blackburn Posted May 5, 2007 Posted May 5, 2007 there are rumours of universal studios turning format neutral soon, sometime in 2007/08 and the total hd format launching in the second half of 2007, begining with warner releases. what do you think ? height=215http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2007/01/superman_thd.jpg[/img] height=215http://kahuna.clayton.edu/~jbrooks/blender/tutorials/universal/universal.jpg[/img]
eggz Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 where did you read about the Universal rumors? What will be interesting is if Universal does start releasing on BD as well, will BV and Fox also start releasing on HD-DVD?
IwishIwasToneDeaf Posted May 6, 2007 Posted May 6, 2007 I find the combo box's cover looking horribly mismatched and ugly.
blackburn Posted May 6, 2007 Author Posted May 6, 2007 where did you read about the Universal rumors? it was a cursory glance at some threads in avsforum.com or highdefdigest.com. i think. it may be just pure surmise by some overzealous bd supporter. let me find the thread again. has anyone read anything similar? if Universal does start releasing on BD as well, will BV and Fox also start releasing on HD-DVD? universal studios has the power to tilt the balance between the two formats in the favour of bd if it ever decides to release titles in the bd format I find the combo box's cover looking horribly mismatched and ugly. ya man! blu-ray studios http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/warner.jpg http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/paramount.jpg http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/disney.jpg http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/fox.jpg http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/sony.jpg http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/mgm.jpg http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/lionsgate.jpg hd dvd studios http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/warner.jpg http://www.blu-ray.com/images/studios/paramount.jpg height=90http://kahuna.clayton.edu/~jbrooks/blender/tutorials/universal/universal.jpg[/img]
armoury Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 universal studios has the power to tilt the balance between the two formats in the favour of bd if it ever decides to release titles in the bd format Actually, as some editorial put it (digitalbits, I think, not dvdfile), Universal can END the format war -- once Universal supports Bluray, even if it continues to support HD DVD like Warner does both, the impetus to buy HD DVD ends since everything will be available on Bluray. The technical difference between them is still a matter of debate, as to whether either is really better than the other, save perhaps that at the moment BD hasn't sorted out Java properly.
blackburn Posted May 7, 2007 Author Posted May 7, 2007 Universal can END the format war -- once Universal supports Bluray exactly! either that or universal studios releasing titles exclusively in hd-dvd combo format, but at affordable sd-dvd prices, then every hd-dvd combo title becomes a trojan horse and a nightmare to any bd zealot
wind30 Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 so it is Fox, Sony and Disney vs Universal..... coupled with the $799 blu-ray cum gaming machine, I think I am going to get PS3 :) I think the PS3 is really a master stroke. Most people will not buy an expensive stand alone player with the format war going on. but they will buy a PS3 for gaming. And with a PS3, they will buy some blu-ray disc to check out the blu-ray playback. This will push up the sales of blu-ray and makes it look like blu-ray is winning :) With more blu-ray players in the market, stronger studio support, hd-dvd seems to be dying huh. What does hd-dvd has on its side?
Doggie Howser Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 The PS3 was supposed to be the Trojan Horse, but at its price point, it makes for a good value nextgen HD source player, but not a good value console.
wind30 Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 ya, but PS3 has sold 2 million units already right? I have a feeling that this HUGE amount of blu-ray capable players sitting at EVERYONE's home will tilt the scales. People argue that out of this 2 million people not many of them buy PS3 to watch blu-ray. But you must understand, perhaps all these gamers will not buy much or even any blu-ray disc NOW, BUT they definately will not buy a HD-DVD player in the future.... For every PS3 sold, hd-dvd has lost a potential future customer. The point is, when the HD format matures, people start looking at HD discs, they are going to buy a blu-ray because they already has a PS3.... I just hope universal wakes up as I want to watch "Heroes" on bluray. I think it is easier to convince universal to support both formats than to get Sony to support both....
