Why the game is up for HD DVD

The Advanced feature of Picture to picture is in the bluray 1.1 profile, which the PS3 got its 2.1 update. I believe the final profile for bluray is 2.0 and the fully featured will be 2.1. Which i have heard, will also be brought to the PS3 in an update.

A funny and interesting read - although I'm upset that HD-DVD is going the way of the Betamax...

When it comes to fear & greed, logic is hard to bear. Sony has learnt from the VHS v Betamax engagement that greed works when your armoury is well stocked. Which is that fear [and greed] is transient. So it came into this match with the technology banner. Those dipsticks at Tosh and its more-money-than-sense primate buddies at Mightysoft reckoned that they can tango with their brains emanating from their loins. “A little less money should do it”, they toast.

They hadn’t reckoned on those amoralists, the “studios”, had they. So rationalities soar over sense. Economies-of-Scales teaches that fear limits greed [and vice-versa] and when competition is in the ring, you cannot count on rationality for this chimp has 2 faces. “Easy for you to say, big mouth. We gotta the job to do here”, they whine. Time and again, opportunity begs for a price cut but when The Shoguns are running the show, these masters of perfection, whichever camp they are in, can only see the cut of the samurai sword. WW2 taught them that it’s just a localised battle for they’ve got a war to win. Economies-of-Scales teaches that competition limits greed, not opening the floodgates to greed. 

The so-called land-of-the-rising-sun represents perfection-of-the-heart, not deserting the heart and going for the ego, whenever duty calls. [Their Teutonic cousins, a mere “step” below then at the liver, The Achtung, are the perfectionists-thru-the-attention]. Well, they’ll cut now, won’t they, but why does sense only looms when it’s always too late? Because of greed & fear. Blankness do not realise that ALL relativities, without exception, are bonded twins. Alter-egos. You cannot have greed without fear.

Pretty much a spot on report. Not to mention the biggest porn studio just went Blu Ray exclusive as well.

Titles with picture in picture are out this mth on blu ray and every PS3 is good to go, so actually there are more PIP capable machines in the blu ray camp than there are in the red camp THX again to the PS3.

The BD standalones were actually also starting to outsell the HDDVD players even though they cost more and CES has just introduced a few full spec players, which is good news.

really it does look like the consumers were choosing blu ray afterall and thats before Warners shock move.

1 format is best for everybody, we all win.

I wonder if all the people buying Blew ray know that HD-DVD is region free?

My word. If only all these consumers could be educated.

...because i have a hd player

Just like "iPod", people like to say "Blu-Ray". HD-DVD just has too many syllables for the average person. ;)

"Maybe now that the end is in sight, the Blu-ray camp will stop fleecing people for Blu-ray players"

Wait, you think once blu-ray is the only format around and the players have no competing players to sell against, that the prices will drop?? What are you smoking?

It does almost look like the fat lady might be about to sing for Blu-ray, however in doing so she has chosen the inferior format, riddled with DRM, the most expensive (at least for now) to produce. So if Blu-ray does finally come through it will truly be the VHS\Betamax scenario all over again - i.e. the inferior format wins, but at least Sony won't be on the losing side this time.

Lets face facts though it's only got itself into a winning situation by means of the PS3, had M$ decided to quickly release an XBox 360 with an HD-DVD drive or the Wii have been released with one - then the tables would have been very much turned.

One has to go so that it gets cheaper soon.

I favor Sony's win so that PS3 will get some more sales, plus blue ray is superior in capacity which is also good :)

Sooner there is one format the sooner I can buy HD films for £10. I don't care about which format has the better features. As long as the disk can hold a 1080p film.

*brag mode*

Anyway I don't care who wins as I can play both on my new LG GGW-20L BD-RE / HD DVD-ROM drive! Suprised the INQ has no Hardware Wibble links to any reviews yet.

1/ UMD is not dead, it's doing very well in the PSP for games. Thanks for asking. It may have died as a movie format, but it's not dead as a game storage medium, not just yet.

