Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums banner

Opinion: Blu-ray wins, no war

18K views 129 replies 43 participants last post by  Kevin270 
#1 ·
Editorial from Video Business' editor-and-chief and home entertainment editor for Variety.

Blu-ray wins, no war

Even top studio executives at the nearly lame-duck HD DVD camp are quietly conceding the victory to Blu-ray.
Gary
 
#3 ·
Another article I read more or less said Microsoft is just throwing a hissy fit because you won't be able to copy discs to a hard drive and play them over your network on the XBox360.

Paramount has announced they won't be HD DVD exclusive, and Warner Brothers is expected to do the same, so Blu-Ray will have the support of six our of seven major studios.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2005/tc2005106_9074_tc024.htm
 
#5 ·
hugh said:
And we're expected to believe this guy over Intel and Microsoft?
Who has the vested interest?

greg said:
Another article I read more or less said Microsoft is just throwing a hissy fit because you won't be able to copy discs to a hard drive and play them over your network on the XBox360.
Which strangely you wouldn't be able to do with Xbox360 in HD anyway, unless MS wakes up and comes up with an HDMI+HDCP output for the Xbox360. Unless downconverted component outputs, which is totally unacceptable to so many vocal people out there, is suddenly acceptable for Xbox360.

Oh, and if AACS has Manadory Managed Copy (MMC), then the BDA has been very clear that BD will have MMC. It's part of AACS agreement, not the format.

The result of a MC is re-encrypted data protected under a completely different DRM than AACS or BD+.

Gary
 
#10 ·
for dialog_gfv

about Microsoft, bussinesweek tells it all:

"
The move was a serious blow for Microsoft's Xbox. The company had decided to hold down costs by not including a next-generation DVD player in the game console. Instead, it planned to stream high-definition content from a PC sitting in one room to the console, which would be attached to a television. But Cryptography's safeguards meant studios could block their content from being taken off the DVD. That was the reason for Gates's exchange with Stringer at the conference. Gates wanted Sony to drop such technology, but Stringer wouldn't budge.
"

also:

"
Microsoft at first stayed out of this tug-of-war. Instead, it focused on selling its software to both sides. The Toshiba camp first agreed to use a piece of Microsoft software, its VC-1 code, that squeezes content onto the disk, then decodes it for viewing. Then, in September, 2004, the Blu-ray backers adopted this chunk of code as well -- in exchange for a public pledge of neutrality from Microsoft. "We wanted them to join us," says an insider who is close to the Blu-ray Disc Assn. "But we compromised on neutrality."

That neutrality has unraveled over the past year, as Microsoft increasingly came to see Blu-ray as a risk to its fortunes. In May, Sony confirmed that it would include Blu-ray in the new PlayStation game console beginning next year. Microsoft's Xbox wouldn't have such capability. Then on June 15, the Blu-ray camp decided against using Microsoft's IHD technology to add interactive features to Blu-ray disks, opting instead to stick with software based on Java technology.

"

so, now Blu-Ray may eliminate VC1 from the BD specs as retaliation (from what I remember it was included, but with an open possibility for review (meaning removal) later.
 
#11 ·
Admitting defeat? Hmmm. I guess that is one way to look at it. That being said, if the PS3 gets delayed I won't a problem picking up a HD DVD player. After all, it is backwards compatiable with existing DVD's so it won't be a total waste of cash if the format dies within a few months.

With all these announcements it's gonna be interesting to see what actually happens come next year.

Will anybody other than Toshiba be 100% behind HD DVD come '06?
 
#12 ·
adit said:
so, now Blu-Ray may eliminate VC1 from the BD specs as retaliation (from what I remember it was included, but with an open possibility for review (meaning removal) later.
It's part of the BD spec. And studios are almost certainly already preparing encodings for release. So, I doubt it would be removed. But whether to use it is up to a studio. They have choices.

