Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler More news from the HD/BR war

Link

I always wonder how many people are buying(for a gift or not) the movies and not realizing it is HD or BR and don't have a high def player at all?

Thanks for sharing Jason. There isn't much actual "news" in that article unfortunately. I don't remember seeing any sale prices on HD-DVD on Black Friday, so it only makes sense that the numbers would be in favor of Blu-Ray for that day, but the article doesn't factor in the big $98 HD-DVD player sales in early November for that one point. Total numbers sold are so skewed with PS3 sales to people who just want it to play games, and people with laptops with HD-DVD drives in them who could care less about watching a hi-def movie on their 15.1" screen.

Of course, if you really want to get fired up, read the pi$$ing match going on in the comments. I say let's have it all. HD-DVD (which is my "favorite") AND Blu-Ray, and a combo unit that sucessfully plays them both for $100. THEN I will be happy and we will all say "Hey, do you remember way back when we used to fight over HD formats. Boy, we really acted childish back then..."

I was more interested in how BR movies outsold HD-DVD 3:1 fairly significant.

I've purchased several Blu-ray titles since the Buy One, Get One promotions. I think HD DVD needs to start doing that like NOW if they want to do well over the holiday.

I think it is important to point out that PS3 has sold 2.5 million units and I'm betting many who originally bought the units for gaming are getting into HD movies. As this article points out HD DVD and Blu-ray 57,000 HD DVD and Blu-ray stand-alone players were sold during the important "Black Friday" week that ended Nov. 24. Of those, 62% were HD DVD and 37% Blu-ray. In comparison, 600,000 standard DVD players were sold. I'm enjoying movies on both formats and hope both stay around.

I'd much rather they both succeed than both fail, that's for sure. Still, it's just amazing that it came to this. Maybe the economy really needs to tank just so every industry is much more respectful of the consumer's dollars. Not really wishing that, but what will make them learn?

If the economy tanked I think the whole thing might die out as too many people have alot invested in SD and so few have HD equipment that the price of HD dvds and BR dvds and their respective equipment would have to drop to the same price point as SD for it to stay viable. That much higher price for high def dvds is one, if not the most contributing factor, in my having bought an upconverting player instead of a high def player.

Well, I was speaking in a more general sense of having respect for people's money. Again, not really wishing for that, because even I don't want to have that much respect for my money. Disposable income, all the way.

I think this is a very significant number 600,000 SD players in one day. In my house I have 4 DVD players including the one in my computer (which is used much more for burning than watching movies). My best DVD player is in my dedicated HT room. The other two are cheapies bought at Wall Mart. I also have 2 small kids that love to watch Cars and other movies over and over again. I am not wasting projector bulb life on this, so either I get 2 HD DVD players or 2 version of the movie, I don't like either option!

Here is the problem; I have discs for my Xbox, I have SD DVD’s , I have CD’s, I have DVD audio and SACD’s, I have Karaoke CD”s and interactive CD Roms for my computer. All could have the label “Cars” on it. All the discs are the same size, with very similar looking labels, I am a tech head and even I get confused as to which disc I need for the application I am using, not to mention my wife or mother-in-law (I have had more than one call from my wife saying the kids want watch CARS, which disk do I put in?). There is no way I want to introduce a new format (yet alone 2 (HD DVD and Blu Ray)) into my household right now. This is just NUTS!!!!

Up scaling DVD is the way to go, and until you can buy an HD unit (and I don’t care what format) for under $50, it will be a format for Videofiles and not the masses.

Paul

... and we end up buying more power bars than anything else! Need more sockets! Need more sockets for all these plugs!

Charles, you asked and you shall receive, Amazon has a Buy one HD DVD get one free sale.

I'm rather curious why someone like Denon hasn't even announced that they're working on a truly universal player yet. This "war" is so easily solved with a machine that'll play both discs. I know LG has one, but it's $1500 and won't play cd's. So that's just idiocy.

I know I have read that some manufactureres are working on a universal player but are reluctant to sell them due to huge costs for the BR components and licensing to Sony. I seem to remember the BR players out there are actually sold at a loss right now.

Samsung has a dual format player for $799

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/12110.cfm

Craig, more info and buzz about the Samsung BD-UP5000 dual format HD player due on shelves (depending on which rumor you believe) anywhere from this weekend to sometime in March.

CNET review of the Samsung BD-UP5000 (updated to reflect information from a Samsung representative that the BD-UP5000 will have onboard decoding for all high resolution audio formats, including DTS-HD Master Audio)

Hands-On Samsung's BD-UP5000 Hybrid HD DVD and Blu-ray player (Verdict: So Far, the Best)

BD-UP5000 Universal Player from Samsung [pre release]

The *Official* Samsung BD-UP5000 tracking thread

Samsung BD-UP5000 Blu-ray and HD DVD Player/Release date: 12/25/2007

whos not buying the bdup5000 cause it wont decode DTS-HD and multichannel trueHD

bd-up5000 audio question

Be careful if you are looking at Samsung. They’ve been pretty buggy.

Denon is coming out with a player, but I think it is a BR player and not combo.

I just picked up the Panasonic BD 30k. Nice little player. It does not, and will not have internal decoding though. It’s great for folks with HDMI 1.3 audio processors that will decode the HD bitstream formats, but not worth a darn for those who don’t.

I’d like to see Oppo come out with a universal player.

Hey, thanks for the heads-up!

Sweet! I just picked up two copies of Scooby-Doo. That way I'll have a back-up when the first wears out.


I plan on watching it that much.

You know what what be the best Christmas present for us? You actually having done that and taking pictures of your two copies.

Charles, I admit, I've reconsidered. . .







I'm getting four copies.

The more you buy, the more you save.

Pay me now, or pay me later.

Life is like an elevator?

Two of the original and two of the sequel? Do you know when they are coming out with the third? Maybe we could go and camp out for a month in front of the theater so that we will be the first in line for it.

Deal! But I get to dress up as Daphne.

I hope it happens in the summer. That skirt is a bit drafty. . .

Just a heads-up that there are different HD DVD titles in Amazon.com's new Buy One Get One promotion. I already have most of the ones I was interested in, but go take a look, and maybe you'll be luckier.

Thanks, Charles! Jumped on it earlier today. Sadly, Scooby-Doo is no longer part of the promotion.

I'd be more interested if they didn't include the free disks and dropped the price on the player instead. Either way, at this point I'm waiting a while. Too many other expenses right now.

Oh, this promotion we're talking about was discs only. And I think Toshiba has been doing fine in dropping the prices of the players.

I hope Warner Bros does not drop hd DVD after the first of the year... I have heard rumors online of such nonsense. That would give bluray 70% of the movies.

Yeah, I'm crossing my fingers on that one, too.

I guess then I'll have to buy a PS3. . .



Just looking for an excuse. I don't need one, but I sure do want one. . .

An excuse or a PS3 ? maybe you want both

Anyway, I prefer HD DVD and hope that warner bros swings to HD DVD exclusively. However, in a way I am to the point where I want to see one format with all of the movies... Regardless of which format it is.

I already have an HD DVD player so would prefer things to go HD DVD... but I have the $98 walmart and 1 movie (eagles live from melbourne) so I do not have a lot invested.

A comment from Warner Bros. released 12/13

On another note Sony has a promotion for a free PS3 with certain models of Sony TV's purchased.