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.
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.
Comment