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NEWS: Netflix, Best Buy Choose Blu-ray Disc over HD DVD


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BladeDragoonZETA



Joined: 31 Jan 2008
Posts: 586
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:07 pm Reply with quote
looks like HD-DVD has lost the format war (at least to me)
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:10 pm Reply with quote
Personally, I thought they'd lost a while ago, but some companies felt it was a good idea to keep the "Format War" going to create interest in the new formats.

I buy a fair bit of Sony, so I take a Blu-ray win as beneficial to me. (Though I don't see myself buying a Blu-ray capable player any time soon, baring a sudden windfall of cash and a return of my love of games. I just haven't been playing much lately.)
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Proman



Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 947
Location: USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:12 pm Reply with quote
I wonder how long it will take before Paramount announces that they will go format neutral (if they want to try to save face a little) or Blu-Ray exclusive (as they should). Shouldn't take too long now.
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ManOfRust



Joined: 08 Jan 2006
Posts: 1935
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 10:45 pm Reply with quote
This is starting to remind me of the final days of Betamax, though it seems like things are moving along more quickly in this case. Then again, I was pretty young when the videotape format wars were going on so maybe I'm not remembering things correctly. It seems like Beta held on for a long time even after it had become pretty clear that it wasn't going to become the dominant format. I suppose that may end up being the case here too, but increasingly it looks like Blu-ray is going to be the format of choice.
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Randall Miyashiro



Joined: 12 Jun 2003
Posts: 2451
Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:01 pm Reply with quote
The main difference from the video tape format wars is the fact that Beta had a superior picture in Beta mode II (3 hour mode) compared to VHS SP (2 hour mode). Since I was collecting an insane amount of anime on tape in the 80s this extra 50% meant a big space saver on top of the fact that Beta was physically smaller. I also bought one of the first Hi-fi stereo players which was originally Beta exclusive. Actually I was a Beta/VHS/LD/Video 8/S-VHS/Hi-8 format fan back in the 80s, but Beta had a clear advantage over VHS despite it's lack of popularity.

Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD have similar capabilities and I have embraced both formats. The sad truth is that HD-DVD doesn't have any advantages over Blu-ray besides cheaper players and obnoxious combo discs that cost more than their HD only counterparts. There is also less of a market to be split compared to the VHS/Beta market which was huge.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 4136
Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:02 pm Reply with quote
I'm not really surprised, you hear so much more about Blu-ray in comparison to HD DVD. Maybe with the war nearing an end, prices will finally be able to come down.

Not that it matters to me, at least not until I have a better TV.
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Mobius Archer



Joined: 01 Feb 2008
Posts: 26
Location: Michigan, USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:07 pm Reply with quote
my only complaint on this whole HD-DVD Vs. Blu-Ray thing is that HD-DVDs burgundy color looked so much better than Blu-Rays blue. a darker color does not contrast as much with most of the cover art on the disk cases.
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alielle3



Joined: 06 Nov 2005
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 11:47 pm Reply with quote
This is such good news!
The more good press Blu gets, the faster we'll see Blu releases of the Anime I want =D
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DClark



Joined: 11 Aug 2007
Posts: 110
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:27 am Reply with quote
After the Warner decision I bought an HD DVD player to use as an upscaling DVD player and as a way to check out HD media, and to be perfectly honest on my 37 inch HDTV DVDs still look perfectly acceptable when upscaled to 1080i. I have bought some HD DVDs, but in my mind HD DVDs still have to compete with DVDs for my dollar.

I can see trying out Blu-ray if you bought a PS3 (or bought an HDTV and got a Blu-ray player with it for free), and I can see buying an inexpensive HD DVD player to try HD DVDs if you're in the market for an upscaling DVD player anyway, but there's still the problem that unless you buy during a 'buy one get one free' sale HD disks are still too expensive. This format war is being decided by studios based on what they see from a small fractions of consumers (less than 1% of the disks sold last year were hi-def), instead of supporting both formats and letting the consumers decide. I could afford to try out HD DVD but I couldn't afford to try out Blu-ray, so I'll still be spending my money between DVD and HD DVD.

