Paramount Drops Blu-Ray Discs, Will Use HD DVD Only

[Prrkitty]

Just an FYI article for ya:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293832,00.html

[Cloral]

This deal is all about the Benjamins. And it demonstrates exactly why I don't have a hi-def DVD player yet - aside from the fact that I don't have an HDTV.

BTW, do you work for Fox News or something? This has to be about the 30th link you've posted to their site.

[phattonez]

Maybe that's the site that she uses for her news. I use the LA Times.

[Prrkitty]

I can't work because of my disability. And phattonez is right... Fox News is one of the two sites I read for news... 1) CNN and 2) Fox News.

I try to post news articles that I *think* would be interesting to y'all.

[Brasel]

I really hope the market ends up swaying only one way or another. I don't know if I'd be able to handle it if movies were like video games where you had to choose which kind of system to buy to see certain movies. I mean, as it stands now, XBOX 360 backs HD DVD while PS3 backs Blu-Ray, so gamers might not have any real issues seeing as if they only get one or the other, they can always get the player of the opposite type and be okay, unless they don't want to shell out the cash. I'll end up with both a 360 and a PS3 eventually, so it won't really matter to me, but later on down the road when I'm hopefully free of the video game addiction, I don't want to have to have both types of players to be able to buy whichever movies I want to.

[vegeta1215]

I don't have a HD tv, I don't plan to buy one for quite a while, and really regular DVDs are good enough for me. Of the two formats though, HD-DVD most appeals to me because a lot of HD-DVDs coming out now have the HD-DVD on one side, and regular DVD on another, giving me more options when I buy. (I don't know if Blu-Ray has something similar. does it?)

But, $25 is too much for a movie when I look for $15 or less.

[AtmaWeapon]

I, like a huge segment of the market, have a standard-def TV that still hasn't lasted long enough to justify its cost. I have better things to spend money on than a surround system, and I will never be able to justify the $800 an HDTV relatively equivalent to my current TV would cost.

It's good to see that, rather than attempting to find ways I could add value to my current television, the major entertainment companies are squabbling over technologies that I cannot take advantage of.

[mrz84]

You and me are in the same boat Atma. My tv isn't HD. I've got a normal DVD player for playing any movies I wanna watch. I really don't plan on buying game systems for dvd watching, but for gaming which is what they are intended for. In any case. Sony is probably feeling the blow. :kitty:

[Cloral]

I try to post news articles that I *think* would be interesting to y'all.

Really I was just kidding with ya about working for Fox News. And I've got to give you credit for stirring up some discussion, considering how slow things have been around here lately.

[Prrkitty]

That was my biggest intention... to get some cussin 'n discussin going on :) I didn't take it personal hon I was just answering your question.

It's all good :)

[phattonez]

We've been getting a lot more activity since CK came and disappeared. I just wish that the members who came back to visit for that whole mess would stay.

[Prrkitty]

cyberbabe comes and goes as she has time, internet connection and the energy to do so. :) We've been having some good discussions around here lately and I'm sure that helps make it so that members stick around once they sign up.

Oh topic: with Paul and I buying the HD TV and the Xbox 360... we'll definately be supporting/buying HD DVD's. So at this point I'm glad that we didn't buy a PS2/PS3.

[erm2003]

You have to wonder if this news will end up hurting Sony with their blu-ray push. Sony is pulling a dick move and only releasing some movies in the blu-ray format too so that people who go the other route can't even buy those movies.

What will probably happen is neither one of these formats will end up winning out. By the time one gets close, something better will be created. Technology is just changing too quickly for this to happen for a long period of time.

[MottZilla]

The problem is the simple Playstation brand. Playstation is not a brand/logo you just brush aside into the garbage bin. The Playstation 3 despite its rocky start will no doubt sell very well. And because of their dumb early on but smart for later choice of including Blu-ray it will only help them. Just look at how many people owned a Playstation, and then a Playstation 2. While the Xbox brand managed to break in and Nintendo seems to be recovering some of the market, it's not like Playstation is dieing.

I know for a fact I'll get a PS3. I don't know if I'll buy any Blu-ray movies, though if I were to buy High Def movies I probably would prefer Blu-ray through the PS3 than having to buy the HD-DVD add-on for the 360. This would ofcourse be solved if there was a Xbox 360 model with built in HDDVD. But they already claimed they won't ever do that.

It'll be interesting since there are 2 sides that are both very powerful backing different formats. I'm sure it'll be annoying when movies are only available in one format or another but oh well. Honestly I'm sure DVD has alot of life left in it anyway. You could just get HD versions of what you can and buy the DVD of what you can't. Or just get both. Does it really make that much of a difference? To the non-gamer crowd I imagine it causes confusion and anger, but to those that buy every system anyway, who cares.

[AlexMax]

Whelp, it turns out that paramount and dreamworks were paid out the ass to the tune of 15 million for exclusive rights (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/technology/21disney.html?ei=5088&en=d4e1f285e2f41437&ex=1345348800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1187698143-B5wO3L/F+4r1NyAsum87vQ).

Dumb move, because as it stands right now, Blue Ray is outselling HD-DVD 2:1 in US territories, and even moreso in other territories.


The Playstation 3 despite its rocky start will no doubt sell very well. And because of their dumb early on but smart for later choice of including Blu-ray it will only help them. Just look at how many people owned a Playstation, and then a Playstation 2. While the Xbox brand managed to break in and Nintendo seems to be recovering some of the market, it's not like Playstation is dieing.

The Playstation won because in the age of the transition from 2D to 3D not only was its 3D support superior to the Saturn, it was also much cheaper. The PS2 was sucessful because it had pretty much the perfect storm when it came to hot selling games with Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto 3, Gran Turismo 3 and Final Fantasy X all within the first couple of years of life.

However, the Xbox 360 seems to have beaten Sony to the punch on the next frontier, which is digital distribution and online integration, and the simple fact is that there are no exclusive PS3 games worth playing. Motorstorm was merely OK, Lair and Warhawk can't even get good reviews from PSN, Heavenly Sword's demo was a huge letdown, most of Final Fantasy's former fanbase are too pissed off about the attorcity that was X-2 and 11 to care about 12, let alone 13, and most of MGS's former fanbase are still too pissed off about Raiden to care about MGS3, let alone 4. Plus, Xbox 360 seems to have a perfect storm of its own, with Oblivion, Gears of War and now Bioshock being runaway best sellers, with Halo 3 looming just on the horizon. And Nintendo isn't 'slowly recovering market share', it's damn near in its own market as it stands now.

[AtmaWeapon]

I keep hearing HD-DVD proponents blaming the PS3 for adding transparent sales numbers to blu-ray sales, and I'm curious how long they'll play that harp.

At the beginning I believed it, because when Sony first started selling blu-ray movies 2:1 against HD-DVD, it coincided really neatly with the release of the PS3 which apparently came with a coupon for a free blu-ray movie. But now I don't know how much I buy that; they seem to believe "people will stop buying them once the novelty wears off" but seem to be avoiding the obvious question this raises: "Why will they buy an HD-DVD player if they already have a blu-ray player?".

Personally I hate Sony and hope blu-ray fails but if, 5 years from now when HD media really matters to me, they are the only horse in town what else can I do?

Also AlexMax there's still a lot of people that still believe Nintendo's market strategy is to overtake PS3 and XBox360 and Mott has seemed really confused by this in the past so I wouldn't get too worked up when he comments that Nintendo is on the brink of failure.