Warner Goes Blu-Ray - Does Anyone Care Yet?
January 5th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
So while I was hanging out in the pitch-black darkness of my power-free home yesterday, Warner Bros. made it known that they were going to drop support of HD DVD in favor of Blu-Ray this May. Here’s the full press release, for those of you into this sort of thing.
This is somewhat similar to the announcement Paramount made last year, when it dropped support for BD in favor of HD DVD.
I’m sorry, but I’m still having trouble caring about either format,, especially as it relates to the video game console “war.” When I’m buying a movie, which is happening less and less often these days, I’m will choose one of the HD formats when it’s available, but I feel like this entire business is rapidly becoming less and less relevant to more and more people.
We live in a world where low-quality streaming YouTube videos bring in millions of hits. Where people download bootleg videos that were shot with a camera pointing at a movie screen and are, for the most part, satisfied. Where torrents of complete seasons of television, compressed down to sub-broadcast quality, are often easier to get than the real, licensed products. Is video quality of the 1080p variety really a concern for the general public? Is anyone running out and buying new TVs just so they can watch Superbad in 1080p? I don’t think so. As far as I’m concerned, HDTVs are primarily for video games and cable/satellite programming that you can’t get any other way, like live sporting events. The whole “better version of this movie” thing is just a bonus.
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll usually try to choose the highest quality format available, and I own both an Xbox 360 HD DVD drive and a PS3, so I’m equipped to go either route, if necessary. But plenty of people out there want it fast and without hassle. And as time goes on, the path of least resistance is going to be a download (legal or otherwise), not buying or renting a disc in some next-generation video format.
So my stance on this whole thing is that this is a battle for videophiles on the fringe of the disc-buying public. And as bandwidth speeds increase, enabling faster transmissions of higher-quality video, this whole battle over which disc is better is going to become increasingly silly and pointless.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
This morning, actually, New Line also announced that they were going HD-DVD only.
I see your point about the irrelevancy of the hi-def battle, and I completely agree as far as its relevancy to the console wars; they’re unrelated.
I also see the same things you do as far as media over the internet (though in a lot of cases, myself included, downloading a torrent will actually get you higher quality than what comes down the pipe unless you have a pretty fancy box); however, I think a good portion of our observations in this regard may be due in part to the type of people we mingle with - I suspect that there’s a very large portion of the market out there that doesn’t understand or care for downloading any media from the web, and that’s the market that matters.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Good points, Clint. I agree, most people haven’t discovered the magic of a networked home, with media in every room, and they probably never will. It’s just way too crazy for most people to handle.
But those are probably the same people that don’t own an HDTV and are perfectly satisfied with regular DVDs, too. I guess if there were only one new disc format, that would reduce the confusion and at least pave the way for some seriously focused marketing to that mainstream crowd, but that’s still going to be a tough sell.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
When it comes to the console wars, I don’t think one side winning makes much of a difference. At the end of the day, consoles are for games. Playing movies and doing other things is icing, but the games are what matters.
As far as if anyone cares about the movies, I don’t know. I do know that the people I am around are not buying either format till there is a clear winner. After all, DVDs look and sound just fine. I personally do not download a movie when I can buy it because the average low quality annoys me. I also still buy CDs because they sound better then MP3’s.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I get your point… for me the only thing that exites me about BluRay is 50GB storage… I don’t have a movie (regardless of source) collection and I don’t intend to start one.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
the jump from VHS to DVD was significant enough to make, the differences between DVD and HD platforms are pretty insignificant and i don’t think anybody will be replacing their DVD collection with HD formats any time soon.
For me personally, will stick with DVD.