I don't see Blu-ray immediately catching on just because studios are turning their backs on HD DVD in hopes that it will spur sales. There was the recent report that 7 out of 10 HDTV owners think DVD is 'good enough', and as an HDTV owner who's gone to the effort of comparing upscaled DVDs with HD media I agree that while HD is visually better, it isn't worth that much of a price premium over DVD. When the format war cools down and the '5 free movie' deals end, the 'buy one, get one free' movie deals end, and the 'buy an HDTV and get a Blu-ray/HD DVD player free' deals end, I think studios will see that the profits aren't as large as they'd hoped even with a 'winner' in the format war. I don't think HD disks are going to catch on for another couple years so I think in the near future Blu-ray is just going to be the proverbial big fish in a small pond.

Personally, in my mind the best thing out of the format war were the DVD cases; I'd love to see DVDs go to a translucent black or clear case resembling HD DVD/Blu-ray cases.
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kokuryu



Joined: 07 Apr 2007
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:35 am Reply with quote
Thats stupid. Nobody has a BlueRay player except gamers. Everyone else has HD players.
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SlyphGlitch



Joined: 23 Nov 2005
Posts: 35
Location: Fighting my way out
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:40 am Reply with quote
From reading posts over at avsforum.com, BB has always been leaning blu ray. This is really nothing new.

I was going to say more, but DClark beat me to most it. Unlike Beta vs VHS, this entire format war decided by companies making back room deals and pushing various formats down people's throats.

To J6p, $5.00 DVDs are good enough.
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inu-liger



Joined: 25 Jul 2005
Posts: 67
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 12:43 am Reply with quote
kokuryu wrote:
Thats stupid. Nobody has a BlueRay player except gamers. Everyone else has HD players.


*slaps you in the face*

Absolute BS from you (M$/HD fanboy alert).

I had a PS3, but it was not for gaming. I bought it specifically for Blu-ray movies, because the stand-alone players were too expensive at the time (Feb. '07)
I've only ever had one PS3 game, and I sold it a while ago.

http://inu-liger.dvdaf.com/owned/blu-ray
http://inu-liger.dvdaf.com/owned/blu-ray-anime
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Pepperidge



Joined: 13 Sep 2003
Posts: 1106
Location: British Columbia, Canada
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:03 am Reply with quote
Mobius Archer wrote:
my only complaint on this whole HD-DVD Vs. Blu-Ray thing is that HD-DVDs burgundy color looked so much better than Blu-Rays blue. a darker color does not contrast as much with most of the cover art on the disk cases.


I think that the colour on both disc cases is horribly gimmicky. I hope that companies start using clear, PS3 style cases for Blu-Ray discs in the near future.
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Shadowrun20XX



Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Posts: 1936
Location: Vegas
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:04 am Reply with quote
HD-DVD couldn't last.I think,if the 360 would have emulated the HD-DVD drive(and not offered the $200 add-on)like the PS3 (cheaply) emulated their own Blu-ray drive,it may have been a different story.The masses won't go for the actual players( in the beginning),but they embrace the emulated,cheaper knockoffs.This lesson came from early PS2 units.Game systems don't compare to the actual players though.You can't deny that PS2 didn't have something to do with the past DVD growth.It gave everyone easy access to the format.That and the DVD drives for the PC at the time.IMO,the ones who bought the losing format are the ones who don't mind hurting the companies with piracy and bootlegs.It's the reflux of getting burned,like the groups who bought the Divx players new.

I remember when they had Betamax and VHS,T.V. units.That's a big gamble for a company to take.Randall was talking about LD's.LD's were great(Mpeg),but projectors weren't economical.They were more of an top of the line option,than a contender in the format war.Electronic Arts had a great selection of LD anime.I watched a lot of anime there during the 90's(before EA went huge).
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Vortextk



Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 892
Location: Orlando, Fl
PostPosted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 1:21 am Reply with quote
Blockbuster is all blu ray as well. Online might have a selection of HD dvds, but my store only has blu ray. We sell PS3's(and we are a store that normally carries VERY little hardware and no other gaming systems), are supposedly going to get some kind of weird...ipod/sony kiosk type thing in the future(I'm not sure about this), and constantly get magazines/flyers for blu ray as well as e-mails from the company to learn about the format and be able to discuss it.

As far as "profits might be less than companies expect" when blu ray takes over, I'm betting the main company here, Sony, doesn't care whether profits aren't as good or not when their own format takes over ALL television/movie media and sell the cheapest and best player in town. The control this gives them has probably kept them drooling since the ps3's debut.
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