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CNET Editor wishes HD-DVD to Surrender by September

17K views 164 replies 49 participants last post by  Gord Lacey 
#1 ·
Interesting item on CNET... Perhaps not wanting another repeat of the SACD/DVD-A debacle... CNET editor predicts, more like wishes, that HD-DVD would just bow out, for the sake of the survival of HD format itself.

Check out item #4: Seven tech predictions for '07
 
#127 ·
I saw 2 ads on TV today -

one on HDNET right at the end of 'Trailers' for a Toshiba HD DVD player and 5 free movies (does that mean it's for Canada or is that still US only).

Another for a movie DVD during 'Apprentice' - it said available on DVD and HD DVD. I forget the name of the movie.

Doesn't sound like they're thinking surrender yet.
 
#129 ·
To rope you in. Same with rebates. Those damn things are a scam even if you do bother to send in your forms. It's *maybe at best* 50/50 whether you will get your rebate. You have to invest well more than a monetary equivalent of your time fighting with anyone to get what they promised.

Cal
 
#132 ·
Regarding the free movies... sent mine in Dec 28th and received them last week, March 15th I think.

You will get them.

HD DVD is not going anywhere but in people's homes. The amazon numbers speak for themselves! New titles... more sales! The HD DVD sales drought since early 07 is over!

The Toshiba HD DVD A2 is the most beautiful piece of electronics I have ever purchased(see future shop reviews... 4.5+ out of 5 thank you very much) for a very good price and the HD DVD movies are amazing.

I have also seen the Toshiba HD DVD player commercial on a bit recently and it's very well done. They got the name(HD DVD that consumers can relate with) and the quality. Now with lots of titles coming, things will only get better!

If HD DVD falls I will personally create a video clip of myself destroying my A2 player and post on youtube haha. Not gonna happen!
 
#135 ·
Had a lot of techie sorts in one room and brought up HD DVD / Blu ray in one of the breaks. 4 out of 5 wanted a blu. One of them wanted the combo ... at a lower price.

Now these are all hard-core techies so I'd have been surprised if they were not knowledgeable (unlike the poll I did some time ago in my social circle where almost no one knew about HD DVD or Blu Ray). What did surprise me was the overwhelming support for Blu.
 
#139 ·
It will come down to market share, shelf space and pricing. There probably isn't a burning reason for both formats to survive 2009 -- or perhpas even 2008. Havnig a player which reads both formats helps but if the premium is significant, few will buy it.

When the players drop to the $299 range then you'll see a lot more interest. As it is, $499 isn't a bad start. And suppose one of the formats starts releasing disks consistently under $20 except for the most recent blockbusters which, even in DVD, run closer to $30 ....

As fas as I can see at the moment, availability of disks and players is about the same, with a slight hardware price advantage to HD DVD. But that could be erased with a single press release if a strategist at Sony, for example, decided to sell the players at $249 as a loss leader.

Did I see a couple of press releases this week outlining quite a number of new HD DVD titles coming over the next three months? That would be good news.
 
#140 ·
SensualPoet - as much as I agree that price is a driving factor, the other significant factor is studio support. I personally do not care which format wins, but more of the titles I would like to own are Blu Ray exclusives rather than HD DVD exclusives. Therefore, I will wait until Blu Ray reaches the price I want to spend rather than buy an HD DVD player now.

A lot depends on how stubborn Universal will be (I think I got that right) since we all know how stubborn Sony will be :)
 
#148 ·
I did a quick poll of people around my office. 10 had heard of Blu-ray, 1 had heard of HD DVD and 5 had heard of neither. Certainly not a scientific poll by any stretch, but even with an unreasonable margin of error, definitely refutes your 99%.

And while I certainly also don't think the war will be decided on name, I was just offering a possible counter to the "DVD" being in HD giving it an advantage.

Cal
 
#146 ·
A question for james99...this is an upfront-non-baiting-no-hidden-agenda-genuinely-curious question:

Everyone knows from your postings that you heavily favour HDDVD, but in reading your setup, you are in the objective position of owning both formats. So the question, is, why are you so much in favour of one over the other, even in the face of your choice steadily declining in market-share? Isn't it true that the actual content is identical? i.e. one shouldn't look or sound any better on one or the other. Is it just a hate-on for Sony?
 
#147 ·
Based upon everything I have read, the same movie is the same quality for both formats. Once THD comes out, I won't have to choose between them.

HD DVD came out first and I was a firm supporter of the format long before studios started picking camps. It is the official HD format as decided by the DVD Forum. It doesn't make it better or worse just official. Sony had a chance to support one format but decided to go against the official standard.

Since Sony owns Movie Studios, BD only studios will continue. In a nutshell, I blame Sony for this war and only Sony.

We all know Sony likes to be different in almost everthing they do and it's getting annoying.

The BD camp is also very arrogant, which I hate as well. I don't respect their childish comments that you would expect to hear from grade school children.

Earn my respect, earn my $$.
 
#152 ·
I am sure I could ask them a whole scientifically significant questionnaire with properly worded questions etc. I was only interested in seeing if there was any brand recognition from marketing. And as I stated while not scientific, it was still interesting.

Guessing as to what it is doesn't go towards marketing. Certainly, I suspect that the majority of the 5 that don't know either one will likely have a reasonable guess at what HD DVD is, but that to me doesn't mean much. At the point they are ready to look into HD content, they will be doing a bit of homework and discovering all available before plunking down the cash to buy either format/player in which case other questions will come to mind like content selection, pricing, etc.

Cal
 
#150 ·
I don't know of encryption cracking status now but I would assume that being able to crack copyright encryption will help one side to win this "war". As it stands now I can see neither format surviving and what we will end up with is several HD disc standards much like we did with SD-DVDs. If a company wants to survive then they will have to be compliant with all formats.

Just imo.
 
#154 ·
Hmm.. you have a point. I guess I did diverge there. I'll skip the marketing stuff (even tho both are kinda off-topic or on topic of the thread).

The reason I made the statement about DVD in the name was because I actually heard someone say ".. but we already have a DVD player.." to one of the sales people when they were talking about a HD DVD player. Admittedly I didn't hear the what had transpired before and I wasn't lingering, but I had made the earlier comment because I was wondering how many people might be negatively impacted by the name. Then the name made me think of brand recognition and marketing.. so I digressed.

Cal
 
#156 ·
Yes, I have seen retailers use the buy this TV and get a free HD player a 199 value (BB comes to mind on more than a few occasions) I have also seen Sony do the same thing with their upconverting players.
 
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