2/ "Maybe now that the end is in sight, the Blu-ray camp will stop fleecing people for Blu-ray players, which run at almost twice the cost of HD DVD players. Now there’s optimism"

The price of Blu-ray players is the REAL price of the players, including some small profit for retailers and manufacturers. You have to be pretty dumb to think that HD DVD camp was not making a massive losss on each player sold. Hell, even the PS3 is being sold at a loss, but there is a revenue stream to get that back, somthing Toshiba did not have.

Forget all this optical disk crap, i want my HD movies encoded in h264 or mkv or whatnot and sitting on my harddrive available for download from where ever. Bring on the HD-HDD content already.

Microsoft could'nt give a crap about HD-DVD. That's why they never comitted themselves to the built in HD-DVD drive.
They realise that the future of HD movies and games is all going to be done via downloads.

"Blu-ray and HD DVD rentals and sales were a piddling $300m. That’s just over 1%. Just one HD format would change all of that."

I hope all these player manufactures and movie studios have been doing lots of secret market research that we aren't just being told about.
Because statements like this seem to have some blind faith that once there's a single format, the world + dog is suddenly going to run out and buy Blu ray players and abandon DVDs.
What if, just if, sales of HD media are crap because people just don't care enough for any of them.....

Whats that you say? Well if we get LOTR, then the format wars are over. 35 year old men living in their parents basement ARE the market share to coddle after all.

But its most likely true. Despite the more consumer-friendly HD-DVD having better pricing, the studio support just isn't there. Blu-ray really only has an advantage of higher storage capability, but at a higher price of both media and player, along with a much more fragile disc. Not to mention Sony being infamous with the headache-making DRM, again not to mention root-kits (not claiming Blu-ray will have them, simply Sony has a history of doing root-kits and root-kit like activity). I really wanted to see HD-DVD succeed, but whatchagonnado?

"Maybe now that the end is in sight, the Blu-ray camp will stop fleecing people for Blu-ray players, which run at almost twice the cost of HD DVD players. Now there’s optimism."

Are you f--king kidding mate? Competition has brought prices DOWN, Standard DVD movies were not this cheap at this time in its adoption curve (US$20 for catalog releases at Amazon), and I can recall paying $300 for a Panasonic DVD player in 1998 or so (with the first DVD release of _Blade Runner_ for $25).

Nope, the Evil Empire won, the studios got what they wanted (No more region-free discs for you, Europe!! And no more managed copy, so forget having a hi-def HTPC movie server), and consumers took it in the balls.. Again.

A good article but you seem to have missed a few very important facts.

Firstly, confusion over the various HD formats (there are more than 2 HD formats) is not the main issue. Most consumers don't care which format wins because HD is currently a big waste of money. 

. There is more confusion over analog & digital than SD & HD. High street retailers like Dixons & Currys are making consumers think that digital means HD knowing they'll have to upgrade again in the future to get HD.
. Most people cant notice much difference between a HD movie and an upscaled DVD movie except when paused and examined closely.
. Most TVs sold today as HD Ready cannot display a full HD signal. Some claim to support 1080p but only operate at 720p or lower.
. Most high street stores selling HD gear don't try to con the consumers into buying rubbish gear & expensive HDMI cables.
. Very few TVs support the required telecine for HD movies (which is needed to keep the audio & picture on a HD movie in sync without jumping)
. Most HD TVs sold today don't support HDCP so when ICT is used, their HD movie will only display at DVD resolution anyway.
. Most HD signals are broadcast at 1080i or 720p not at full 1080p resolution.
. HD Movies are more expensive than SD movies. If economies of scale were the reason for this then DVDs should cost £5 by now.

With the jump from VHS to DVD there was real benefits. Much improved quality, more audio languages, subtitles and better access to foreign media (region codes were never a major issue). The only real areas where HD is of use is some sporting events and when you go for 50inch or bigger screens and DVD begins to look chunky.

"Maybe now that the end is in sight, the Blu-ray camp will stop fleecing people for Blu-ray players, which run at almost twice the cost of HD DVD players. Now there’s optimism."

Less like optimism and more like just living in a fantasy world! As the Blu folks start to truely believe that HD-DVD is dead the incentive to compete on price will be dead as well. Once that happens all that consumers can rely on is the supply and demand curve-- with a hefty dose of typical big business greed thrown in.

