Sony wins the battle but loses the War, high definiiton DVD

I'm loving Bluray. Well at first...i didn't think it was worth it. The thing that made me realise was watching a little bit of The godfather on DVD and then i watched the whole movie on Bluray. The difference is so huge...it's ridiculous. i can't believe they can make it look so good. Same goes with Wall-E. If you want to watch absolutely stunning Graphics animation i suggest you watch Wall-E. It will blow you.. Maybe it's my tv a little bit. My Bravia is amazing.

I've got bout 15 movies and it's growing by the day.

dj_shosh910

wall-e + kung fu panda + ratatouille. when my friends come over...i turn these on to show them how awesome blu ray looks. they always say"why do you want me to watch these kid movies?" but have to admit how crazy it looks

don't provide enough of a difference

aussenbagen

Well I guess when you have shortage of video gamerelated topics to bash, you target formats instead. :P

meh. streaming or on demand is the future. Ontain

I have 6 but I never bought a lot of DVD's anyway.Floppy_Jim

HD is way over hyped. HD radio, HDtv, HD this, HD that. Seriously, HD is nothing new.Tjeremiah1988

hd radio doesn't mean high definition radio. it means hybrid-digital. this allows radio stations to broadcast both digital and analog transmissions on the same frequency and provide text information. the text can be picked up by some mp3 players like the zune and the screen displays the name of the song, the artist and the station name. hdtv is not overrated. just make sure your tv is calibrated. it does suck that in a few years we'll have to upgrade to 3d and then upgrade again to uhd 3d (ultra high definition 3 dimension tv. 7680 x 4320 resolution.)

the difference between dvd and blu-ray is pretty huge, the only people who might not think that is the people that have "1080i" tvs and im not sure if people realise but most so called "1080i" tvs are really only 1366 by 768 as the resolution but can just accept the 1080i signal but it's really only ever playing in 720p as there tv isnt capable of doing more, so people without 1080p tvs your "1080i" tvs are really only ever doing no more than 720p, People with full 1080p HDTVs will tell you how amazing blu-ray movies can look.Totalgym9000

not exactly true. most 720p tv's today can accept and display a 1080p signal.

Tell me the truth, how many of you PS3 guys actually buy a significant amount of blu-ray dvds. Hardly any. ****Why? Because they cost more than DVDs and don't provide enough of a difference to justify the increased costs. Which is the same reason that MS lost the HD-DVD market position, not solely because of the Blu-ray being included in the PS3, but because of that price/performance problem inherent in the hi-def DVD business.****

Microsoft is enjoying the advantage of getting to drop the production costs of having to support a HD-DVD manufacturing and marketing division. So, they are that much more profitable overall than Sony, in the short term and the long term.

One poster already said it best, but I will tweak it, Sony won the hi-definition DVD battle but lost the high definition DVD war. There are no spoils, just ongoing unrecoupable costs.

Funny, how ironic this is.

*****UPDATE: I think I have been proved wrong about this part of my OP. There is a justifiable difference between Blu-ray and DVDs. But there is a price problem still, in that although there is a definate difference, blu-ray is significantly better, people aren't convinced they should have to pay for it.

As for it being a pyhirric victory for Sony. I think this aspect of the post is valid and should be debated. Blu-ray did shoot up the cost of the PS3 and by winning the battle with MS over high definition Sony has to bear the cost of manufacturing such function. But MS was relieved of having to produce any more HD drives (external of course) so the MS bottom line has improved. Also calculate in the fact that although blu-ray is a growing format, it is not necessarily driving PS3 sales. Rather, stand alone Blu-ray players are growing in great numbers. This puts Sony in a negative position. They bear the cost of a blu-ray player but don't see a great benefit from it. Therefore, winning the battle with MS over high definition was a pyhirric victory.

That is debateable of course, and why I posted it in the first place. It is pretty cool that as of writing this there are 93 posts. Thanks for the information, I have learned a lot. Go ahead and insult and flame me, it's okay: this is the gamespot.com system wars thread, I mean: THIS IS SPARTA!!!!

aussenbagen

***Another UPDATE: WOW, I am flattered to have garned this much attention. I must have hit a hot spot. Some people are personally offended by my original remarks, some are offended by my amended remarks, some are offended because I made amendments to my remarks, others are just plain offended by antything that is written anywhere. Of course, there are some posts that try and actually discuss the issues rather than try and just cherry pick at something I said and snipe at me--I appreciate the effort to make it constructive. But like they say, any press is good press. Look at how much Perez Hilton is making and all of gigs on TV such as the pagent. Maybe there is hope for me too. Thanks, I feel like a rockstar!