January 5th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I was having this conversation with friends just recently - the format “war” isn’t going to be won by BD’s or HD-DVD’s. Downloading (hopefully of the legal variety) is going to win the day - I actually think the X-Box live HD video download service is a big step in the right direction… I just can’t wait until bandwidth improves so that it doesn’t take 3 hours to download! - Or even better, can be streamed direct.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
awesome! not only will you have to re-buy all of your movie collections again..but split itbetween two formats..brilliant!!
i have never quite understood why anyone would want to seek out and buy one of the HD formats over a normal dvd… i saw casino royale and ghost rider (came with ps3) and they were fine and lovely and all that but there was nothing that made them “better” just more expensive… its a very different thing from when vhs turned to dvd because it was a hugely noticeable difference… dvd to HDBRDVDHDDVBDVDD isnt (yes i just made that format up)
January 5th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
my thoughts exactly, i think within 10 years if that optical discs will be obsolete and everything will be streamed
January 5th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Eugh. All these company dealings just annoy me. I care about video quality, I care about the future (and probably the last) widespread disc format, but I just want this “war” to be over with. All it’s doing is making me buy DVDs again because I can get Heat for $5 at Best Buy.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
This is seriously the most unnecessary format war in my recent memory. The fact that I sit here, waiting for one of them to win so I can “make the jump” is pretty funny. You would think they would settle this, you know, for us to start spending money on their movie players and movies, yet they act like this is some sort of pissing compettition to see witch format can struggle the most until the other one eventually quits.
January 5th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Personaly I think they should focus on a more compact format, like an improved UMD. Just imagine, a UMD sized disc that can store several Terrabites of hologramic 3d movies. For gaming, that could bring human-like AI and infinite space to work for hi-res graphics & sound.
Both HD-DVD & Blue-Ray are a transition to what’s to come. Trust me, I know this will happen,I have my sources, but I’m not allowed to tell you when. When it will Jeff will say:
“Servantes said so and I didn’t believe his lies!”
January 5th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
I’m happy with DVDs, the day one of these formats would finally win (if this could ever end that is) I might consider upgrading.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I think the war is dumb, I think everyone agrees and just wish the opposite side would side with them. I do not think the HD disk format is dumb however. I resently bought a PS3 which is the only reason I side with blu-ray. Also for christmas our family bought a HDTV. I am completely addicted to the picture. Watched standard deffinition cable TV is annoying to me, and really wish everything was in 1080p.
I feel that this probably will be the last disk format before digital disribution. But the problem with that is the world’s materialism. They call it a movie collection because you collect the movies. I do love to have the nice Lord of the Rings box in my hand. I think it shows others who you are rather than just having a black hard drive with all yoru movies on it. Its in my understanding, Jeff, that you have a mammoth sized collection of classic video games. Would you trade all those in in favor of vitual console only? I realize this isn’t a perfect comparision, just something to think about. Also, I have downloaded bootleg movies, but those are just the movies I wanna see once and never again. Overall, if I want to really own the movie, I really want to own it.
January 5th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I still buy regular DVDs, so I don’t care about HD-DVD or Blu-ray (and I own a PS3). I’m fine with 480p and paying less for regular DVDs.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
A lot of the movies that I like to watch simply aren’t ever going to be available in an HD format. The information required does not exist. Movies like Rear Window, Day of the Jackal, Taxi Driver and so on. Besides, semi-new release DVDs are only like $20 NZ lately.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
I’ve only have one Blu-ray movie Planet Earth and I might buy The fifth element soon I don’t see a huge difference but then again I’m using a standard TV with my PS3.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
Planet Earth on Blu-Ray is breath taking. It blows my mind in every way. You need to at least take a look at it in 1080p.
January 5th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Do you believe that this announcement will influence Microsoft’s CES announcement about the Xbox 360 Ultimate version (rumor on Gamespot). According to the rumor there will be a build in HD-Drive in the box. I remember a HotSpot were you discussed that Microsoft still had the option to release a blue-ray drive for the Xbox. What to you think is the current status? Will Microsoft go all-in and release a Xbox with a build-in HD-Drive or will they postpone their decision? And even more important, do you believe that Microsoft could still abandon their HD-Drive?
January 5th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Why can’t they just stay with one format? I’m a movie collector and it’s really annoying for me, to buy a movie in the right region code (I’m from Europe) and have to decide which version of the movie I have to buy. All movie companies should go with Blu-ray imo - and region codes shouldn’t exist!
