Dismal PS3 Launch Forces Sony to Discard Blu Ray

[F9zDark]

just because it doesn't have the capacity to play Blu Ray movies that's not to say it can't play B-R games no? the 360 cant play hd-dvd movies, but as far as i know the games are hd-dvds. sony should have done the microsoft thing as you can buy an hd-dvd drive for 360 for extra money. think about it, you should have a choice and there's no point in having hd disc technology if you can't use it. if you can afford an hd tv you won't mind shelling out another £100 for a new drive. actually, come to think f it the ps3 must be more expensive than the 360 pretty much because sony decided not to make the B-R disc drive optional and thus forced the consumer to pay for something they dont need. haha sony. 360 owns ps3! Bill Gates is laughing all the way to the bank...

Right... Anyone with a 360 will end up PAYING MORE for the same features as PS3. Lets do the math shall we?

PS3 with Wireless, 60gb, and BDRom - 600 USD

Xbox360 with 20gb - 400 USD
+Wireless (seperate) - 100 USD
+HD-DVD (seperate) - 200 USD

Total: 700 USD

So in the end, to attain the same features, you get slammed needing to pay 100 more for the 360 than you do for the PS3. And considering how $#@!ty a business Micro$#@! is, it wouldn't surprise me if 6 months down the road they start making their games use HD-DVDs to force people to buy them.

[Elven6]

Right... Anyone with a 360 will end up PAYING MORE for the same features as PS3. Lets do the math shall we?

PS3 with Wireless, 60gb, and BDRom - 600 USD

Xbox360 with 20gb - 400 USD
+Wireless (seperate) - 100 USD
+HD-DVD (seperate) - 200 USD

Total: 700 USD

So in the end, to attain the same features, you get slammed needing to pay 100 more for the 360 than you do for the PS3. And considering how $#@!ty a business Micro$#@! is, it wouldn't surprise me if 6 months down the road they start making their games use HD-DVDs to force people to buy them.

You realize many shops bundle many Wireless accesories with their Premium console right! Andd the HD-DVD drive is OPTIONAL!!!! You don't need it to get the most out of your games, you don't need it for games, you just need it to watch HD movies if you want to! So your statment is irrelavent and in a way just wrong.

[slappy1]

And what would Sony do in the future if they wanted to go back to BDRoms? Go the route of Micro$#@! and make us use a space wasting external drive?

I doubt it.

Well, Microsoft's (ie. Micro$#@!, see above) Add-on (The HD-DVD drive), is an affordable alternative to other HD-DVD players on the market, and its only purpose is to play movies not games. I have used the HD-DVD add-on for the 360 with King Kong, while viewing 1080i on a 50+ inch TV and the picture is definitely incredible and makes DVD picture quality look like $#@!.

Me Soo Ssssony, will do what they need to.

[F9zDark]

Thats what Sony is offering with BluRay, an affordable home solution. So I don't think they would just drop it in the PS3. The more people who have BluRay drives, the more successful BluRay will be.

Honestly, I think BluRay will ultimately win out. The capacity of BluRay discs will save studios alot of money when the price of discs come down, since they can package a 3 or 4 DVD/HD-DVD disc set on 1 BDRom disc.

[slappy1]

Thats what Sony is offering with BluRay, an affordable home solution. So I don't think they would just drop it in the PS3. The more people who have BluRay drives, the more successful BluRay will be.

Honestly, I think BluRay will ultimately win out. The capacity of BluRay discs will save studios alot of money when the price of discs come down, since they can package a 3 or 4 DVD/HD-DVD disc set on 1 BDRom disc.

A blue-ray disc has only about twice the storage of a HD-DVD disc at the most. So fitting 3 to 4 times the video and sound data on a blue-ray disc, as compared the HD-DVD, is highly unlikely.

I find it hard to believe that blue-ray will win out, though. HD-DVD movies are now being packed with the DVD version of the movie on the reverse side of the disc, to encourage the DVD player owner to purchase these before making the switch to HD-DVD.

Also, HD-DVD is way ahead of Blue-Ray in sales of players both stand alone players and through game systems.

Sony, at best, will only possess the smaller market share of HD disc sales.

Also, HD-DVD movies are cheaper than Blue-Ray movies and don't use MPEG-2 video encoding like Blue-Ray does.

Sony's only weapon that has been waged against HD-DVD is to only publish Sony Pictures and affiliates movies on Blue-Ray exclusively, which is the same thing they did with the BETA-MAX before releasing the movies on VHS approx. 1 year later.

So lets just see if history repeats itself.

[DCergo]

I find it hard to believe that blue-ray will win out, though. HD-DVD movies are now being packed with the DVD version of the movie on the reverse side of the disc, to encourage the DVD player owner to purchase these before making the switch to HD-DVD.

Also, HD-DVD is way ahead of Blue-Ray in sales of players both stand alone players and through game systems.

Sony, at best, will only possess the smaller market share of HD disc sales.

Also, HD-DVD movies are cheaper than Blue-Ray movies and don't use MPEG-2 video encoding like Blue-Ray does.

Sony's only weapon that has been waged against HD-DVD is to only publish Sony Pictures and affiliates movies on Blue-Ray exclusively, which is the same thing they did with the BETA-MAX before releasing the movies on VHS approx. 1 year later.

So lets just see if history repeats itself.

