The Blu Corner: A GI Biz Editorial.

An interesting perspective of the ongoing (and close to an end, it would seem) format war. A few choice cuts:

Blu-ray, always the favourite to win but never seemingly having the momentum to fully outpace its rival, has finally started to pull ahead in a meaningful way. The finish line is in sight.

The fact is that Microsoft's involvement with HD-DVD has very little to do with any real interest in who wins the DVD standards war.

Microsoft believes in digital distribution. It believes, fervently, that the hour has come for content to be transmitted to consumers over the network, rather than on a piece of physical media.

To put it bluntly, Microsoft wants both Blu-ray and HD-DVD to fail. If either format becomes dominant and securely established, it will provide an attractive option to consumers still not quite ready to commit to a media future with no physical products.

The question at this point is not whether Blu-ray will triumph over HD-DVD, however. Instead, the question is whether Microsoft's meddling in the market (and the fortuitous, from its perspective, problems which Sony suffered with Blu-ray throughout 2006) has done enough to seed fear, uncertainty and doubt in consumers' minds about HD disc formats.

Blu-ray was always going to win the high def war but I still feel it won't ever take off.dvader654

Both formats are the equivalent of Laserdisc. Never bigger than a niche product.

[QUOTE="dvader654"]Blu-ray was always going to win the high def war but I still feel it won't ever take off.Darth_Tigris

Both formats are the equivalent of Laserdisc. Never bigger than a niche product.

Steelattack \m/ awesome sig and stuff \m/

Digital Distribution won't be a reality for a long time and tangible hard copies will be the preference for even longer. As for Blu-Ray it's dominance is inevitable, and the ongoing 'war' with HD-DVD was needless. HD-DVD can only go so far with only a handful of studios and it's mere existence is keeping many popular movies from going hi-def.

In doing so its crippling the entire move to HD altogether.

Digital Distribution won't be a reality for a long time and tangible hard copies will be the preference for even longer. As for Blu-Ray it's dominance is inevitable, and the ongoing 'war' with HD-DVD was needless. HD-DVD can only go so far with only a handful of studios and it's mere existence is keeping many popular movies from going hi-def.

In doing so its crippling the entire move to HD altogether.

Atrus

See, I beg to differ. There is nothing with Blu Ray as a movie format that is in the consumer's best interest. The players are more expensive, the features are less streamlined and the picture quality has been a mixed bag (the extra space Blu Ray affords has been a complete non-factor as movies do not even fill up a 30 gig HD-DVD disc). Everything about HD-DVD IS in the best interest of the consumer EXCEPT for studio support. And studio support was mostly based on Blu Ray's (at the time) superior copy protection. So if consumer support the cheaper, more uniform and consistently quality product, the the studios would make the switch too.

Again, I will never understand the consumer support for Blu Ray.

Again, I will never understand the consumer support for Blu Ray.

Darth_Tigris

And no the quality on Blu-ray hasnt been a mixed bag, Pirates 1 & 2, Casino Royale, Crank, and others are all considered reference material for hd optical discs.

I heard that Blu-Ray's advantage of the extra space is more then neutralized by Sony utilizing an inferior compression format (or whatever the correct term is). Anybody know if this is true?SupremeAC

I said it before....Digital Disturbution is just going to keep getting bigger. As more people get cable...it increases.

Anyways...As someone said earlier. For the most part. BluRay and HD are pretty much niche products. The upgrade from DVD to Bluray is pretty much trival compared to past upgrades. About all it means is I get a better picture. To be honest...its obvious why the studios are forcing it so quickly. Piracy. Big difference in having to download a 3gig movie instead of a 15gig movie.

[QUOTE="Darth_Tigris"]

Again, I will never understand the consumer support for Blu Ray.

dohhyulittle

And no the quality on Blu-ray hasnt been a mixed bag, Pirates 1 & 2, Casino Royale, Crank, and others are all considered reference material for hd optical discs.

Ok, they want the movies. Reviews have proved that picture quality is consistently as good or better on HD-DVD as Blu Ray.

And by the quality being a mixed bag, I was referring to how the picture quality of Blu Ray movies hasn't been as consistently high as HD-DVD. But there are definitely Blu Ray movies that look spectacular. Just nothing better than HD-DVD.

Again, I keep coming back to the only true advantage Blu Ray has for CONSUMERS: studio support. And why do they have thatstudio support? Because of the (at the time) better copy protection. For consumers, HD-DVD is the better product but lack of studio support really hurts it. This whole format war is just annoying for those exact reasons.

Again, I keep coming back to the only true advantage Blu Ray has for CONSUMERS: studio support. And why do they have thatstudio support? Because of the (at the time) better copy protection. For consumers, HD-DVD is the better product but lack of studio support really hurts it. This whole format war is just annoying for those exact reasons.

Darth_Tigris

[QUOTE="Darth_Tigris"]

Again, I keep coming back to the only true advantage Blu Ray has for CONSUMERS: studio support. And why do they have thatstudio support? Because of the (at the time) better copy protection. For consumers, HD-DVD is the better product but lack of studio support really hurts it. This whole format war is just annoying for those exact reasons.

Teufelhuhn

As I said before...The protection is more the thing being a massive amount more space then normal DVD and BluRay disc being expensive.