Bluray Vs HDDVD - were you right?

[Matt]

Reports suggested people buying HD DVD films, thinking they'd work in a standard DVD player, and look better.

I too thought HD DVD was the easier name to market, but that may have been an incorrect assumption given some user confusion.

I thought both would be around for longer, and got a HD DVD 360 add-on - only had it a few months, I didn't use it much (360 fan noise lol). I actually thought Sony would win out in the end, but many years down the line. Reasoned Sony actually have movies to get on their format, and their system was more appealing to the studios.

People can moan all they like about region coding, the fact is these studios put a lot of money into film production and marketing, and want to control the release of their product. Region coding isn't compulsory, so far as I'm concerned, if the people who made the film want to limit it a country at a time, it's their right. That may mean I occassionally have to wait another month or two for a film I want, but I don't think anyone can really say that's a huge inconvenience

As John says, Toshiba handled it very badly. Dumping their products ensured other manufacturers stayed away. Now they're sore losers going on how DVD can look as good as HD with an upscaling player - not only horse****, but bad for the future film marker if consumers buy in to that ****. MS didn't come out of it well either, there was a general disdain for the media as it seemed to me they were simply trying to slow the progress of BR rather than give something constructive to the film enthusiast - ultimately they want everyone to stream titles. Personally, I like my films on my shelf

Person who can off really bad out of this was Knowles over on AICN. That guy can be bought off by any corporation, just buy him a big box of Happy Meals and make him feel important, he'll write a big load of propaganda bollocks on his site for you.

Personally, I think format wars are a huge waste of time. They should have sat down and settled their differences - licensing issues I believe?? Consumers were slow to get onboard HD, and market confusion is never good. I'm glad there was a "winner" so quickly.

Only plus point to come out it, I think, was it forced Sony to get their encoding act together quickly. I understand the earlier BRs could look quite bad. I've not seen one of those myself so can't comment. All HD DVDs I tried looked brilliant, and all BRs I own look brilliant.

[Leon Retro]

It's funny how HD-DVD didn't easily win. The people behind its marketing/PR must have been morons. Sony must have laughed hard when they won the war. It amazed me.

[sj33]

People can moan all they like about region coding, the fact is these studios put a lot of money into film production and marketing, and want to control the release of their product. Region coding isn't compulsory, so far as I'm concerned, if the people who made the film want to limit it a country at a time, it's their right. That may mean I occassionally have to wait another month or two for a film I want, but I don't think anyone can really say that's a huge inconvenience

Sorry to go on a tangent, but it's also my consumer right (as much as they like to convince us otherwise) to turn to other providers who can provide
content when the domestic providers are unwilling

Anyway, I was suprised HD-DVD lost, though I bought the 360 addon as a stop-gap until the winner became evident. It is important to remember that the consumer has no role in deciding the 'winner' of this war. It was dictated by studios siding with Blu-Ray, with Warner being the one to tip the balance. I don't think Toshiba marketed HD-DVD enough, but lets not be under the illusion that Sony did any better.

[teddymeow]

I guessed correctly. Though at the time I thought I was hedging my bets. HD-DVD indeed should have been a shoo-in sharing the DVD part if it's name. Plus it had 'the look and sound of perfect' if you all recall Should that not have been 'perfection'?

[CMcK]

I still think that including DVD in the name was what confused punters. If they have an HD TV and a DVD player surely they already had HD-DVD?

I bought into both formats but did prefer HD-DVD mainly because it was region free. It's laughable that HD-DVD had internet access and persistent storage a couple of years before Profile 2.0 launched.

[Matt]

Sorry to go on a tangent, but it's also my consumer right (as much as they like to convince us otherwise) to turn to other providers who can provide
content when the domestic providers are unwilling

Yep. And it's the studios right to tie their product down to one market.

As I say, I have no problem waiting a bit longer to get a film if it's region locked so I can't import. I'm not the one who has sunk a hundred million dollars into the film, so I won't hold it against the studios to try and maximise their return from it

There's always something else I can watch in the meantime

[Darwock]

I'd heard rumours of Blu-ray long before HD-DVD ever appeared on the scene, so it always seemed kind of like a pretender to the throne to me, like they came from behind and tried to steal the HD thunder... for that reason I was always kind of hoping it would lose the race (the whole situation of dividing the market and confusing the customers was ridiculous), but I can't say I ever had much of an inkling either way.

I didn't invest in a PS3 until after HD-DVD was already dead, but the whole 360 add-on drive shenanigans seemed really disorganised as well.

[MJ]

i think a major factor, was incorporating it in to a games console; that way its getting into the house hold and developing an awareness to all the family. Genius.

Genius or a huge gamble. I've been a fan of Sony products over the years but would have liked to see what would have happened if Blu-ray failed.

[dvdmike]

i always think these format wars are obvious, I've not got one wrong in years.

I avoided the 3DO, minidiscs, HD DVD, Gizmodo, Tivo, Laserdiscs and won't be buying one of those pc game streaming boxes that got all that debate going recently

Wash your mouth out !!! 30+ years on sale is a success in my book

[Dogg Thang]

Was it Michael Bay who suggested that HDDVD was little more than a disruption attempt to weaken Blu-ray enough for downloadable movies to tale hold instead?

[dvdmike]

It was indeed

[JP]

Was it Michael Bay who suggested that HDDVD was little more than a disruption attempt to weaken Blu-ray enough for downloadable movies to tale hold instead?

Not quite, the DVD Forum was very serious about the format. What Bay suggested very loudly was that the only reason Microsoft was involved in HD-DVD was to scupper blu-ray.

It's not quite true but if the blu-ray disc association had done what Microsoft was wanting and used their HDi platform for the interactive areas of the disc instead of opting for SunMicosystem's Java based platform then they may have felt differently due to the licensing fees they would have been receiving for every disc sold.

[noobish hat]

Sorry to go on a tangent, but it's also my consumer right (as much as they like to convince us otherwise) to turn to other providers who can provide
content when the domestic providers are unwilling

Anyway, I was suprised HD-DVD lost, though I bought the 360 addon as a stop-gap until the winner became evident. It is important to remember that the consumer has no role in deciding the 'winner' of this war. It was dictated by studios siding with Blu-Ray, with Warner being the one to tip the balance. I don't think Toshiba marketed HD-DVD enough, but lets not be under the illusion that Sony did any better.

agree with this 100% and also, I may add, getting a little tired with some of the people on this forum who seem to take pleasure in being trodden on by giant companies, licking arse, and basically acting like they work for the ****ing companies themselves.

[Matt]

Was it Michael Bay who suggested that HDDVD was little more than a disruption attempt to weaken Blu-ray enough for downloadable movies to tale hold instead?

He said something like that, can't recall what he said but he was BR from the start if memory serves.

Regardless of his opinion, I like the fact he actually spoke his mind. Most big shots toe the line; Bay does his own thing. He's got a lot to lose, so refreshing to see someone not bending over to play the corporate game.

Did you read the HD DVD propaganda Knowles wrote on AICN? You should dig that up. It's hilarious That guy has a pathological need to be loved.

[abigsmurf]

I would've preferred HD-DVD to win as it's slightly more consumer friendly. However it was probably inevitable that Blu Ray would win.

I was watching it from the sidelines. Not worth getting burnt. The whole affair was horrible for consumers and set back HD adoption a year.