To Dryden, nobody said porn is not going to be on Blu-ray. However, contractually, Disney forbids anyone who handles their stuff to also handle adult content. This is to prevent disastrous packaging mix-ups (e.g., porno viewers getting the wrong "Bambi"). Disc presses that press Disney discs cannot press porno discs. That's where your rumor stems from. There are some Blu-ray presses that do not handle Disney. That is where the Blu-ray porn will come from.

Well, I'm not likely to change your mind, as you're not likely to change mine, so I'll agree to disagree. I do have to ask on this one quote though, again, do you think Sony has the interest of the consumer in mind, or could it just be that Sony would really like to sell new Sony TVs?

And I didn't say it either. Read my post again, I said "Sony has already said they won't approve pressing of pornographic content onto BD," which is nearly verbatim what every single Web/News/Blog site reported back in mid-January. Just Google "Sony says no to porn" to read the details.

Also, Disney's contractual obligations with presses are independant of any agreement with Sony. Those two are not intertwined, but together between their influence of just a handful (speculation is only eight) BD presses in the world, the two can collude to lock out other markets as they see fit.

See here: http://cinematech.blogspot.com/2007/02/sci-tech-oscars-3-d-report-film.html

"For Vivid Entertainment Group, the physical production of Blu-ray discs will come to about 35% of those movies' budgets, compared with 15% for HD DVDs and 10% for a standard DVD, said Vivid Chief Executive Steve Hirsch.

Even if a porn studio wants to pay extra for Blu-ray, Sony and Walt Disney Co. make it hard.

Sony manufactures Blu-ray discs but won't do it for adult titles. And Disney requires the replicators it uses to pledge not to use the same machines and employees to publish porn. Disney has its reasons: In the past, porn snippets have accidentally shown up on Disney titles. Neither company would comment for the record about porn.

Since Disney uses most of the biggest U.S. Blu-ray replicators, L.A.-based Vivid, the only adult producer to promise some Blu-ray discs, has been forced to range far afield."

Is porn really in the mix here at all? Who still watches porn on DVD anyways? Anyone hear about the internet?

To Dryden, of course Sony's motives are not what one could call "altruistic". They are in this to make money like anybody else. I just ask you to think about it. 1080p is the video output point that is more or less the highest that still makes a visual difference to the human eye, and 50 gigs should be able to hold off space concerns for quite a while (AT LEAST 5 years). I think they advanced technology to pretty acceptable point for current AND future concerns.

I am not trying to say Sony is in this to help out anybody but themselves, but I really think HD-DVD or an even more inferior format would ultimately short-change the consumer in the long run by giving them less for their money and forcing them to move to another storage medium sooner rather than later. One blessing in disguise from the format war was the quick drop of Blu-Ray player prices (including the PS3 soon), which has remedied a lot of people's concern about the format.

While Sony and 9 other companies are involved as oppossed to just Sony themselves it doesn't change the fact that it still increases Sony's strangle hold on the media markets. And while there is actually one Porno on Blu-Ray already, Sony is still fighting it and doing everything they can to make sure no more appear. The fact Sony is fighting it is what is the problem, the fact that they are showing a willingness to attack genres and try and impose restriction on content. Don't give me, "Who watches porn on DVD anymore?" That's not the damn point! And I seriously doubt that's why Sony is fighting it. They tried fighting it on Beta-Max too, Sony's ideals of content censorship is a trend that's not going away. I don't need my media provider forcing their moral decisions on me regardless whether those decisions infringe on my immediate personal interests or not. It's the principal, not the practicality.

You all paint these pretty technophile pictures of a utopian disc format, yet fail to take into consideration whether or not Sony actually will actually utilize the format in 1. Any of the ways you claim it can, 2. Any of the ways they claim it can, 3. Any way that will benefit the market or consumer. With Sony pushing ever onward in their excessively paranoid agenda of piracy protection at the cost of the consumer, I don't want them having anything to do with a dominant disc format irregardless its potential or promise.

It's plain and simple naivity to look at the situation and ignore Sony's track record in favor of your technophile wet dream called Blu-Ray. As of now there are no problems with DVD-9 that need immediate resolution in favor of a new format. There is nothing to justify a new disc format except HD-TVs which only have a less than 10% market penetration. Blu-Ray isn't a technological Messiah, its a Trojan Vehicle in a Gaming System, its a step towards an even greater format and industry Monopoly, its a marketing scheme to increase the demand of HD-TVs which surprise surpise Sony and its 9 constituants have a great deal of resources invested in. Most damning of all is that its another weapon in the arsenal of a malicious international company that has showed us time and time again it can't be trusted and will sell out the consumer for the sake of their convenience at the drop of a hat. Yet you just cover your ears and pretend none of this happening why you try and brag about how technologically wonderful Blu-Ray is...

P.S. Don't you dare try and pull a, "but all companies look out for themselves.". That's not the same damn thing as what Sony's doing. Of course a Company looks out for its own interests, but most Companies recognize the welfare of the consumer as the greatest key to the longevity of their success. While Companies like Nintendo respond to market trends and try to enable new audiences within a market, Sony tries to make, force and enforce trends at the cost of whoever gets in their way. I can think of no other media company that has been accused of or caught so many times of participating in maliscious, illegal or unethical business practices to further their own ends. Sony stands out above and beyond the scope of any other company ever involved in multi-media or gaming in terms of its maliscious acts against the consumer and the market as a whole, to deny this is asinine at its finest, to call this bias is dellusional, to argue it is an argument against reality. 