SPHE almost certainly won't use it, considering Sony owns a whack of MPEG2 and MPEG4 patents. And there is the encoding time efficiency problem of MPEG4 to deal with (pros are saying it currently takes 100x longer than MPEG2to encode, perhaps because a lack of hardware encoders). So, at least some of SPHE's releases will almost certainly be MPEG2.

Gary
 
#13 · (Edited)
Talk is cheap. I am tired of vapourware. Lets get some product out there. Both hardware and software.
I couldn't agree more! This is the biggest case of FUD in consumer electronics that I can ever remember. People talk about BETA vs. VHS or other "battles" but hell those products were on the shelves.


Who has the vested interest?
Gary, who doesn't have a vested interest?
 
#15 ·
The editor-and-chief of Video Business magazine has a vested interest in Blu-ray?
my 2 cents...

Reed publishing makes a lot of money from the film studios. Not unlike say Road & Track when they make the Ford Escort or Dodge Neon, car of the year.

I don't know the precise financial details but lets look at this another way.

Who has more to lose in this battle: Microsoft and Intel or Sony?

If Blu-Ray wins, MS and Intel will still make boatloads of money next year.

The fact is the consumer electronics operation of Sony now loses money. The only thing that made any money for Sony over the last few years in CE was the Playstation. (read recent Fortune and Business Week magazines that discuss the financial distress at Sony)

If Blu-Ray dies or doesn't become a huge leader in HD (ala the Ipod) then I think it will finally say that Sony is no longer the pre-eminent consumer electronics brand.

Being the pre-eminent brand is critical to Sony because they make very little of their product and they need that brand leadership in order to rationalize their proprietary technology and high prices.

Sony's butt has been kicked by Apple (when did you last hear about buying a walkman); Samsung has kicked them new design technology and profits, Pioneer and Panasonic have kicked them in Plasma and the Chinese have killed them in cost.

I think that Sony has far more at stake in this than MS / Intel or even Toshiba therefore there escalating the FUD because if they lose this battle, then consumers romantic notions of them will disappear.
 
#16 ·
hugh, "walkman" is alive and well : http://www.mobile-review.com/articles/2005/walkmanback-en.shtml

You may not hear so much about this here because the cell phone market in North America is at least a generation, if not more behind the rest of the world...

By the way, I have a Sony PC monitor (my second Sony) because they were the best CRTs you could buy, at that time. For the same reason I have a Sony CRT TV. Not because it's a "Sony" but because of the quality, for which I am ready to pay the extra money. This does not mean that I buy a Sony just for the name. I recently bought an MP3 player, and it's not an ipod and it's not a Sony, it's some obscure Korean company but was offering the best in inovation user interface,, performance , and price from all the ones I checked.

But I have to admit, if it's time for a new gadget, Sony is always on my list, for start. I may even buy a PS3 when it's out (and I'm not a gamer), just because reading the specs it blew me away , which I can not say about XBOX, for example. :)
 
#18 ·
adit said:
You may not hear so much about this here because the cell phone market in North America is at least a generation, if not more behind the rest of the world...
The 1.3MP Sony camera phone (like the one being shown) had already swept Tokyo when I was there in July 2003.

Yeah, we're a bit behind. :)

Gary
 
#19 ·
adit said:
hugh, "walkman" is alive and well : http://www.mobile-review.com/articles/2005/walkmanback-en.shtml
You may not hear so much about this here because the cell phone market in North America is at least a generation, if not more behind the rest of the world...
Most cell phones may come here a few months later than in Europe/Asia. A very limited number of NA phones come later to Europe/Asia. Most phones in Japan never even make it to Europe, Asia and America. But saying that the NA market is "at least a generation behind the rest of the world" is completely incorrect. There have been only 3 generations of cell phone technology worldwide and all of them have promptly been accepted everywhere, mileage may vary by country/area/provider.
And speaking of the "walkman", it has not come back. This article is just about a new product promotion. It has not done anything to "revive" the "walkman" name worldwide.
 
