LordTheNightKnight said: dallas said: 2 points: 1. The versatility of this new, smaller player is irrelevant b/c the HD-DVD is losing and will probably lose the dvd war. 2. This isn't a win-lose kind of game for sony. The PS3 does many other things besides play blu-ray games/movies, and therefore the added features will make the ultimate price higher than these cheap players that will be coming out. If/when they come out, Sony will really start to get its blu-ray movie business going, because the blu-ray would be at a more desirable price.   While you are correct that this would make the PS3 less directly desireable, sony will still be getting some easy $$$$ from blu-ray royalties, and can always shovel this money back into wherever it wants. That's only because you are falling for the number spin. You see a total ratio of 2:1 and assume that's enough. Sorry, but businesses can't look at just one number. For one thing, the ratio ignores actual numbers, which are a puny few hundred thousand a month for both sides. And average and median sales are also a factor, since those tell us how an individual film sells. And since both sides have basically admitted that those numbers are about the same, it means that the greater studio support for blu-ray has not actually increased invididual film sales. In a nutshell, the rest of the numbers show HD-DVD isn't losing, and neither side is doing that well right now.

First of all, HD DVD technically isn't losing but I also think that it is important to look at WHY this is happening.

Toshiba's cheapest HD-DVD player has been discounted down to $400 with a $100 rebate making the effective price come down to $300, versus the blu-ray player's best price of $800, which implies that toshiba is bleeding red ink over every HD DVD player bought.    Secondly, Sony just added manufacturing capacity this year for blu-ray DVD's to be made, more than doubling the current capacity so Sony apparantly sees the format as growing just fine.

Secondly, the most realistic way to look at the high def DVD market is in terms of value/price.  A high ratio will mean that consumers would be more interested in the product, and this ratio is getting higher all the time due to the actual price of blu-ray movies dropping due to more and more of them being made and bought all the time.

The price for a blu ray DVD is about $10 more expensive than a regular DVD and this will probably drop to $5-$6 in a few years.  Do you really think that the demand will not be there for the blu-ray when the price comes down for the PS3, and the blu-ray dvd itself?

You do reallize that the price for the PS3 will probably be $300 or $400 in just a matter of a few years and that blu-ray players will probably be much cheaper as well.   So, just face it; the day of the high-def DVD is upon us and the luddites are just.....ignoring reality.

Spinning media is so out... I don't want HD-DVD nor Blue-Ray.

as in digital downloads will replace DVD's entirely? i don't know about that....most people if they download a movie would end up just watching it on their computer....which is no fun. Sure, the market for dig downloading will grow just fine but I can't see it being comparable at all to the success of the DVD.

From my (very limited) understanding what this means is that Sharp has been able to produce a Blue Lazer diode that plays both HD formats (as well as CDs and DVDs) for roughly the same price as a Blu-Ray specific diode currently costs. Being that the necessary decoding hardware for both formats are identical, and the physical characteristics of the discs are remarkably similar, you should be able to make a dual format player by producing a Blu-Ray player with this diode and updating the drive's firmware. This (potentially) means that you will be able to buy a dual format player for slightly more than a Blu-Ray player because the only difference will be licencing costs.

Effectively, this has the potential to eliminate the format war for consumers ...

zaphodile said: Spinning media is so out... I don't want HD-DVD nor Blue-Ray.

yeah, I can definitely see you d/ling 50 gigs of HD at 10mbps (a T1 conn, these are cheap right?) would only take you 1 hr and 23 min.... now at your much more realistic speed of 1mbps it would be a mere 13 and some odd hrs LOL ;)

wow... that is cheap. Sony is screwed if this is true.

vizunary said: zaphodile said: Spinning media is so out... I don't want HD-DVD nor Blue-Ray.   yeah, I can definitely see you d/ling 50 gigs of HD at 10mbps (a T1 conn, these are cheap right?) would only take you 1 hr and 23 min.... now at your much more realistic speed of 1mbps it would be a mere 13 and some odd hrs LOL ;)

 Almost all HD torrents are 20-30gb, and its very easy to dl overnight/work.

vizunary said: Alexie Di Onie said: Sharp to Introduce Smallest DVD Player Sharp has displayed an optical-drive player, which it says is the smallest in the world, that will play CDs, conventional DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray high-definition discs. The player also uses very little power (10mW), making it ideal for playing discs on laptop computers. Moreover, Sharp said that it expects that the retail price for the device will be less than $100 when it becomes available in mid-June. This new DVD player would give people another reason not to buy a PS3, for 500$ less they could buy a DVD player that plays not just Blu-Rays, but HD-DVD's as well, could this be a huge problem for PS3's in Japan, and in America as well?  Source - http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-05-29  I just debunked this once, here again. It is just the blue diode, not the player, stop trying to flame people   It's actually just the blue diode that's the smallest and is only 99$, not the whole player. Everyone just search for "sharp smallest dvd" and you will see the correct info... I am not calling you a liar or anything, some of these sites did have the story wrong, but it's not even feasible for a player to be 100 bucks in this amount of time.  From engadget.com   http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/28/sharp-readies-worlds-smallest-blue-laser-for-bd-and-hd-dvd/ Sharp -- the company behind the world's largest LCD panel -- just introduced the world's smallest blue laser for next current generation optical players. Right, as in Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats -- your choice OEMs. Measuring just 3.3-mm in diameter, the GH04020A4G semiconductor will be available in ¥12,000 ($99) sample quantities starting June 13th before ramping up for mass production later in July. The device will suck 10mW from your laptop's battery while offering at least 10,000 hours of operation before giving up the ghost.  and cdinfo   http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=20549 Sharp developed an ultra-small laser diode for Blu-Ray and HD DVD drives for notebooks. Code-named H04020A4G, the new diode has a diameter of just 3.3mm, allowing for easy implementation of it in Blu-Ray and HD DVD drives (readers) for notebooks. The diode's low power consumption was directly related to its low operating temperature, allowing Sharp to pack the diode into a small package, with high heat dissipation characteristics. The Japanese company said that the new diode offers high reliability, allowing it to continuously operate at 10mW for more than 10,000 hours. Sharp will start shipping samples of the new laser in June, priced at 12,000 Yen[$99 US]. Mass production is expected to start one month later, at a target production output of 500,000 units/month.

Thanks for debunking it, also thanks for the pic, very cool, the diode is pretty small

I always had a sneaking feeling this Blu-Ray/HD-DVD blahseeblah was much ado about nothing. I always saw some left field device that would render them irrelevant coming out of the blue somewhere, sometime.

Check the history of format wars and get an idea about how one race doesn't always mean the audience is there in the stadiums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Format_wars

And don't forget the film industry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_formats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_color_film_systems

John Lucas

I dont think I will bother paying attention to the BR vs HDVD until they both manage to cut into the massively OMG sales of standard dvds.....

 

Seriously, thats their REAL opponent. Not each other... IMO anyway.