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ugh. this is all so... just... hateful. towards the consumer, that is.

i've really been working on getting a Hi-Def player (aka, convincing my wife), but its the hardest thing in the world to argue when its against someone with a rational mind. like this convo...

me- love, lets get one of those HD-DVD players! you can get them much cheaper than the Blu-ray players!
her- so they're still making Blu-ray player?
me- well, yeah...
her- so there's not one format? and they're completely different? one won't work on the other?
me- well, no...
her- so if we get one, and in a year it loses the format war, it'll be useless, right?
me- well... maybe... to an extent.
her- put the checkbook away, sweetie.

Transformer porn?

It's OK with me I suppose. I can get the add-on for the 360. Perhaps this will cause Blockbuster to reconsider their exclusive support for BluRay?

Last edited by robco (2007-08-20 4:26 pm)

You know, I'd written down that I'd revisit the topic in a year, over a year ago, to see if anything had really changed. The conclusion of that topic really was that nothing had changed.

My conclusion is, therefore, that in another year's time, nothing will have changed.

This is going to go on for a while. A while being years.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/21/mich … -ray-no-t/

And apparently Parmount and Dreamworks were paid off:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/techn … NyAsum87vQ

150 million really isnt much of a payoff, at least not to a major studio.

What most people dont realize is that we almost had this very sort of format war with DVD.  Toshiba and Sony had different DVD formats, but the Beta/VHS debacle was still recent enough that they figured screwing each other AND the consumers with another format war was a really bad idea.  Fast forward less than 10 years and the stupid muppets go ahead and do it anyways.  oi.

I wish it would be resolved, cuz I want a high def DVD player and TV.

Aqua OS X wrote:

No one has forgotten about Beta / VHS. Most people are all too aware of it.

Indeed.
This is the reason I continue to purchase standard DVDs, and I will not even consider buying another format until this war is won.

robco wrote:

Pfft. Optical media is so last century.

::resists the urge to correct::

ruggerjvd wrote:

One would think SONY would come to its senses after the Beta fiasco.  Similar parallels here, SONY had the better product but lost out on the format war due to high end players.  Apple and SONY could be left out in the cold again with obsolete equipment.

I don't know. A lot of things are different this time around.


First and foremost, early Beta cassettes couldn't fit a long movie and once movie stores started popping up, they were stocked with VHS cassettes.

Moreover, Beta was a 100% Sony. If you wanted a Betamax player it with was either a Sony, a Sony, or possibly a Sony. VHS was licensed to just about everyone and the market was flooded with low cost VHS players.

Those are arguably the real reasons Beta failed, and Sony clearly isn't doing that this time around. BD is the higher capacity format, players are made by manufacturers aside from Sony, and there is a consortium of tech companies and studios involved in the development of BD.

ruggerjvd wrote:

Good points, and maybe it won't be as black and white as last time.

But SONY should realize that they would be better off taking a loss on the players to gain the market share by the software, much the same way M$crew did in making XBox 360 a viable platform. 

SONY is also taking a hit with the PS3, so their record of late has been sketchy.

Well, as I noted, Sony is not the only manufacturer making BD players. They can opt to take a loss on the players they manufacture, but that's about it.

And as far as I know, Sony IS taking a huge loss on their BD players. Look at the PS3. That thing's manufacturing cost is $200 more then its retail cost... AND Sony is bundling a ton of their studio's movies with that stupid thing.

Some PC douche at the mall tried to rag me once because I asked about some Mac software. "You know," he said, "Beta was a good idea, too, but then VHS took over the market."

I said, "Oh Beta's still around - it's being used by the professionals."

Still, it might be a good idea to bet on Sony's stupidity...

Gatchaman wrote:

user wrote:

Some PC douche at the mall tried to rag me once because I asked about some Mac software. "You know," he said, "Beta was a good idea, too, but then VHS took over the market."

I said, "Oh Beta's still around - it's being used by the professionals."

Too bad you were wrong about that.  The professional flavors of Betacam have about as much in common with Betamax as nascar race cars do with production fords and chevrolets at your local dealership.

True, but I feel like he still had a snappy little comeback there.