Doggie Howser Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 But you must understand, perhaps all these gamers will not buy much or even any blu-ray disc NOW, BUT they definately will not buy a HD-DVD player in the future.... For every PS3 sold, hd-dvd has lost a potential future customer. That's NOT entirely true. I have a PS3, an XA2, and 2 HD DVD drives for my XBox 360s. :) And I believe a number of us here have the PS3 and a HD DVD player as well. For multi-format titles, I often prefer the HD DVD version, either for the Combo edition, or the True HD or DD+ soundtracks, where the BR version often only gets DD.
htfreak Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 What's 2 million as compared to the few hundred million players that HD-DVD will sell when it's players start selling for less than $300 once those China mfg gets into the game. Don't forget that those China disc pressing plants don't need to retool much to press HD-DVD discs and their HD standard is also based on HD-DVD. By relying on the PS3 alone is not enough and the BD gang needs to address the issue of atricious pricing of their stand alone players.
wind30 Posted May 7, 2007 Posted May 7, 2007 That's NOT entirely true. I have a PS3, an XA2, and 2 HD DVD drives for my XBox 360s. :) And I believe a number of us here have the PS3 and a HD DVD player as well. For multi-format titles, I often prefer the HD DVD version, either for the Combo edition, or the True HD or DD+ soundtracks, where the BR version often only gets DD. ya lar. I am talking about your average consumer like me :) Most consumers will not get both HD and bluray. Almost all the releases can be found on bluray so once you get a PS3, there is not really that much incentive to get HDDVD. I don't really care for what sort of sound track I can get as I believe that the bluray sound track is definately good enough for my setup. Actually, if microsoft actually did a proper job on the 360 and made it more reliable, I may get the hddvd addon as I HAD a 360 and the addon is so cheap. But the reliability issues on the 360 caused me to sell my 360 and jump to Wii and probably PS3 next month. Still the 360 with the addon doesn't really fit into my HT with the seperate HDDVD drive and huge power brick. The PS3 solution is slicker looking for the living room
Doggie Howser Posted May 8, 2007 Posted May 8, 2007 Don't get me wrong. When the Sony studios include PCM 5.1 uncompressed, it's awesome. The problem is that a lot of my discs use DTS HD MA and so far, no player can decode that! Nbzz I was just watching Speed the other day on BR and it is still an awesome show. But in the meantime, I get to still watch my HD exclusives so I am not complaining. Can't wait for Matrix Trilogy... and hopefully, LotR soon.
armoury Posted May 8, 2007 Posted May 8, 2007 I just hope universal wakes up as I want to watch "Heroes" on bluray. I think it is easier to convince universal to support both formats than to get Sony to support both.... Sony support another format? NEVER! Just consider, to this day I don't think Sony has ever released a DVD player that supports DVD-A, since Sony was pushing SACD. The only thing that sours me on BD is Sony's unilateral pushing of its own proprietary standard. IIRC Sony wasn't keen on SD DVD either, and was practically dragged kicking and screaming into it by everyone else. Sony is notorious for creating proprietary standards -- just look at the Betamax debacle. And nowadays with its own memory sticks, when everyone else uses standard cards for its cameras. BUT... whatcha gonna do? If, as seems likely, BD wins the hi def war, the sooner Universal goes at least combo, the better. Otherwise, as noted, I can't get Heroes, or for that matter Battlestar Galactica, on hi def... :(
Guest tonytakitani Posted May 8, 2007 Posted May 8, 2007 The only thing that sours me on BD is Sony's unilateral pushing of its own proprietary standard. Huh? " Who developed Blu-ray? The Blu-ray Disc format was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers, with more than 180 member companies from all over the world. The Board of Directors currently consists of: Apple Computer, Inc. Dell Inc. Hewlett Packard Company Hitachi, Ltd. LG Electronics Inc. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Pioneer Corporation Royal Philips Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Sharp Corporation Sony Corporation Sun Microsystems, Inc. TDK Corporation Thomson Multimedia Twentieth Century Fox Walt Disney Pictures Warner Bros. Entertainment " http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_developers
armoury Posted May 8, 2007 Posted May 8, 2007 That's the PR spiel. Have a look at this article from 2005, which notes that Sony is basically trying to muscle out the competition to rake in the royalties (to be fair, that's what Toshiba is currently doing from DVDs, and Sony wants to pinch that pie).
blackburn Posted May 14, 2007 Author Posted May 14, 2007 where did you read about the Universal rumors? Rumors circulating that Universal has switched allegiances to support Blu-ray are totally false. We are committed to a line-up of incredible HD DVD titles worldwide this year and continue to be a vocal participant in the promotion of HD DVD. The reality is that HD DVD continues to offer better value for consumers with the lowest prices for hardware, the highest quality content and superior interactive experiences." http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#unistat
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