The whole adoption rate of HD is minimal compared to the sector as a whole. Any weakend profits (or heavier losses) would have been seen when they were competing NOT after the competition dies.

Prices WILL fall but it will take more consumers buying more BD products to reduce the price beyond a token dip.


The reason that companies prefer blu-ray is that it employs new region codes meaning that companies can charge different prices for discs in different regions. They do not have as much freedom to do that with regionless hd-dvd. I have written letters and emails to sony about it highlighting why hd-dvd better serves me because of where I live and what DVD's I currently buy. With blu-ray I will be denied buying discs with the freedom I currently get from normal DVDs because of the revised regions. In Sony's replies, rather than promoting blu-ray and easing my upset that in future I will not be able to buy what I want to buy, instead they agreed with me that the blu-ray regions are more restrictive than current DVD regions. Ending the reply with 'sorry for any disappointment this may cause'. Sony admits that consumers are better served by HD-DVD.

There is no denying it blu-ray does look the more popular. From the looks of shop shelves here blu-ray massively outnumber hd-dvd. It's also hyped more the result is that it is more popular. I don't want to roll over and allow myself to be raped by sony but it increasingly looks like I will have no choice.

that physical media, such as DVD's of any format, get kicked the way of VHS in the next year or two as digital downloads/streaming/etc picks up. i wouldnt mind just skipping the entire physical HD step and going completely to digital HD movie downloads.

Blu can do that. Profile 1.1 players - AKA all players available from about now onwards, and most already out, can do this. PS3 got it's firmware upgrade a little while ago.

BTW Profile 2.0 will not be a problem for PS3 either, and the new BD-Live feature of including a version of the movie for portable device playback, on the BD disc will be interesting as it will allow a Blu-Ray owner to take a movie with them on their PSP (or other enabled portable player). Neat.

The notion that either format will win The notion that either format will win this "war" is laughable. The only hardware companies that have not got dual format players on the roadmap are Sony and Toshiba, not exactly a stunning HD-DVD defeat or a Bluray victory. This "war" will end in the same way that the DVD+/-RW "war" ended, oh yeah neither died nor went into recession, they live on in perpetuity. Much to the fanboys and consumer electronics press’s disappointment they will both be winners and there is no comparison to Betamax here, unlike beta the disc’s are exactly the same diameter, and they are both powered by similar blue lasers. I own both, they both have benefits, and the LG and Panasonic multiblues are the story here not the “war” that never was.

Betamax died like 20 years ago, but I only just recently discovered that it provided a higher resolution picture. Too bad the tapes couldn't provide the recording time length that the industry required.

So now Blu-Ray is going to win, because of what? A catchier name, the PS3. Well, I don't care if Blu-Ray is inferior. As a consumer, I'm not going to buy a player until I know that I can play any and every HiDef title I freakin' care to purchase on it.

There are many BR owners cheering for the possibility that they bid it right this time. However, timing and cash will determine the winner. 

Sony sent out 5.5 million BR in PS3 before there were significant movies and HD TVs out there. You may argue that was a pre-emptive strike but it was also bleeding too much too early.

Toshiba has already committed to put a HD DVD in every laptop they produce in 2008. They sold 9.2 million laptops in 2006. 

It will be assisted by cheap HD DVD for Xbox, which will be carried forward by MS for the next generation of Xbox for compatibility. It is clear that at the end of 2008, HD DVD will out number BR by 2:1 and then at least 4:1 at the end of 2009. 

Sony has been living on its past glory in the last five years. There were a few 'unsuccessful stories' including collapse of its CRT TV division, closing of its DLP TV production, sourcing of all its LCD TV panels from a join venture in Korea (ended up making 500 million for selling 10 million TV; ie $50 each). Globe & Mail reported that 'In 2007, Nintendo sold 3.6 million units of the Wii in Japan, or three times the sales of the PlayStation 3, Enterbrain said.' 

This war is not just on HD DVD format. As Bill Gate put it, it is on the future dominance of the multi-media set-top box doubled as video game machine, and your channel to the cyberworld. For that, Microsoft cannot afford to live with a Sony dominance. 

Microsoft is second to none at the game of market dominance.

I don't understand the rationale. If Sony's competition falls, won't it give them the incentive to raise the price?

