The HD wars are over.
I largely agree with this analysis at ZD Net, which claims that the real outcome of the high-definition wars is that both sides lost. HD-DVD is dead, and Blu-Ray is wasting away on life support — soon it will go the way of laserdisc, something to be found only in specialty stores at exorbitant prices. Thanks, Sony.
October 30, 2008 in Uncategorized | Comments (17)
It’s possible. At the same time, it’s worth remembering that slow adoption of a technology doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s doomed. To the extent that broadband services go the direction they’re threatening in terms of per-gigabyte internet charges, I think Blu-Ray may catch on after all, albeit not right away.
Comment by RoastedTomatoes — October 30, 2008 @ 1:14 pm
With the storage capacity of flash drives getting increasingly huge, I’ve wondered why anyone would need HD-DVD technology. Why couldn’t I just purchase a movie on a flash drive as an alternative to DVD/download? I’m not arguing that’s even possible—I’m really ignorant here.
Comment by BrianJ — October 30, 2008 @ 1:28 pm
I’ve long said that downloads will win the format wars this time around. HA!
Comment by a random John — October 30, 2008 @ 2:04 pm
arJ, I still think you’re probably right. But it really all depends on ISPs. Are they going to be sensible and start investing in new network infrastructure rather than trying to convince users to consume less bandwidth?
Comment by RoastedTomatoes — October 30, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
As a relatively new owner of an HDTV set I would never willingly go back to downloads. Blue ray is just so much clearer than most of the older formats, including downloading. It frightens me to watch downloaded video via a big HDTV set.
At this point though I suspect part of Blue Ray’s delay is stemming from the slow take up of HDTV sets, only in the last year getting cheap enough for the populous to consider. That and Blue Ray players running way higher than DVD players probably has something to do with it.
I have to admit the price of the BRDVD is also generally a turnoff as it is about $5.00 to 15.00 more expensive than the DVD ones.
Comment by Jon W. — October 30, 2008 @ 2:47 pm
or Blu-ray as the case may be.
Comment by Jon W. — October 30, 2008 @ 2:48 pm
Jon W., if you are a Netflix subscriber and have an Xbox, you can now stream HD movies.
Comment by Supergenius — October 30, 2008 @ 3:38 pm
The jump from DVD to Blu-Ray is nowhere near as dramatic as was the jump in quality from VHS to DVD. It’s just hard to feel the need to upgrade. People will do it when it gets cheap enough, but not with the same ferocity that they upgraded to DVD. But once players get in the $100-150 range they’ll sell pretty well. It’s still a ways off before you can stream a 20GB movie. I’m pretty sure the HD from Netflix is heavily compressed.
Comment by mike d. — October 30, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
True, the jump in quality isn’t as stark, but it’s nonetheless real. I wonder if the bigger problem is that the disks really don’t offer major new options compared to DVDs. This may seem silly in retrospect, but it’s worth remembering that “special features” were a big thing for people when DVDs were just coming in.
Comment by RoastedTomatoes — October 30, 2008 @ 5:12 pm
I agree with RT. Special features were a big selling point for DVDs in the beginning, but now who really watches them? I rarely do. For the most part, I’m over director’s commentaries and deleted scenes.
Comment by Brian G — October 30, 2008 @ 5:39 pm
director’s commentaries = reason why the camera is pointed at actors and not directors
deleted scenes = proof that editors are necessary
What eats me up about DVDs are the intro’s when I first put them in the player. Some are really long and all are obnoxious after I’ve seen them twice – why can’t I opt out of all those transitions?!!
Comment by BrianJ — October 30, 2008 @ 5:48 pm
Netflix streaming is coming to OSX too. (It’s in beta right now) Which means it’ll be on hacked AppleTVs too.
The sign BluRay is in trouble is the fact Apple didn’t include the drives and went out of their way to berate them at the announcement of the new MacBooks. While Apple has ulterior motives frankly the Apple TV isn’t selling that great.
Comment by Clark — October 30, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
Brian, the nice thing about HD-DVD was that there weren’t those annoying startup screens, trailers you can’t escape from (HBO I’m looking at you) and so forth. That’s why I rarely watch DVDs with a DVD player. I almost always now rip them with Handbrake and then watch them on my Apple TV. (Which amazingly does a better job upscaling than even my Toshiba HD-DVD player)
Now if Apple came out with an AppleTV that could do 1080p playback of video at high bandwidth I’d be in heaven. (I’ve been ‘finding’ 720p rips of BluRay of my favorite films off the net – I own the DVDs but notice how much better the 720p rips really are)
Comment by Clark — October 30, 2008 @ 6:12 pm
The Criterion Collection is coming out on BluRay. I think reports of it’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
Comment by MCQ — November 2, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
While its demise is exaggerated (simply due to bandwidth constraints if nothing else) I think it simply won’t ever dominate the way DVDs did.
Comment by Clark — November 3, 2008 @ 11:12 am
Oh, I don’t know. There sure are a lot of BDs out there now.
I don’t think they’ll go away.
More likely, all new machines will play both BDs and DVDs, and then BDs will simply take over; there’ll be no more DVDs.
People like owning movies. I know I do.
P.S. I do think movies in the theater will be greatly reduced. Why bother paying $12 for a movie plus another $15 for refreshments, when one can have the movie at home, with a personal bathroom close by and the best refreshments available?
Projected movies will be a small niche. Most people will get their movies on their home theaters or computers.
Comment by D. Fletcher — November 5, 2008 @ 3:21 pm
By the way, I’ve got a bunch of sets on Blu-Ray — fantastic picture and sound!
Planet of the Apes
Pirates of the Caribbean
Die Hard
Bond, sets 1 & 2
Planet Earth
Comment by D. Fletcher — November 5, 2008 @ 3:34 pm