January 5th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
DVD changed how people watched and bought movies. It was easy to sell people on the ease of use and low cost of movies (when most movies were still $100 for video store sales, look it up). And it was clear to anyone how much better ir looked, even on their old TV set.
These new formats are about ten years too soon for people to care. DVD has been the defacto format for a few years now, to try to sell people on something new that is marginally better is crazy. Especially when it means throwing out all your DVDs and buying a $3000 HDTV.
I own a PS3, it’s pretty useless for anything but watching Blurays, but buying Hitch or Wedding Crashers on Bluray is insane. I bought my first Bluray disc last month; the Blade Runner suitcase version. It’s probably the only movie available I’d want to watch and study in that amount of quality. Frankly, until the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings movies come out on whatever format they choose, I’m not buying any movies unless it’s something awesome in the bargain bid at the market.
January 5th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
You know Jeff, I think movie rental downloads (like the XBL marketplace) is where the industry is heading. I don’t really care either and agree with your points concerning the video “war.”
January 5th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
There are some negatives. I do think that PS3 doesn’t have to keep dropping it’s price anymore. It’s done it’s job, loaded the market with a blu-ray player.
January 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Clint (post #1), New Line Cinema is Blu-Ray only, not HD-DVD.
January 5th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I like HD content and really don’t care how I get it. Digital delivery or disc either is fine. That being said I do care that there is only one disc based format for content like this because having 2 really splits the market.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Me, like the rest of us, also want this so called “war” to be over.
I only have a PS3 so my Blue-Ray movies are covered. But if HD-DVD really does end up taking the superior of the market, it seems like I may have to trade up my BDs for the HD-DVD type. It doesn’t really matter that much since I hear that HD-DVD players are coming cheaper now.
January 5th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I don’t see digital download being for the majority of people. I think what we with broadband forget that the majority of the US is still quite rural, and those places simply can’t get broadband. And even if they can, it’s going to be your average, $30/month DSL connection where it’s simply going to be too slow to download a 1080p movie. Hell, a 720p movie on XBL can go upwards of 6 gigs, which can take several hours on a lower end broadband connection. As long as the baby bells are fighting one another, not enough of America is going to get big enough pipes cheaply enough for digital download service to completely replace physical discs. Co-existing for the people with the thousands of dollars needed for the digital home perhaps, but the all-digital utopia is still a ways off.
That being said, there is a need for disc. It’s still quicker and cheaper for people to go grab a disc at their local store than it is to download movies. And honestly, I want to be able to buy - and keep - movies that I like, which can’t be done on current hard drives. There are more people who want to experience HD-DVD than are willing to spend the same amount of money as a used PS2 every month for super-high-end broadband.
January 5th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
I just wish they would decide already.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:13 am
I think the future for HD content is going to become more and more available through online services eg: Xbox Live Marketplace, seeing as now the compression technology has become so much better it is now an option to watch Full HD movies at 100% quality without chewing up a heap of internet.
Very soon we’ll be saying Goodbye to video stores completely!
January 6th, 2008 at 1:03 am
The movie theater is becoming more and more irrelevant. So anything that allows me the highest quality experience at home wins. I don’t care who wins. Originally, I didn’t really care if HD-DVD or Blu-Ray wins. Now that Blu-Ray is clearly ahead it’s time for HD-DVD to pack it in.
HDTV is for people who don’t care for babies crying during a film, people talking, and being able to hit pause to go to the washroom.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Mainstream consumers are not ready for a new video format. AV enthusiasts are, but then enthusiasts are always want the next big thing. The Blu-ray Disc Association can tout how Blu-ray discs outsell HD DVDs two-to-one or three-to-one or whatever, but Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD sales combined remain tiny compared to those of regular DVDs.
DVD has been mainstream for about eight years now. VHS had about 20. Expecting consumers to replace their video collections (again) so soon is ridiculous.
While quality varies from model to model, upconverting DVD players can be surprisingly good at making old-fashioned DVD Videos look good on high definition television sets. Without having to replace your videos with the same ones in a new format. Most HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc players double as upconverting DVD players, but why pay extra money when you don’t have to?