How many times has a monopoly ever given in to consumer pressure and done something nice for the customer? I don't see the price of Vista or Windows XP dropping month after month. Why would Sony do anything different? They can just charge the BD-DVD manufacturers and outrageous royalty on the chipsets.

I hope the HD wars are over. It's too bad Sony won.

The HD DVD - Betamax analogy is an ironically poor one. Betamax failed because of Sony's need to stifle and control the format-- Blu-Ray is succeeding because of or in spite of Sony's strangle hold (DRM, Region codes, etc). I don't know why any consumers would find BR a better choice. 
I haven't figured out why sony hasn't been hit with anti-trust lawsuits, actually. Like the robber barons of times past who controlled the mines, railroads, and steel foundries, sony controls studios (music and movie), home video and music publication, the proprietary formats to replay those media, and the hardware that plays those things back. From start to finish, sony runs it all and has leveraged itself into the market by foisting BR onto hapless gamers who don't understand their existence under Sony's thumb.

Rocky looses in the most ironic way possible... Straight numbers

Blu-ray players in the states cost about $300 to HD's $200 which is a closer margin then it has been. But the thing that always interested me is they hardly EVER advertise a full 1080p HD-DVD player (same cost as blu-ray), it's always the 1080i, hence...cheaper. Blu-Ray I have never seen a 1080i player (they probably exist). People won't pay for the quality of a 1080p player and/or aren't informed enough by retail. I am glad Blu-Ray is winning, for imo just like Betamax it is a better format.

You'd better look after your Blu-Ray disks! Don't forget that the data is just 0.1mm below the data-side surface. (HD-DVD is sandwiched in the middle, like normal DVDs.)

"foetus," you silly brits and your extra letters.

Current uptake of all HD players is lukewarm. The reason for this is easy to see if you're not dazzled by which technology's the most advanced. In the real world there's not much advantage to buying HD players -- its an expensive box that doesn't add much value over a SD player and the media designed for it is incompatible with the mass of existing kit. It might suit an enthusiast who has one HD-TV and a PS3 but for most people its just a nuisance.

The whole HD technology thing is a debacle because its not giving the consumer anything significant. Most of us who've been watching large format TVs for a decade or more have been watching 1000 line non-interlaced displays -- upconversion is nothing new. Its also well known that eyeballs are anything but HD and, more importantly, video information has so much redundancy that you can get away with huge amounts of compression and interpolation before anyone notices. So a lot of this technology is definitely anti-consumer, it adds layers of complexity that people just don't want (take my wife...or her friends.....they won't touch the stuff.....its these people you have to reach, not the enthusiasts....so I have effectively to keep two parallel setups just to watch TV).

Anyway, if you could see the miserable display in our local Blockbuster of BluRay discs you'd calm down a bit about the steamroller. Everything is marketing driven at the moment, not market driven.

I have been sitting on the fence since the beginning. I agree that the announcement by Warner is the first real nail in HD-DVD's coffin... A shame really since I really liked the format's lack of regions and the mandatory features.

Had MS put out a new sku with HD-DVD built in, the story would have been different... but it was not meant to be.

Time to get me a PS3 and take advantage of that 5 bluray disc offer, before they bury it. :p

Let's look at the MS situation in this battle. MS offered the HD DVD as an add-on. That does not equal confidence in my eyes. Whether HD DVD wins or loses, it really doesn't affect MS. The XBox 360 will work whether you have an HD DVD drive or not. The drive was offered at a low enough cost that, while it will sting, it will probably not be a deal breaker for buying an XBox 360. Also, it gives them the option, of going Blu should it come out the victor. So the author is right; the decision NOT to put an HD DVD in the 360 was probably the first, and most damaging nail that was driven into HD DVD's coffin.

I think it is still to early in the game for such an exclaimitory article title as above.

Both formats could still go the way of LD. It seems to me that all this article is saying is that Blu-Ray has won a market that is 1% the size of DVD.

Although I am disappointed that BlueRay/Sony are (probably) the successors**, getting to the next DVD format from the current 4.7/8.4 Gb configuration should get us to the high density equipment that we have been craving since the current 8.4 Gb wasn't what we expected.

