Posted by Doug Jacobs on 08/02/07 21:30

Archimedes' Lever <OneBigLever@infiniteseries.org> wrote:

> Wrong. Both formats will be around for a long time. It will be NOTHING
> like the beta VHS war. They were recordable formats, and there were MANY
> more factors involved. The proof is how the "better" format actually
> lost.

While Beta did hang around for a while after VHS won the battle, it was
virtually ignored by both consumers and retailers alike. After all, why
would people make a product (movies on Beta) if there wasn't the market?
Yes, I *KNOW* you could buy blank Beta tapes for years afterwards, but you
certainly weren't able to rent movies from Blockbuster on Beta once that
war was decided, were you? And most stores didn't bother carrying Beta
decks after that either, right?

Why do you think it'll be any different in HD-DVD v. Blu-Ray, if indeed,
we end up with just one dominant format? If one format loses, we'll see
firesales on existing stock, and that'll be the end of it for the most
part. I'm sure that some specialty stores might continue stocking the
other format, but the mass market (which isn't even ready for HD-anything
right now) will simply adopt the winner, never knowing or caring that
there was once a choice.

The only way that a single-format outcome could be avoided would be if
someone produces an affordable multi-format player capable of playing
everything. At that point, people will just buy that and then it won't
matter if the movie is HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. The HD video market will become
just like the burnable DVD market, where 2 different, but equal, formats
reign in an uneasy mishmash of quasi-compatibility.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.

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