I buy blu.

[QUOTE="aussenbagen"]

[QUOTE="Indie_Hitman"].......................The 'war' was over when HD DVD died. Bad analogy, try another.Indie_Hitman

You clearly flunked out of your classics units. You have no idea who King Pyrrhus was. Or what a Pyrrhic victory is. It would be fine to disagree whether or not Sony has suffered a pyrrhic vicory, but saying it is a bad analogy because the war is over is really, really stupid.

Thanks, to everyone who posts about their view on blu-ray sales. I appreciate the information.

You really need to read some Greek mythology. Even something about the Roman Gods might help. But there is hope for youas I see you finally got it. Albeit you came along kicking and screaming.

[QUOTE="aussenbagen"]

I didn't make myself clear. This is systems wars part of the forum and I am posting about Sony's PS3 not mopping up due to the inclusion of a blu-ray player. I think one of the reasons that MS is not posting record losses like Sony is because they lost the Blu-ray battle and MS is no longer tied down to the production cost of that HD DVD accessory. However, Sony by having their platform locked into a Blu-ray player has to incur significant additional costs.

From one of the articles posted by another person, as of April 16th: "More importantly, of the 10.5 Million US homes that have a Blu-ray player, nearly 75% (7-8 Million) own stand-alone Blu-ray players, around twice as many as the same time last year. The correlation is obvious - twice as many Blu-ray players equals twice as many Blu-ray sales."

So when I mean they won the blu-ray battle I mean that they did win over MS. But it came at a tremoundous cost. People are not poplulating their living rooms with PS3s but rather they are buying stand alone blu-ray players.

Therefore, Sony won the high definition battle against MS, but they lost the war, because people did not buy PS3's to get to blu-ray technology. It was a pyhrrhic victory because the cost of their consoles is very high and they did not get the benefit of the blu-ray boon that is happening now.

Anybody want to speak to this issue instead of jumping on the popularity of blu-ray itself.

Read my original post again. Thanks everyone.

Indie_Hitman

Yes, they do. But that didn't answer the question did it. I asked if "anybody wants to speak to this issue (system wars) instead of the popularity of blu-ray itself." You crack me up.:lol:

I own over 20 blu rays. The video quality and lossless audio are pure bliss on my 52" LCD.

People that can't tell the difference are clueless or in extreme denial.

Blu ray is here to stay. Deal with it.

The PS3 is also my main movie player even for DVDs. It upscales them very well.

The prices for blu ray disks are also getting better and you can already find a lot of great deals. It's a huge leap from standard DVD. Not even close!

KratosTwin

LOL, I willtry and "deal with it." But it will be hard.

did you miss the new that the ms gaming division lost another 30 million $$? the x360 is a disaster for ms with the amount the have spend of fixed the broken hardware. ps3's don't break nearly as often as x360's so sony saves a lot of money that ms keeps spending. imprezawrx500

I have over 20 Blu Ray movies and counting. I have stopeed buying dvds and all my purchases have been Blu Ray. I shop on Amazon and they always have amazing deals on Blu ray movies. Some people need to just shop around instead of complaining how expensive Blu ray movies are.

I have allmost 20 BD's now, but I still buy dvd's when it's a movie that is'nt very important to have in perfect quality, drama movies for example. But all the biggest movies is on BD only for me, Transformers or any animation movie for example.

Is the TC is aware that the PS3 isn't the only Blu ray compatible machine on the market?