#20 ·
You can buy of course, and you can use it if is a tri or quad band GSM phone, of course and use it here.I was not reffering to generation in the strict sense of the word, but more in the sense of the last years models... Anyway if you compare the number of models and the features in GSM phones used in the rest of the world and CDMA used in US and Canada ( with some exceptions, Rogers/Fido for example and Cingular in US which are GSM), you will see the difference.

Even more, Bell and Telus disable even existing features in their phones to force you use more air time (as oposed of using a PC connection).
 
#21 · (Edited)
Interesting article in Business Week this week on the whole mess.

Essentially it suggests that Blu-Ray will win the war but to get rid of HD DVD, Sony will put some HD DVD technology into Blu-Ray. As I suggested, they echoed that this is a make or break for SOny so Sony is pushing hard with the studios.

The belief is the studios (especially 20th century Fox) will only accept the format that does NOT allow HD to be streamed across a network (i.e./ BR) and has absolutely no ability to be copied.
 
#24 ·
Seems that Blu-ray or HD DVD may be out sooner than we thought if tonights' purchase was any indication. I picked up 4 Superbit DVDs at FS at the incredible price of $50.00 ( 2 for $25 ). Now, either Superbit has gone bankrupt and FS picked up the remaining stock at a discount or FS and BB spoke with some heavyweight from sony studios who told them to unload all their regular DVDs to make way for the newest in HD. Usually when a company discounts their products up to 75% off, it could mean that they will be discontinuing that manufacturers' product or they have a heck of alot of inventory. A quick web search tells us that Superbit is a trademark of Sony Pictures - interesting - does this mean that once one of the above formats are released that this could mean the end of Superbit as we know it ? Time will tell.:confused:
 
#25 ·
Whatever is happening or will happen to Superbit is no way related to the forthcoming BluRay/HD-DVD formats. It will be a long, long time before the next generation disc formats become so viable that studios start to cut down on current DVD format releases.
I guess you've just been lucky to take advantage of some sort of store-level sale, nothing too extraordinary.
 
#26 ·
Walkman comeback...

Arthur Dent said:
And speaking of the "walkman", it has not come back. This article is just about a new product promotion. It has not done anything to "revive" the "walkman" name worldwide.
Walkman brand drives Sony Ericsson to record quarter

Sony Ericsson's Walkman-branded handsets and its focus on high-end camera phones pushed the company into a record quarter during the final three months of its 2005 fiscal year, the phone-maker said today.
For the three months to 31 December 2005, Sony Ericsson reported pre-tax profits of €206m ($249m) - up 36.4 per cent on Q3 FY2005's figure and 47.1 per cent higher than in the same period for 2004 - on sales up 15.2 per cent year-on-year to €2.31bn ($2.8bn).
Net income for the period was €144m ($174m), up 38.5 per cent sequentially and 161.8 per cent year-on-year.
For the full fiscal year, Sony Ericsson saw sales of €7.27bn ($8.80bn), up 11.4 per cent on FY2004's total, €6.53bn ($7.90bn). Net income for the year came to €356m ($431m), up 12.7 per cent on the previous year's €316m ($382m).
The company shipped 16.1m handsets during the quarter - three million of them Walkman-branded phones - up from 13.8m in the previous quarter and 12.6m in Q4 FY2004.
Sony Ericsson said its operating profit margin was approximately nine per cent during the quarter. The average selling price of its handsets was €143.5 ($174), down from €149 ($180) in the previous quarter.
However, rising shipments - the company said it expects world phone sales to rise 10 per cent in 2006 to 858m units - will allow it to maintain its profit margins, company president, Miles Flint, said today.
He told reporters the company will focus on camera phones and further Walkman models, including more 3G mode

http://www.theregister.com/2006/01/18/sony-ericsson_results_q4_05/
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top