HDDVD/DVD combo movies are out there because HDDVD is in serious trouble

Blu-ray movies have seen a massive increase in sales (especially since the PS3 launch), and are about to overtake HDDVD online sales if they haven't already. Click here for some statistics

Blu-ray has overtaken HDDVD sales at DVDEmpire
(smaller version of Amazon) HDDVD movies outsold Blu-ray for most of 2006 (duh), until the PS3 hit)

Dec 2006
Blu-ray 55.06%
HD-DVD 44.94%

Last week of 2006
Blu-ray 55.5%
HD-DVD 44.5%

Blu-ray has 90% of Hollywood and is missing one studio's support, and that is Universal. Universal's HDDVD exclusivity contract ends this month. The word is Universal is about to cave in and announce Blu-ray support in the coming months. As it stands, HDDVD has somewhere about 50%-60% of Hollywood studio support, in other words, the HDDVD holdouts are Fox, Lion's Gate, Live/Artisan, MGM, Sony Pictures, Touchstone, Disney, and I may be missing another studio, can't remember at the moment. All those studios make up roughly half, more or less, of Hollywood. That is a serious hurdle for HDDVD, and it will get really painful in 2007.

HDDVD has only one of the major electronics manufacturers exclusively making players for it (Toshiba). The rest are either supporting both HDDVD and Blu-ray, or Blu-ray exlusive.

Price argument doesn't often hold water. Check out Fry's and you'll see HDDVD titles going for as much as $10 more than Blu-ray titles. Most are the same. The price advantage HDDVD movies previously enjoyed has narrowed significantly. (new HDDVD movies at Amazon go for $20-$25 average, new Blu-ray movies average $20-$27. That small gap is closing.)

The Mpeg2 argument is old and false now. Many Blu-ray movies have been using the VC-1 and AVC codecs for a while now (Warner/Buena Vista/Disney for example): Unforgiven, The Searchers, The Phantom of the Opera, Under Siege, Superman, The Last Samurai, Million Dollar Baby, Goodfellas, Poseidon, Flightplan, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Swordfish, Space Cowboys, The Fugitive, Lethal Weapon 2, and House of Wax, Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Fantastic Four, The Omen and lots more... all using the superior VC-1 or AVC codecs. (s:maxconsole)

Lastly, the 2007 movie release list is quite telling, Hollywood is clearly throwing its weight behind Blu-ray. The litmus test will be 2007, and if HDDVD can survive, or if PS3 doesn't help sales (unlikely).

[irongiant]

Also, HD-DVD is way ahead of Blue-Ray in sales of players both stand alone players and through game systems.

You got some official stats to back that statement up? No you haven't so here's some info:

"About 695,000 consumers own either a Blu-ray or an HD-DVD player, according to Tom Adams of Adams Media Research in Carmel, Calif. But only about 25,000 have purchased stand-alone Blu-ray players. Another 400,000 consumers have Blu-ray because they bought a Sony PS3 game console. Meanwhile, about 120,000 or so have a stand-alone HD-DVD player while about 150,000 have an HD-DVD upgrade kit for their Xbox 360 game consoles, Mr. Adams says. He adds that those numbers are well in excess of the 300,000 DVD-player sales in 1997, when that technology rolled out."

So that makes total HD DVD machines out there = 270,000 and total Blu Ray machines = 425,000. Add to that approx 500,000 PS3s sold in Japan and Blu Ray already has a massive lead.

I've heard a whisper that MS will be making HD DVD games in the future, thus forcing all owners to buy one!

[F9zDark]

I've heard a whisper that MS will be making HD DVD games in the future, thus forcing all owners to buy one!

And thats Micro$#@!'s common practice. **** their consumers in the ass with requirements to using their products. It wouldn't surprise me if that future was 2 weeks from now.

Added:

Hell in fact, it would make business sense to force their consumers to jump on HD-DVD bandwagon; at least then the sales for HD-DVD would increase and perhaps give it half a chance.

[slappy1]

True Blue-Ray must have some what of a lead in unit sales, due to the fact that the Playstation 3 has one built it. But only the consumer will determine what happens here. In my opinion the Blue-Ray players are too expensive, and are essentially identical to HD-DVD in picture but not so exactly in sound. HD-DVD are now reportedly going to hold 3 layers of data, for an incredible 50Gb of data evening the storage department.

Microsoft has repeatedly said that there will be no games on the 360 that use HD-DVD, this would cause to many problems but maybe there next gen system will. And, I am sure their next gen system will come out way before the other next gen systems will considering the fact that microsoft is already turning a profit with the sale of the 360.

Fact is, that Blue-Ray and HD-DVD will both be profitable and both will be around for the forseeable future. I am partial to HD-DVD myself, since I have experienced the movies for myself and that they have economically priced units and movies. Also the fact a minor scratch on the disc, won't curropt the data. But, I could care less about which format has the larger market share. I'll be buying HD-DVD movies, do what you will.

Also, Microsoft does not own HD-DVD. The only reason they support it is to squash the profitability of Sony.

[F9zDark]

I never said they owned it. In fact, its hollywood who will ultimately decide what wins out. If no studios produce HD-DVD movies, guess what? HD-DVD will be the next Betamax in a New York minute.

3 layers of data is as far as I know impossible. They can have 2 layers per side. A Dual Sided, Dual Layer HD-DVD comes in at 60gb of data. The same BluRay disc comes in at 100gb of data.

If they could make a 3rd layer, then you'd also see that happening with BluRay discs as well; then we'd have 75gb BluRays, so no matter what HD-DVD is still trumped.

As well, Sony could never drop BluRay. Resistance, a launch title uses 16gb of data (originally used 22gbs, but the PAL cutscenes were removed and replaced with an NTSC -> converter to reduce burn times.)

Right there, a Launch PS3 title utilizes BluRay almost to its fullest extent. Resistance couldn't have worked on DVD, with its 9gb storage capacity.