Why mention HD DVD? it died over a year ago (but it still has its uses, 40 HD DVD's at £3 each

I haveabout 40 blu rays, many people don't want to change to Blu Ray just yet, the introduction of new formats takes quite a while,

Blu Ray has only been out for about 3 years....I only began to buy them in June 2008

as any1 ever seen the bluray comparision for The kingdom of heaven? The dvd version was so blurry and the blu ray version was clear and filled with detail. Psn_FF7numbaOne

Just bought that yesterday! haven't seen it before, but looks damn good!

the difference between dvd and blu-ray is pretty huge, the only people who might not think that is the people that have "1080i" tvs and im not sure if people realise but most so called "1080i" tvs are really only 1366 by 768 as the resolution but can just accept the 1080i signal but it's really only ever playing in 720p as there tv isnt capable of doing more, so people without 1080p tvs your "1080i" tvs are really only ever doing no more than 720p, People with full 1080p HDTVs will tell you how amazing blu-ray movies can look.Totalgym9000

im the same way, ever since I upgraded to HD/Blu-ray thats all I want, it's stunning on a bigger screen (40" and up).

To be fair to DVD though, if you have the video processing...dvd can look really darn good given it's resolution.

The difference between upscaled DVDs and Blu-rays is significant

I have 8 blu-rays btw

thelastguy

Do you own many HD-DVD's? Why dont you go to the store and buy one. Oh wait, you CAN'T. HD-DVD is dead.

Viva Blu-Ray

Everyone said the same thing when DVD first appeared they said its expensive and no much Difference between it and the CD look what happend now.

Kashiwaba

I don't remember people saying that. It was a HUGE difference from VHS - DVD. You could see it instantly because VHS was blurry with little contract and clarity. i saw the difference immediately. I don't see it when watching upscaled DVD's on my PS3/360 and Blu-Ray movies. The difference is not the same as from VHS - DVD. That's a fact.

***************************************************************************

Do you own many HD-DVD's? Why dont you go to the store and buy one. Oh wait, you CAN'T. HD-DVD is dead.

Viva Blu-Ray

ChiSoxBombers

Blu-Ray will be dead one day as well. lol!! I don't even think it'll last as long as DVD has.

[QUOTE="Kashiwaba"]

Everyone said the same thing when DVD first appeared they said its expensive and no much Difference between it and the CD look what happend now.

XanderZane

I don't remember people saying that. It was a HUGE difference from VHS - DVD. You could see it instantly because VHS was blurry with little contract and clarity. i saw the difference immediately. I don't see it when watching upscaled DVD's on my PS3/360 and Blu-Ray movies. The difference is not the same as from VHS - DVD. That's a fact.

***************************************************************************

Do you own many HD-DVD's? Why dont you go to the store and buy one. Oh wait, you CAN'T. HD-DVD is dead.

Viva Blu-Ray

ChiSoxBombers

Blu-Ray will be dead one day as well. lol!! I don't even think it'll last as long as DVD has.

The PS3 was instrumental in winning the war. Without it, Sony wouldn't have triumphed over HD DVD, which was a much bigger battle for them than the console war.

i have a ps3 and own 0 blu ray movies. Sorry but the $30 price which is half the price of a new game simply kills it. $12 first weekd dvds are fineLuigi_The_Pimp

Why are you fully aware of DVD Sales, but not BLu-Ray sales? You realize Blu has first weekend sales, and sales all year too, right. It's really an unfair comparison.

Also, I find First weekend DVD's sales to be in the $15-$18 range for 99% of the movies. For a about $5, I buy Blu those first weekends. I have the tech, why not enjoy it.

Also, my cousin doesn't have an HDTV, so he was buying DVD's until recently he realized that HE WILL ONE DAY SOON have an HDTV, and he wasn't preparing for that future.

TC obviously was'nt around when we went from VHS to DVD. It was the same deal as it is now.

[QUOTE="aussenbagen"]

[QUOTE="aussenbagen"]

Tell me the truth, how many of you PS3 guys actually buy a significant amount of blu-ray dvds. Hardly any. Why? Because they cost more than DVDs and don't provide enough of a difference to justify the increased costs. Which is the same reason that MS lost the HD-DVD market position, not solely because of the Blu-ray being included in the PS3, but because of that price/performance problem inherent in the hi-def DVD business.

SolidTy

However, I think this proposition of my original post is not correct:

"Why? Because they cost more than DVDs and don't provide enough of a difference to justify the increased costs. Which is the same reason that MS lost the HD-DVD market position, "

So, why hasn't the PS3 ridden the blu-ray wave to rule the living room Hidefination experience? Or has it? Was it a great idea to include the player? How is Sony doing with it's own stand alone blu-ray players?

Was it really a pyrrhic victory or is it too early to tell?