Add to all of this that so many mainstream entertainment and consumer electronics companies are getting serious about pure digital distribution, and Blu-ray and HD DVD sound short-lived.
Also, where are people hearing that New Line is going HD DVD-exclusive? I haven’t seen anything about it other than in blogs and on Internet message boards. Given that New Line is a division of Time Warner, which is also the parent company of Warner Bros., it’s unlikely.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Using DivX, i can stream DVD quality movies in real time.
Although i think Microsoft is making more an effort with rentals now available over Live, and my friend who has both Ps3 and Xbox360, says HD DVD-s are better quality than Blue-Ray.
To me, I dont really care about HD movies, yeah sure, its nice but at the end of the day, HD is still 4 years away from been a popular format with hardly any backing support through TV and DVD publishers.
Also it does seem that Blue ray is doing better than HD for publisher support, having more blockbuster titles.
Whats the point in paying double or triple the price of a standard DVD for any… i mean, Blue Ray Discs hold 27gb of data one side… sure thats good, but its not going to make a difference unless you have a 100inch plasma that plays movies at like 4360i.
We’re still 5 years from HD been a wide range source, so i totally agree with everything Jeff, HD DVD’s just aint worth the time.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:32 am
Well overall Blu Ray is selling better, and I sort of like the Blu Ray collection over the HD-DVD collection. HDDVD has Tokyo Drift and the Bourne series, but otherwise… don’t really care.
I’m going to watch Ocean’s Thirteen, Tears of the Sun, Windtalkers, and Spiderman 3 on blu ray now.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:22 am
I agree, outside sports people really aren’t bothered as long as they get to see it. VHS to DVD was a big leap that people really got into, but it’s a completely different thing. DVD to HD is just a visual upgrade, so…… who cares?
January 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am
The thing is just all a big push by Microsoft to ruin both the hd dvd and blu ray until they finally get direct download perfected.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I like many others own a ps3, but I only own 2 blu-ray movies, one of which was a gift, and the other of which came as a pack-in (talladega nights). The fact of the matter is that the disks are just too damn expensive, even the one’s that have been out for a while. Also isn’t it obvious that joe-6-pack walmart/target shopper avg. consumer would only ever even consider higher quality presentation if it didn’t come at an additional cost? What they should do given the storage space of blu-ray disks is include a compressed version of whatever is on the disk so that dvd players can read them too, and if the consumer happens to have a blu-ray player, well then good for them. I really wouldn’t mind purchasing blu-ray movies from here on out if compressed versions were included for regular dvd players, seeing as how they can be played only on my ps3 at my house( which is also an inconvenience, not being able to watch them elsewhere, with friends for example.) However first and foremost, they need to lower the cost of the disks to at least be competitive with dvd’s. Most people who don’t even know what the difference between dvds and blu-rays will still notice that they cost almost twice as much.
January 6th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I disagree on one point, we live in an age of low quality video on you tube, we live in in a world of conflicting views media and opinion. TVs for example, people buy ipods with screens on it and think wow its so small and portable but on the other hand people think wow a 52 inch HDTV thats amazing look at the quality.
I realize this is a blog and full of one persons opinion but i think in a world of terra bits of data in a small box and giga bits in tiny sticks when a new super disc comes out the world of media should embrace it and blu ray having the (in my opinion) better product it should matter when it wins over the inferior HD-DVD
Jeff dude i love you get back infront of a camera ASAP if just for my own sanity
January 6th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I’m coming around to the idea of downloading games, but I’m still having trouble with the idea of doing the same in any major way when it comes to music or films. In fact, I think I’m currently only OK with downloading games if said games are in the minority. I’m not sure why. Is it wrong that I’m this attached to physical artefacts? I know CDs and DVDs and pretty much all physical media will probably decay to the point of uselessness at SOME point, but there’s something very insubstantial and fragile-seeming about having things existing nowhere but on hard drives, and flying around the Internet to get to you. That’s obviously a psychological rather than practical thing, but there you go. I guess there’s the risk that if the service that provided you one of these things goes down, then you’re on your own once you lose it. But that’s much less of a risk than losing and actual disc.
