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Posted by Lloyd Parsons on 01/10/08 17:51
In article
<1cd7f435-86ff-4426-925e-193b9b56da58@j78g2000hsd.googlegroups.com>,
The alMIGHTY N <natlee75@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Jan 9, 10:12pm, Jordan <lu...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > On Jan 9, 9:00 am, Nomen Nescio <nob...@dizum.com> wrote:
> >
> > > "...the millions of PS3s Sony has sold since late in 2006 likely
> > > clinched Warner Bros. Entertainment's exclusive support for the Blu-ray
> > > format...."
> >
> > > Business Week article:http://easyurl.net/Bluray
> >
> > I don't think it was that breakthrough... I think it was Warner
> > closely monitoring the sales of Blade Runner and the Harry Potter
> > movies on both formats.
> >
> > From what I understand the Blu-Ray movies out-sold the HD-DVD versions
> > 3:2. I wouldn't consider that significant, but it was enough for the
> > bean-counters to go "ZOMG! 50% more sales on Blu-Ray!"
>
> Uh... isn't that worse than the overall 2:1 Blu-Ray:HD-DVD for all of
> 2007... or the greater than 2:1 Blu-Ray:HD-DVD for 300 specifically? I
> don't see how HD-DVD GAINING market share for a specific title would
> be the catalyst for such a decision.
>
> I think they basically saw that Blu-Ray still outsold HD-DVD over the
> holidays in both standalone hardware *and*, naturally, software, and
> just decided that without Fox jumping with them (if you believe that
> story), it just wasn't worth it anymore.
The sales of both formats is miniscule in the scheme of things. But the
money that Sony was losing in both the BD standalones and PS3 was
staggering. Sony's last gasp to have credibility and make money on a
new technology was strong enough for them to spend the money to get
Warner to come over.
I don't have a problem with those kinds of payments as that is how
business is sometimes done. Sony had very much more to lose should BD
die than did Toshiba. Toshiba is profitable in ALL divisions, something
Sony cannot say.
The 'war' between formats was never about the technology or the
consumer, it was about profits and control of a market. BD is not the
best for the consumer, but it isn't horrible either. The consumer could
only have been much a part of this war had all studios been neutral.
Since they weren't, we as consumers never really got to put much input
into it.
So is the war over? Not yet, there will be some battles fought by these
big corporations and it does seem that BD will win. Fortunately for me,
I bought 3 players.
My HDDVD player meets the specifications spelled out, just as all HDDVD
players do. It does TrueHD, PIP, and has a network connection for
upgrades and interactivity.
One of my BD players is imitating a doorstop. Not because it doesn't
work, but because it works poorly and SHOULD be the $199 player the BD
camp needs and will probably get with Funai. The S300 is a screw job by
Sony. The owner's manual shows it supporting TrueHD and DTS-HD (not
MA), but it supports neither, and when pressed about it, Sony pretty
much said it didn't. But they didn't change the book, and they've not
provided the firmware update that would allow it to do it.
The other BD player is really the only one to get. That is the PS3. It
is upgradeable online very simply. It is now Profile 1.1 and Sony has
officially said that Profile 2.0 update will happen this month. It does
TrueHD but not DTS-HDMA, but we are all hoping it will. Many are
convinced we are just an upgrade away from that. I am a bit more
pessimistic.
With BD standalones, what you buy is what you get the day you buy it.
If it is Profile whatever, it will be that profile forever. Especially
the Profile 1.0 machines, which are the majority of what is being made
today. They cannot be updated to Profile 1.1 or Profile 2.0, they just
don't have the hardware to do it. To me this is very damning of the BD
industry.
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