Posted by GMAN on 08/06/07 01:56

In article <13b4j71r6kpt13e@corp.supernews.com>, Doug Jacobs <djacobs@shell.rawbw.com> wrote:
>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?
>

But beta was NOT ignored by the pro market. It was used and still is for the
last few decades by TV stations and pro videographers up until the digital
formats started to roll around.



>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.
>

The retailers are staring to decide the outcome with their shelf space . Many
will not continue to stock 3 differing formats in their stores and the least
profitable and least supported format will die (HD-DVD).

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