Then there’s the fact that things on their own little physical object seem more valuable than things that have to share. I put all my music on my computer like everyone else, but I prefer to own the CD. And I don’t like those multi-film DVDs because they’re for POOR people and I’m a fucking lord in a castle made of GOLD and CAVIAR.
Don’t worry, I’ll join you guys in the twenty-first century someday.
Oh, and I only own a couple of Blu-rays. One was Click, which was bundled with my PS3 when I bought it, and which I haven’t even unwrapped because I’m guessing it’s terrible, but I haven’t thrown away because I’m a bit of a hoarder (which might explain my attachment to tangible objects), and Casino Royale, which was given out to the first X number of people to sign up to PSN on the PS3 in Europe or something. That’s pretty nice-looking. I definitely think it’s more appropriate to some things than others. The whole Stranglehold/Hard Boiled Blu-ray bundle thing seemed kind of pointless to me, because from what I remember the film’s image wasn’t particularly sharp in the first place. Some especially visually striking films could probably benefit, though. But I guess most people don’t really care about that. I’m a big fan of the aesthetic aspect of film, though, so I like things to look nice. Profound, I know.
Still, it’s all way too expensive at the moment. On the whole.
January 6th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I agree. I have bigger things to worry about, such as why Steam says I don’t own the Orange Box and I am unable to download and successfully run anything from them now.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Blu-Ray discs are so shiny and blue so how could it lose? I’d have to agree that for my part I don’t care since my hdtv is pretty crappy. Regular dvds are fine for me. You can get pretty much any movie on the internet illegally these days (except for Ernest Goes to Jail which I have been actively hunting for a hella long time) so the web crowd with unscrupulous morals don’t care either since they can just download HD movies. I think eventually people will care and have to move on to one format or the other but that time is still far off.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Downloads are fine for renting. But they are bad for purchasing movies. That’s what studios want cuz then they can force you to pay per each view like at a theatre and you never really own the movie. They upgrade hardware/console and guess what, you gotta buy it again. Or their on-line service goes nder, you’re screwed. A disc lets you keep it, for all time (more or less).
HDDVD has less stringent DRM so you can back them up on your hard drive and play them however on whatever and burn them to blu-ray, DVD, flash Drive, or whatever media type the future holds w/o buying the movie again.
Hopefully Bueray will be able to be backed up someday as easily too. Either way having the media of something you want to own rather than rent is of value.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Also an interesting note for those who complain about their being mutiple formats there never was supposed to be. HD-DVD was voted as the new format for DVD (hence the name) by the DVD Forum, of which Sony and Warner were founding members I believe.
Sony didn’t like the vote results when Toshiba won out over them and said, screw it we’redoing blu-ray anyway despite the vote.
I don’t care what format becomes dominant. A disc is a Disc. They both contain identical file encodes very often and it’s what’s inside that counts. In fact I expect better storage media than bu-ray in the next 1-2 years anyway. Then what?
January 6th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Call me old fashioned (even though I’m only 26-years-old), but I’m from the stock that I like to have that physical object in my hand such as a DVD, HD-DVD, BR disc, etc. There’s just some inherent feel of “protection” that comes with having a hard copy of something. I’m not big into downloading shows or movies from either the Internet or Live. Whether that’s the wave of the future is yet to be seen. They said the same thing concerning video games as well; that the advent of downloading games would effectively make brick and mortar stores go out of business. Well, the ability to DL games has been around for a few years and I still see brick and mortar stores having healthy sales. In fact, the nation’s largest gaming specialty store GameStop has been so successful they’re opening more stores and keep breaking new records for their sales. I’m not saying DLing has no future, it’s just that I personally don’t feel that that avenue will dominate our buying choices any time in the near future.
