Blu-ray Winning Format War

Mike Howes 24 Feb, 2006 at 1:16pm ET Article published in Tech

Analyst firm Forrester has predicted that Sony’s Blu-ray format for next-generation DVD drives will win over Toshiba’s rival HD DVD format.

An analyst at Forrester said that Blu-ray has several advantages over HD DVD that will help it win the day. It is designed for games and computers and it’s inclusion in millions of Sony’s next-generation video game consoles will play a big factor. Also when former HD DVD loyalist Paramount endorsed Blu-ray, it shifted the movie studio momentum.
Although Blu-ray manufacturing will cost a little more initially, it offers more capacity and employs a proven technology, Java, for interactive features.

Technologies such as Intel’s forthcoming Viiv and Microsoft’s Media Center help put PCs at the center of consumers’ electronic entertainment gear, so it’s no surprise the companies want the managed copy feature required by HD DVD. But studios are likely to prefer Blu-ray because it “allows…a higher level of copy protection,” Schadler said.

Source: CNet News

Comments

24 Feb 2006 ~ 1:26pm Garg Que Thrax in 3... 2... 1...
24 Feb 2006 ~ 4:13pm Thrax I'm posting because Gargoyle implied I would.

Just wanted to say that it's really a shame.
24 Feb 2006 ~ 4:27pm tmh88 I heard that sony is having problems with the blu-ray drives in ps3
24 Feb 2006 ~ 5:26pm how come you dont like blu-ray. im not really oppsed or for any one of them. What is all this copy protection crap. is blu-ray gonna be like a maximum security prison or something? I dont see why the two platforms cant co-exist.
24 Feb 2006 ~ 5:31pm Winga

tmh88 wrote:

I heard that sony is having problems with the blu-ray drives in ps3

It seems they having problems deciding on the final specifications on some of the technology being used in the PS3, especially relating to the the Blu-ray DVD drive and the input and output video.
Also the cost has been very prohibitive. Some estimates have been as high as $350 just for the Blu-ray drive.

The industry may be leaning towards the Blu-ray disk, but if the hardware is going to cost a fortune I don't think there will be a big take up of this technology until they get the manufacturing costs down.
24 Feb 2006 ~ 5:39pm tmh88

wrote:

how come you dont like blu-ray. im not really oppsed or for any one of them. What is all this copy protection crap. is blu-ray gonna be like a maximum security prison or something? I dont see why the two platforms cant co-exist.

I dont have anything against blue-ray....and who is this, your name didnt show up.

anyway i was just saying that sony is having trouble with them, i cant wait to see it when its finally released.
24 Feb 2006 ~ 6:12pm this is airborn. I usually post from the front page, gonna have to start going into the forum, since it doesnt work to post from the front page anymore, not to mention my browser just freaked out in the ati driver/linux thread.
24 Feb 2006 ~ 7:56pm Enverex Yay, more retarded "security measures" and "copy protection" to break everything. When will they learn that it doesn't work and will just be cracked anyway, the only people that lose out are the people that own the damn things.
25 Feb 2006 ~ 5:41am bummer So called 'new technologies' are there not to benefit consumers. They are there to restrict consumers. Just like Blu ray.
25 Feb 2006 ~ 6:04pm blu-ray will win b/c it has sony's backing? yeah right...just like betamax, and memory stick consolidated the their respective markets.

with microsoft backing HD-DVD, i don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.
26 Feb 2006 ~ 11:47am airbornflght ^^ Those werent me, just to clear things up (i wish it would list usernames) but blu-ray has severaly things in its favor such as increased capacity, but i am not a favor of any kind of DRM or copy protection.

But lets just remember that for every roadblock there is a walkaround. I think sony knows this and just wants to keep the average joe from copying movies. Which I am against becaues I am a firm believer in fair use rights, if i own a movie, i want to copy it as much as i damn well please.
26 Feb 2006 ~ 12:15pm Qeldroma

airbornflght wrote:

But lets just remember that for every roadblock there is a walkaround. I think sony knows this and just wants to keep the average joe from copying movies. Which I am against becaues I am a firm believer in fair use rights, if i own a movie, i want to copy it as much as i damn well please.

But that's the problem, abf. Think about it. You burn DVDs for all your buds and they burn them for all theirs and watch them on friends 60" plasmas. Sure you can say you don't do that- but who is to stop who will?

Then who buys or goes see the movies? How do the actors and studios get paid? Where does the money come from for the next one? That is how it is supposed to work where royalties are made from those who will pay to see it.

It's not like TV where the advertisers pay for the most of it (and cable pockets the rest). Unfortunately, it's not perfect either. But it's the way it is done.

BTW- I've seen the new proposed resolutions this is supposed to address- WOW!.
26 Feb 2006 ~ 4:06pm Enverex People will still go to the cinema anyway, people will still go out and buy DVDs, etc. There wasn't exactly any copy protection on VHS was there, but companies didn't go out of business because of that did they?
26 Feb 2006 ~ 4:24pm Omega65 The Movies studios fought hard to prevent VHS and it ended up saving their behinds. Content provider simply want to make an obscene amount of profits and charge you a fee for each and every music/video format you own and use.

IMO very little money actually makes it to the musicians/artists. The people who actually are creative.
26 Feb 2006 ~ 6:28pm airbornflght yeh, musicians, make plenty of money, millions a year, but they are only getting a very small percentage of what their albums are making.

and actors get paid plenty, they get paid around what is it now, $10 million to make a movie, that is more than many of you will see in a lifetime. so i wont feel bad if they get a paycut.
26 Feb 2006 ~ 6:45pm Omega65

airbornflght wrote:

yeh, musicians, make plenty of money, millions a year, but they are only getting a very small percentage of what their albums are making.

and actors get paid plenty, they get paid around what is it now, $10 million to make a movie, that is more than many of you will see in a lifetime. so i wont feel bad if they get a paycut.

Only the very Top Actors (male & female) make 10 Mil a picture.
26 Feb 2006 ~ 7:29pm airbornflght akay, not even $10 mil, lets say 350,000.

if they make 2 or 3 movies a year. come on now. they arent exactly starving in there 10 bedroom house with 3 or 4 cars.

and i think that musicians should do live performances (concerts) to make money instead of relying on the royalty checks from cd's *ahem* beatles
28 Feb 2006 ~ 9:18am Qeldroma Only two things you need to do to answer this:

1. Compare VHS tech to today's DVD tech.

2. Put together a business plan to do a movie- say Star Wars. Add up the costs and the answer how you would plan to pay for it.

Granted, where there is big money there are big problems, but if you do this thoroughly and honestly, I think you'll begin to see the truth.
28 Feb 2006 ~ 2:18pm RWB Even big name actors may only make $10,000 for a movie, they'll do like 4 hours of in studio crap depending on their role. But then you have like Shrek 2 which made that one chick 10,000,000 in 4 hours of voice over work.

Actors really don't make all that much money unless they plan on it being a blockbuster and want BIG names. Most independent films won't pay much at all, even the well known ones.
28 Feb 2006 ~ 2:39pm Jengo How the hell can Blu-Ray be winning the format war? Its not even out yet.

this is a false lie!!
28 Feb 2006 ~ 4:43pm airbornflght as long as i can keep ripping music and movies im happy, other that that i dont care which format wins.

although, ive heard that even output devices are gonna have drm in the future, i think it is hdmi...I guess the manufactures dont realize this, but if they just said no to all this protection stuff, it wouldnt possibly make it, im not saying one manufacturer, all of them. thats the only way itd work.