No, of course not. The preferred method for content delivery evolved to Internet based downloads years ago. I only included it as one widely cited example of where a company or group of companies said, "No!" to a particular genre. There were apparently three of you (at least) that read that example from my post and harked on it directly, though failed to address my rhetorical question in the very next line! My point being: It's just the tip of the iceberg.

"When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out. "

So Sony, who is not the only one pushing Blu-Ray like Disney, Fox, Samsung, Panasonic, Apple, etc, is like the Gestapo now? Seriously...I think some of you are a little too extreme on your theories about Sony.

And if porn isn't the issue, why the hell did you guys bring it up? Who else has Blu-Ray pushed to the fringe besides HD-DVD. The only other people I can think of complaining are some European replication companies who don't want to buy Blu-Ray replication lines. Hell some big Australian readers skipped out on HD-DVD to begin with.

Blu-Ray is not just Sony, and GBallZack all of your theories (some of which are right) about Sony's marketing practices describe Microsoft to the "t".

What about this theory, Nintendo is selling its core audience down the river by changing the marketing strategy completely towards casuals and non-gamers.

None of the Big 3 are innocent. Singling out one is nothing less than misguided.

 People also said no to DVD, including most consumers for awhile. but then again someone also always says no to new formats.  People also said no to CD's...

My problem with disk switching on consoles is it's all going to depend on the game. An RPG with like 40 hours of gameplay isn't going to be that bad for 3-4 disks. So you can just guess that there would be like 10 hours of content on each disk. However, I think back to a game like Metal Gear Solid on the PSOne for example. Say around half way through or so there is a disk switch and the game is about 4-6 hours (probably half that if you know what you're doing).

For the heck of it, lets swap the positions of Gears of War and Blue Dragon and say that Gears of War was a 3 disk game. So around 8 hours of gameplay on 3 disks? Ehhh, I don't know how excited I am about that.

Minus the possibility of damaging one of the disks of your 3-4 disk set (my FFVII barley if at all works through anymore) and being out of an experience till you can replace it, I'd rather not have the smaller games ending up on multiple disks if future games do infact take up all that space.

Now when it comes to PC games, I hate switching disks, even if I have to do it the one time for installation. Trying to sort through 4-5 disk installation is just a chore.

1. Side stepping my listed examples with a single grossly exagerated summary, I can tell this is going to be a fruitful debate. Furthermore if it was pushing Blu-Ray itself that made Sony evil then yes, your defense would apply, but my argument is that its Sony's history that shows clear and eminante reason not to put faith in them as a company, not the sole act of pushing a new format.

2. I never said porn wasn't the issue, I said your defense in response to the claim wasn't the issue as you were attacking the need for porn in the first place, not the censorship there of. Perhaps you should read my reply more carefully before hastily counter it. The point was to show Sony trying to enforced content control and censorship, Porn was merely a means of illustrating this. Don't try and dodge the issue by putting words in my mouth. It doesn't matter whether you like porn, watch porn or think its better suited towards the internet, the fact of the matter remains we have a company actively and publically trying to enforce content censorship, and that is the problem here.

3. Who said I like Microsoft? Who said I was defending Microsoft? Is Microsoft the one pushing Blu-Ray? Is Microsoft the one forcing the consumer to buy a new disc format with their player? No. Futhermore may I ask you, has Microsoft even been caught putting root-kits in their disc media? Has Microsoft ever spray painted abandoned buildings to advertise a game console? Has Microsoft ever been caught doing viral marketing? Has Microsoft ever tried to the censor the content of an entire propriotary disc format? No. Microsoft is in themselves an awful company, no one can deny this, but in the context of this discussion they're no where near as bad as Sony and bringing them up only shows your eagerness to dodge the issue at hand, which is Sony's standing as a responsable corporation.

4. The core audience? Really? Because the only people I've seen make such allegations are the cross-platform gamers who are Sony and Microsoft fans to begin with. And tell me, how does the Wii have any less Core Audience games than the Gamecube did its first year? Mario, Zelda, Metroid? I'd say the Wii has a even stronger core audience support than the Gamecube did. If anything, it is the PlayStation and Microsoft's problematic and ever narrowing core audiences that Nintendo is selling down the river, not Nintendo's. Nintendo is responding to a snowballing problem in the gaming industry by taking a stand, not selling out to make a quick buck, though I'm sure that's a convenient belief when your PC-style Consoles such as the 360 and Ps3 are fast losing favor in this market of "core gamers".

5. None of the big are innocent, this is true. However, some are far more culpable than others. And Singling out Sony is more than appropriate given their tract record which as I've noted in your reply, you've done everything you could to avoid commenting on.

People said no to DVD and CDs for different reasons though, don't try and act like its the same thing. And if you're going to use past instances of the consumer saying no, why not include them all such as people saying no to Beta-Max, Laserdisc, Minidisc and Div-x as formats?

Face it, you're just trying to dodge the issue here, that's evident in the fact that you've avoided responding directly to most of what I've said and in your own reply failed to cite any examples or supportive logic to supplement your empty claims to contrary to the contrary of Sony being malicious and unethical corporation. Hell, you even tried to use a "Theory" against me. Your argument is comprised of nothing but failed attempts at dodging the issue and half truths selectively chosen to benefit your stance. I can only imagine how many times I'm going to have to explain the "No Porn on Blu-Ray" argument to you over and over as you fruitlessly try to attack it again and again.