On the gaming front HD or BR doesn’t matter, and this is why I’ve always had a big problem with the newer consoles trying to cram all these bells and whistles into these machines when their primary focus is GAMES. I don’t care about on-demand functionality or streaming capabilities. I buy a gaming system to play games. But too much emphasis is centered around making every new console the new “multimedia center” for your home. I don’t really care which format comes out on top. I ended up becoming an early adopter of the HD-DVD format simply because I own a 360 (but I plan on getting a PS3 within the next week). I have to say that so far it’s nice but the differences between regular DVDs and hi-def is incremental at best. Yeah, it’s more sharp and focused, but does that justify the $10-$15 increase of price? Now I’m sure further on down the road HD or BR prices will fall just as regular DVDs have. But for right now I don’t really care who supports what since DVDs have served us adequately up till now. Why there was need for a new format is beyond me. I own over 900 DVDs so I’m not exactly going to be going out and converting my collection to hi-def. That’s someting that’s just irrational.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I think what sony did was bad (increase PS3 costs by incuding a blu-ray drive) because it doesn’t help the system play games and has hurt the platform.
But what MS and Sony have done on the software side is fine and good. These consoles are powerful computers meant to play sophisticated game software. But as a platform maker taking advantage of your hardware’s abilities to do other things like play other kinds of media, etc. is positive. It helps increase the value of the platform and in no way hurts games.
It’s not like 360 or PS3 are going to miss out on better games just because they’ve added divx codecs for them. So that’s fine. What’s bad is when you put an expensive blu-ray drive in there that takes away from more ram or some other improvement that would actually help game performance. This cost increase hurts the platform and does take away from the game focus. Software add-ons though I think are great.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
I dont know im not against downloading but i dont favor it. I like buying a cd from a store much better than downloading it off itunes or anything. Same when it comes to movies and tv shows. I guess its just the whole feeling of possesion. If i have a cd in my hands, its mine and I can put it anywhere i want and on anything i want. But when i buy it off of itunes its different. It feels as though, whats to keep somebody from taking this from me. I know i can burn it on to a CD and that problem is fixed, but its just different. I also like the packaging and art that comes with them.
January 6th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
So yeah. I guess until most of these HD movies are being sold for 6 bucks, I really don’t see what the big deal is. That’ll be the day.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:43 am
I don’t want to download movies or stream them. I just want to buy them, back them up on harddrive, play them, and keep them.
I’m not looking forward to buy any movies over again in HD.
And again in Super HD…
January 7th, 2008 at 1:52 am
I really think that the average consumer is looking for some kind of tangible benefit to convince them to change format - and “it looks better” just isn’t enough…
The switch from video to DVD brought with it a huge step forward in convenience (chapter skipping etc), as well as more durable media, better sound and picture, and even made the cases smaller. And of course there’s the special features (which someone must watch I guess).
I’m actually of the opinion that the main thing the average consumer likes about LCD/Plasma TVs is that they can go to much bigger screen sizes whilst taking up significantly less room than a CRT. And let’s not forget you can wall mount them, and that looks cool.
Rather than fight over HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray, I’d suggest they might be better served trying to convince the average consumer why they even need HD in the first place.
January 7th, 2008 at 3:00 am
man,i think i’ll stick to DVD for a while till the dust settles
besides my DVD player can upscale videos to HD(1080p)
January 7th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Hey i know this is off topic i just thought somehow this might have missed you
so..congrats on making the list.
January 7th, 2008 at 5:02 am
Downloads all the way! I have more less abandoned my physical movie collection (some 200 DVD:s) and just get everything off of the net, unfortunately not legally in most cases as there just isn’t a legal option around here in northern Europe.
HD is interesting though, wish more content was available for download and that M$ can get the damn video marketplace up n running for everyone, my guess though, it’s not really them holding it back.
The really sad thing with movies these days is that I generally get a better experience from an illegal download, quality is usually near DVD and I don’t have to sit through boring ads, anti piracy statements and other shit which I definitely don’t want, especially not if I have to pay for it.
January 7th, 2008 at 6:50 am
This is getting out of control. In fact its making me less and less interested in all this hoopla every time a damn company jumps ship.