While Blu-Ray cost Sony's a huge price on their PS Brand, on the flip side, Blu-Ray and movies in general are huge sellers.

So, Sony, it seems sacrificed a bit of their game division, to achieve a format victory. Sony owns a ton of movies and movie studios, like Tristar, Columbia, Sony Pictures, and MGM's catalog, so that's a huge plus.

I am very, very appreciative of the Blu-Ray Tech, since I know have movies that go along with my HDTV's at home, and Sony's PS3 is a terrific gaming machine with all the bell's and whistles, so I'm happy.

I knew from the get go, that the PS3 wasn't going to be a PS2, being that Sony did too many things differently, and the mass market isn't going to adopt as fast, as the prequisites are that you have an HDTV for some users, and gamers for the others.

I am happy the PS3 is the way it is, but I know that others that are less fortunate would not like Blu in the PS3.

One thing that no one saw coming, is the Global Recession, which is going to put a hurt on HDTV adoption, and of course, PS3 sales.

It's too early to say it's a pyrrihic victory, since the 360 and PS3's sales are really, really, really close. This is the closest war we've ever seen, it's literally neck and neck. To give you perspective, it's closer than the GENESIS Vs. SNES War, sales wise.

Sony had brand to help them, but M$ had Price, a year headstart, and aggressive3rd party contracts.

I'm surprised the PS3 is doing as well as it has, considering the PRICE this entire generation.

TC obviously was'nt around when we went from VHS to DVD. It was the same deal as it is now.

Filthybastrd

I buy a new bluray dvd everytime I buy a new game. And when hybrid discs finally come out from japan I will buy them

I have not bought any blu rays on my ps3.......and i dont know where the spiderman blu ray is it came with haha, everyone in this house, & everyone i know still buys DVD.........is blu ray even selling any ? Sony's good for pushing formats that dont last too long.

I believe I'm rolling on 21 Blu-Ray movies atm. They only cost an extra $5-10, so it's really not that big of a deal. Not to mention, it's clearly a better picture than DVD, plus with 7.1 surround sound, the extra cash is well worth it.

Looks like Blu ray is moving up at blockbuster, went from one wall section to two.

While DVD goes around the entire store.

Only blu-ray I have is the Dark Night, was a gift.

[QUOTE="Filthybastrd"]

TC obviously was'nt around when we went from VHS to DVD. It was the same deal as it is now.

HuusAsking

I meant the transition phase, not the added benefits. VHS did'nt disappear overnight and it's bound to be slower this time around due to HDTV's.

Tell me the truth, how many of you PS3 guys actually buy a significant amount of blu-ray dvds. Hardly any. ****Why? Because they cost more than DVDs and don't provide enough of a difference to justify the increased costs. Which is the same reason that MS lost the HD-DVD market position, not solely because of the Blu-ray being included in the PS3, but because of that price/performance problem inherent in the hi-def DVD business.****

Microsoft is enjoying the advantage of getting to drop the production costs of having to support a HD-DVD manufacturing and marketing division. So, they are that much more profitable overall than Sony, in the short term and the long term.

One poster already said it best, but I will tweak it, Sony won the hi-definition DVD battle but lost the high definition DVD war. There are no spoils, just ongoing unrecoupable costs.

Funny, how ironic this is.

*****UPDATE: I think I have been proved wrong about this part of my OP. There is a justifiable difference between Blu-ray and DVDs. But there is a price problem still, in that although there is a definate difference, blu-ray is significantly better, people aren't convinced they should have to pay for it.

As for it being a pyhirric victory for Sony. I think this aspect of the post is valid and should be debated. Blu-ray did shoot up the cost of the PS3 and by winning the battle with MS over high definition Sony has to bear the cost of manufacturing such function. But MS was relieved of having to produce any more HD drives (external of course) so the MS bottom line has improved. Also calculate in the fact that although blu-ray is a growing format, it is not necessarily driving PS3 sales. Rather, stand alone Blu-ray players are growing in great numbers. This puts Sony in a negative position. They bear the cost of a blu-ray player but don't see a great benefit from it. Therefore, winning the battle with MS over high definition was a pyhirric victory.