Anyway, hurray for getting the format dilemma moving again.....!

** I've got a thing about Sony after the root kit mess

Too bad...i have no interest of switching to PS3 because Xbox360 rules when it comes to gaming.

they should make a movie depicting the market struggle for dominance between formats, and then press it to Blu-ray. [cue drums] bum-bum-tshhhhhhhhhh!

Blue Ray is (finally) winning the race, but only after Warner Bros. defected last week. Before that, it was a very close race. Unfortunately, the article author is correct; Microsoft screwed up royally by not including a HD-DVD equipped XBOX 360. This would have been an excellent move - too bad Microsoft's product management team can't escape the paper bag they put themselves in right after the Vista OS launch...

And FYI to potential PS3 buyers, the PS3 is NOT capable of upconverting standard DVDs to hi-def. If you want that functionality, make sure to invest in a regular Blue Ray player. The matter of the fact is that current and previous PS3s do not come equipped with an analog-to-digital conversion chip. Food for thought before you go out and spend all your hard earned money.

I'm sorry but having to wait for my stand alone HD player to boot up is unacceptable. Maybe the studio/hardware execs missed that memo. Consumer Electronics Devices are held to different standards that legacy encumbered PC systems...

Boo-Ray is crap! It's Sony best lemon and it is way below HD DVD. C'mon can people really see they poisoned us with junk players and secure these piece of shits with studios who love money above all. Soon they will realised their mistake and HDM will die or stay a ''niche'' because no one's want or care to have a defect boo-ray and having to pay a higner price than hd dvd yet cannot do the same features. ha ha they still sell their junk profile 1.0 that cannot play the latest movie... what a pity for careless people who buy them.

HD DVD is not going the way of Betamax, cause Betamax was the superior format.

Agree with the guy above me very funny and interesting article - glad the war is over always favored Bluray such a catchy name

These facts must be pointed out: 

1) All HD-DVD to date have used AACS encryption which is a DRM based scheme. No one would have ever allowed non-AACS movies titles to exist. 

2) The DVD-Forum approved Region Coding for HD-DVD, they just needed to activate it and issue firmware updates on players to force it. They were waiting to win the format war in order to engage it, obviously...

3) Blu-Ray hardware and software is dropping in price already. If anyone could really believe that prices would not keep falling now then they must either work for Toshiba/Microsoft or living in an alternate dimension.


blu ray 50gb.
hd dvd 25gb.
drm & region codes easily removed. 
pip is rubbish anyway just like bonus dvd features i want higher bitrate sound and vision and not rubbish extras you only use once
i rest my case no further questions your honour

Warner claims that the US economy contributed to their decision to go Blu. The only area where Blu costs more than HD-DVD is pressing. Blu does not yet support internet based features, so Blu titles do not require any development or hosting for said features. PiP aka profile 1.1 is new for Blu, so a studio could just opt not to include any PiP content for a year and very few Blu users would miss it. 

So there you have it. Warner can just skip adding special features for a year and save the money that would have been spent creating and supporting them. Hence Blu-Ray is cheaper.

Of course if you've seen and enjoyed those features on HD-DVD you'll probably also agree that despite higher retail movie prices, Blu-Ray is indeed cheaper.

This is a paragraph from an article from a bcs newsletter: source: http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.16758

"And now its rival, the ailing Microsoft-backed format HD-DVD, has suffered a seemingly fatal blow with the announcement that an add-on may soon be released for Xbox 360 consoles to make them compatible with Blu-ray discs."

It's a sad state when a format is chosen because somebody's GAME system also happens to have a Blu-ray player in it! The HD-DVD format, was, and is still the better product. HD-DVD has been delivered to the masses with FULL functionality, FULL compliance between discs and players, THE FULL PACKAGE, from day one! All the while Blu-ray's camp saying "Oh, I think this upgrade will be available soon!", and "Why do so many discs not play on this thing?". If I had bought an earlier version Blu-ray player, I would be miffed at SONY for being USED as an experiment, until we could actually compare to HD-DVD. And I mean only compare! HD-DVD has been the REAL DEAL from day ONE, so pay MUCH, MUCH MORE for SONY'S CON SUCKERS!!! The consumer lost.