January 7th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Off-topic, I just saw the list of the top 25 GamerTags of 2007 and was surprised to see “GameSpotting” at number 14. Pretty remarkable that Jeff was only a few spots down from Frankie–who is constantly in the ‘limelight’ over at Bungie.
Fun news though.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Digital downloads of films isn’t going to be a mainstream thing for a LONG time. No, scratch that … a LOOOOONNNNNG time. Yeah, broadband is getting faster, but the average consumer is always going to be behind the curve on these kinds of things. You’re not going to see the kind of bandwidth needed to make film downloads viable in the average consumer’s home for many years.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Hey Jeff if you go to joytiq they are doing to 25 gamertags and your number 14.
January 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am
as far as I am conerned, I’m going Blu ray. I have a 360 and a PS3 but I don’t care enough to buy a $170 HD-DVD (or whatever the price is now)blu rays work without buying any extra BS.
January 7th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I actually read a very interesting article on Slashdot about how Microsoft might be keeping HD-DVD going simple TO prevent people from investing in HD disks to further their online streming services. I woul dig the articl out for you but…
January 7th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Damn right I care. Who bought what now?
January 8th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Finally, A voice I can agree with on this whole Next-Generation format wars. I am certainly glad I am not the only one noticing the current trend. The last 25 games or so have all been purchased downloads via direct2drive, gamestop, and the EA Store. I think by the time the “winner” of this pointless format war is crowned the internet would have caught up and we will all be able to download movies at comparable quality directly onto our hard drives and get rid of the whole format nonsense.
It makes both for the consumer and the publishers/distributors.
For the consumer:
Connection speeds over the internet are allowing consumers to purchase movies off iTunes at an acceptable speed and watch instantly…without the worries of anyone scratching or possibly breaking the disc.
For the publisher/distributor:
Only one master copy needs to be made, then thrown all over the internets and not having to worry about shipping them to warehouses just so people can view them….thus saving them money and hopefully keeping prices where they are right now…instead of jacking them up.
In closing…I predict that the XBOX 720, PS4, and the Wii 2 will strongly consider not having a disc drive altogether…then we can all have our shelve space back. Tho I must admit that a copy of Duke Nukem Forever with booklet and original case might be too tempting to pass up.
January 10th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
my mum thinks high definition is “THE FUTURE”
it looks just the same as normal definition to me
she says “YOUR EYES ARE WRONG”
you can’t argue with logic like that
January 11th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Haha, couldn’t agree more.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:12 am
I would guess the “future” of high-definition movies will be downloadable content similar to those currently found on XBox Live. So, when I watch companies switch sides or choose sides I think it’s all kind of a moot point.
On a side note, Jeff we’re all still around. For better or worse.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:26 am
yea, the whole deal with choosing one format seems silly especially since not much of it favors our gaming consoles. hearing that Microsoft can basically create a blu-ray player like they did for the HD setup makes me wonder how many more petty things PS3 owners brag about.
awesome machine, but once again… give me games or give me nothing
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:45 am
The war was stupid, hence would you not regard the END of the war something you should care about? Now that HD-DVD is dying, the consumers can now choose a format with piece of mind. Also, since the PS3 is dependant on the bluray drive (for games + movies), this is surely a big plus for Sony and its console.
January 26th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I see a lot of similarities in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war in relation to how the mp3 player/iPod market is slowly but surely killing the music industry’s current structure. Few people probably remember it, but CD’s had their own quasi-next gen hardware war with Super Audio CD versus DVD-Audio. In the end both formats fell on their faces as the general public embraced the iPod and the convenience it brought to cataloging and obtaining music over the better quality both SACD and DVD-Audio offered. I believe that you are correct Jeff in observing that over time the path of least resistance conquers all when it comes to the general consumer. Downloads could very well be the future business model for movie distribution. Even if Blu-Ray won the format war tomorrow, they would have won what amounts to a very niche market of consumers who already own HDTVs and can appreciate the qualitative difference between HD source material and upconverted Standard DVDs.