVD for the forseeable future. No chance in hell I'll buy both a Blu-Ray AND a HD-DVD player. Absolutely no way!

 

[Jim Smith]

Your right buying two players is an insane waste of money. Just buy a Playstation 3 and all problems solved. Universal players are dangerous. They will only proloung the war and make Blu-Rays win harder. HD-DVD has to die and it has to die quick ever HD-DVD disc and player sold is hurting all movie lovers.

 

[Yumbo]

I am a rental store operator...I have to decide which of the 4 new formats this year to stock.

In terms of anticipation, most queries are xBox 360 so far (which comes out March 2), followed by PS3. NO ONE has asked for Hi-Def yet.

We will stock 360 since we only carry xBox currently (PS2 market pirated up the wazoo, not to mention DVD).

Can't wait for a decent copy protected format, that is SCRATCH RESISTANT, and SINGLE-SIDED.

2 Gaming formats I can handle...not 2 movie ones.

Then there is region-formatting...the bane of it.

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Well I'm hoping HD-DVD stay Put for a least a bit. Can't wait to get my Player in March. I used to like Sony but not lately , after Rootkit, Beta, UMD's, etc

 

[Dave H]

A universal player is not an option for me as I don't want to be stuck with movies of the eventual "losing" format, just like I didn't want to get stuck with Beta movies years ago.

One player, one kind of disc.