That is debateable of course, and why I posted it in the first place. It is pretty cool that as of writing this there are 93 posts. Thanks for the information, I have learned a lot. Go ahead and insult and flame me, it's okay: this is the gamespot.com system wars thread, I mean: THIS IS SPARTA!!!!

aussenbagen

I'd say speak for yourself since I only buy Blu ray

[QUOTE="aussenbagen"]

Tell me the truth, how many of you PS3 guys actually buy a significant amount of blu-ray dvds. Hardly any. ****Why? Because they cost more than DVDs and don't provide enough of a difference to justify the increased costs. Which is the same reason that MS lost the HD-DVD market position, not solely because of the Blu-ray being included in the PS3, but because of that price/performance problem inherent in the hi-def DVD business.****

Microsoft is enjoying the advantage of getting to drop the production costs of having to support a HD-DVD manufacturing and marketing division. So, they are that much more profitable overall than Sony, in the short term and the long term.

One poster already said it best, but I will tweak it, Sony won the hi-definition DVD battle but lost the high definition DVD war. There are no spoils, just ongoing unrecoupable costs.

Funny, how ironic this is.

*****UPDATE: I think I have been proved wrong about this part of my OP. There is a justifiable difference between Blu-ray and DVDs. But there is a price problem still, in that although there is a definate difference, blu-ray is significantly better, people aren't convinced they should have to pay for it.

As for it being a pyhirric victory for Sony. I think this aspect of the post is valid and should be debated. Blu-ray did shoot up the cost of the PS3 and by winning the battle with MS over high definition Sony has to bear the cost of manufacturing such function. But MS was relieved of having to produce any more HD drives (external of course) so the MS bottom line has improved. Also calculate in the fact that although blu-ray is a growing format, it is not necessarily driving PS3 sales. Rather, stand alone Blu-ray players are growing in great numbers. This puts Sony in a negative position. They bear the cost of a blu-ray player but don't see a great benefit from it. Therefore, winning the battle with MS over high definition was a pyhirric victory.

That is debateable of course, and why I posted it in the first place. It is pretty cool that as of writing this there are 93 posts. Thanks for the information, I have learned a lot. Go ahead and insult and flame me, it's okay: this is the gamespot.com system wars thread, I mean: THIS IS SPARTA!!!!

LordDhampire

I'd say speak for yourself since I only buy Blu ray

Edit: To answer the main question posed by the TC, I'm not sure if it's a pyrrhic victory or not for them, because they ARE getting benefits out of the included blu-ray player: Many people are purchasing PS3s because they hear that they can't get much better for a standalone of the same price, and they get the added benefit of PS3 games. And you've also got plenty of people who specifically wanted the PS3 for its games (*insert PS3 games library joke here*), but now that they've got it, they're interested in buying blu-rays as well. Are these two groups of people enough to justify the investment Sony has made? Who knows; you'd have to ask Sony for the answer to that. But at the very least, Sony is generating lots of interest for their gaming system through its video-playback abilities, and that's a win for them, PR-wise.

BR is the last physical media for movies. They won that... Now Digital down loads or streams of those movies will be the thing that might kill BR off several years from now.

Unless TV's gets mega HD... Something insanely higher res then 1080p... BR is gonna be more then enough for a single movie.

I didn't buy any BR's yet for my PS3. I got 5 free and rented over 20 from netflix. I'm not ready to spend the premium for a small increase in visual quality. That's not to say everyone is like me... I seen people with almost every single BR release.

Is the TC is aware that the PS3 isn't the only Blu ray compatible machine on the market?

Why mention HD DVD? it died over a year ago (but it still has its uses, 40 HD DVD's at £3 each

I haveabout 40 blu rays, many people don't want to change to Blu Ray just yet, the introduction of new formats takes quite a while,

Blu Ray has only been out for about 3 years....I only began to buy them in June 2008

[QUOTE="Psn_FF7numbaOne"]as any1 ever seen the bluray comparision for The kingdom of heaven? The dvd version was so blurry and the blu ray version was clear and filled with detail. WWIAB

Just bought that yesterday! haven't seen it before, but looks damn good!

Yes, I am aware that the PS3 is the only compatible blu-ray "gaming" console on the market. Uh, that is the whole point of this thread. Duh!

Why mention HD DVD? First, you answered your own question. Second, OMG this is so dumb, the whole post, I can't write a response.LOL. Our public schools are in real trouble aren't they?