Paramount drops Blu-ray support -- everybody groans

**ish420ism** · August 21st, 2007, 00:53

Originally Posted by jerrt

ugh, a] this stretches thing out more which is bad, b] i really wanted to pick up a few of those titles on blu ray. man, this sucks. :[

Yeah dude, i hate this damn incompatability issue. someone should come up with a way to incorparate both formats into one piece of hardware. maybe a softmod for the ps3 to play hddvd.:thumbup:

**pibs** · August 21st, 2007, 01:41

Don't see why BR fans are complaining, it will only cost them about $200 for a HD-DVD player while BR players range on the $400-500 price for those who own a HD-DVD player. I own both format players and it sure sucks switching back and forth for watching my fav movies but thats the price to pay thanks to the format wars.

for those who would want an even cheaper HD-DVD player w/o a 360
http://digg.com/hardware/Xbox_360_HD...ith_NO_DRIVERS
edit:Just a heads up, it works but u need a HDCP-compliant video card, my pc came with one so i don't know if it will be a problem with you guys.

**DPyro** · August 21st, 2007, 02:52

You can already play HD-DVDs on PS3 through Linux.

**Elven6** · August 21st, 2007, 03:16

Originally Posted by $n!pR

You can already play HD-DVDs on PS3 through Linux.

Source?

**Timstuff** · August 21st, 2007, 08:20

This sucks, I NEED my Transformers Blu-Ray! I say we storm Paramounts' HQ and flip over some cars!

**bah** · August 21st, 2007, 09:33

The death of blu-ray as a movie format is a good thing (I'm not saying this is the start of its death, just hoping).

The standard copy protection (AACS) of both has been broken for all intents and purposes, but blu-ray has a secondary protection (BD+) that has not yet been cracked.

I'm no 360 fanboy, I own neither a 360 nor PS3 and have no intention of getting either ATM, but quite frankly Sony should not have sole responsibility for a widely used format if you look at their track record.

Minidiscs that cannot be used as data discs, only support Atrac3, and only lets you add music to the thing via line-in (I know they changed this eventually once the format was essentially dead).

The whole DRM fiasco on audio CDs, installing dodgy drivers onto peoples systems.

Crappy DVD burners that wont read DVD video discs at anything above 2x. Makes ripping slow.

UMDs that are not universal in any sence of the word now that the video side of the format is mostly dead. Before it could still be universal because it 'held all types of media', regardless of the fact only 1 device uses the things.
The fact that video would not playback at full screen res on PSPs just to try and sell more crappy video UMDs.

Sony is too influenced by its media devision to provide products that have the features people actually want. Their suits have a major hard-on for restrictions and DRM.
The electronics industry is larger than the entertainment industry, and it sells more devices when they do what people want than when they do what the entertainment industry want.

I'm sick of features that actually remove abilities of a technology.
At least we cant blame sony for HDCP I guess (dam you intel).

/end rant

EDIT: I will add, I was truly surprised to read that Sony now sell DivX certified DVD players. Its almost a standard on LG players that are available in WA and is the best feature Ive seen on a DVD player since playing DVDs.

**irongiant** · August 21st, 2007, 12:24

This is typical of Microsoft's approach to just about everything, throw enough money at it until they dominate. All they're trying to do is prolong this format war in the hope that consumers will turn to their own download service instead. You can guarantee all those Paramount titles will appear on the MS download service at the same time they're released on HDDVD. Customers and movie studios prefer Blu Ray, the disc sales figures and support backs that up. How anyone can support a company that throws endless amounts of cash at something until the competition is wiped out is beyond me.. they dropped the original XBox like a stone remember, if the 360 ain't successful enough they'll do the same and keep spending until they're on top. If Blu Ray does lose this so called war and Microsoft also win the console war then Sony may well pull out altogether then there goes competition and MS will dominate the office environment and home entertainment, is that what we really want? Microsoft won't be getting another penny out of me.

As for faulty consoles and hardware my brother had his 360 picked up by a courier to be taken back to Microsoft for repair as it had the infamous red ring of death.. the driver said they were collecting over 300 a week and that's just in the midlands area.

**irongiant** · August 21st, 2007, 12:29

Interesting response from Michael Bay to this news..

"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!

Bay"

**bah** · August 21st, 2007, 12:51

The sales figures show that a game console like the PS3 has a quicker adoption rate than standalone players for a new video medium.

Sony looses money on each PS3 so they can push their blu-ray format, isn't that throwing money at a problem?

"According to research group Digital Entertainment Group, there are 1.5 million Blu-ray players in the US. That's made up of 100,000 standalone players and 1.4 million PS3s. As for HD DVD, there are 150,000 Xbox 360 HD DVD players and 150,000 standalone players." - Source.

Console sales to people that may or may not use that feature (or even know about it) won't make that much difference in the end. Its the standalone sales that will eventually dominate and its those that will reflect which format will 'win'. How many 100s of millions of standalone DVD players are there? What % of DVDs sold do you think are watched on a PS2?

Where does it say Microsoft paid viacom to make this choice? There are 'rumours' the consortium paid out.
Considering the profit made from DVDs and the fact one or both of these formats will eventually replace DVDs as the standard, you would think it would cost them a rather large amount if they had.

Also, the PS2 had its fair share of issues with deciding not to read discs anymore. At least M$ extended the warranty to 3 years on the 360.

Once again, I own neither system and have no loyalty to either (I own both an original XBOX and PSP, mostly for emulation, though).

EDIT: Hell, why is Microsoft being singled out as paying for this decision? They are far from the only backers of HD-DVD and don't even include one as standard in their top console SKU.

Its like politics, neither side is worthy of loyalty/fanboyism, its about trying to pick the less 'evil' option.