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Forums - General - Standalone Blu-Ray player or PS3 (my shopping experience)

Kasz216 on 26 December 2008
akuma587 said:
Kasz216 said:
akuma587 said:

I'm not sure if he is correct about the PS3 not supporting 7.2, but then again I haven't done a lot of research on the audio end of HD movies as I can't afford a good surround sound system!

Note:

Blu-Ray wouldn't have gone anywhere if it wasn't for the PS3.  You wouldn't have been buying a Blu-Ray player if Sony hadn't included a Blu-Ray drive in the PS3.  So you are kind of arguing a chicken before the egg kind of conundrum.

I disagree.  Blu-ray always had the advantage over HD-DVD do to the Sony studios.

At worst it would of took longer. (And prices would be cheaper.)

Blu-Ray standalone sales were anemic though.  Blu-Ray disc sales beating HD-DVD week after week (every week in 2007) are what allowed Blu-Ray to maintain its foothold, and that wouldn't have been possible without the PS3.  Standalone Blu-Ray price players were pretty high, and Toshiba was willing to take a loss on its players to be competitive.

Studio support can change at the drop of a hat.  Fox was very close to switching to HD-DVD at one point, and only decided not to because Sony threw some money at them.

It would have been a very different game if the PS3 had not included Blu-Ray.  I would have put my money on HD-DVD.

Doesn't Sony own like 50% of the movie buisness?

 



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rocketpig on 26 December 2008

AFAIK, Sony only controls Columbia's movie interests. Columbia isn't nearly as large as Time Warner or Paramount and their back catalog of movies. That's also not including the monstrosity known as Disney with their movies, Miramax (among other movie interests they own), and ownership of ABC.

edit: It appears that Sony also has a pretty large stake in MGM, if they don't own them outright.




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akuma587 on 26 December 2008

Kasz216 said:
akuma587 said:
Kasz216 said:
akuma587 said:

I'm not sure if he is correct about the PS3 not supporting 7.2, but then again I haven't done a lot of research on the audio end of HD movies as I can't afford a good surround sound system!

Note:

Blu-Ray wouldn't have gone anywhere if it wasn't for the PS3.  You wouldn't have been buying a Blu-Ray player if Sony hadn't included a Blu-Ray drive in the PS3.  So you are kind of arguing a chicken before the egg kind of conundrum.

I disagree.  Blu-ray always had the advantage over HD-DVD do to the Sony studios.

At worst it would of took longer. (And prices would be cheaper.)

Blu-Ray standalone sales were anemic though.  Blu-Ray disc sales beating HD-DVD week after week (every week in 2007) are what allowed Blu-Ray to maintain its foothold, and that wouldn't have been possible without the PS3.  Standalone Blu-Ray price players were pretty high, and Toshiba was willing to take a loss on its players to be competitive.

Studio support can change at the drop of a hat.  Fox was very close to switching to HD-DVD at one point, and only decided not to because Sony threw some money at them.

It would have been a very different game if the PS3 had not included Blu-Ray.  I would have put my money on HD-DVD.

Doesn't Sony own like 50% of the movie buisness?

 

Not by a long shot.  The Sony Pictures studios (Sony Pictures, Columbia/Tristar, Sony Pictures Classics, a few others) is generally in the top 4 in terms of largest market share every year.  Sony owns a large stake in MGM, but MGM/UA is a hollow shell of what it used to be.  They do have a strong catalog though.  In no way could Sony have won the war on its own.  They have weight to throw around, but not that much.

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Major_film_studio

 

Time Warner Warner Bros. Entertainment Group, HBO Warner Bros. Pictures New Line Cinema, HBO Films, Castle Rock Entertainment, Turner Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation Warner Independent, Picturehouse 19.7%1
Viacom Paramount Motion Pictures Group Paramount Pictures MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies, DreamWorks Animation Paramount Vantage 15.5%2
The Walt Disney Company Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group Walt Disney Pictures/Touchstone Pictures (unified business with separate brands) Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios Miramax Films Hollywood Pictures 15.3%3
Sony Sony Pictures Columbia Pictures Sony Pictures Animation Sony Pictures Classics Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Destination Films, Triumph Films, Stage 6 Films 12.9%4
General Electric / Vivendi NBC Universal / Vivendi Universal Universal Studios Universal Animation Studios Focus Features Rogue Pictures (under Focus Features) 12.2%5
News Corporation Fox Filmed Entertainment 20th Century Fox 20th Century Fox Animation Fox Searchlight Fox Faith, Fox Atomic, New Regency (20% equity) 11.9%6

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

Kasz216 on 26 December 2008

Won it on it's own?

Maybe not.

Make it so nobody could win? I'd say they are big enough for that.

So what are the movie companies going to do? Let both die and say screw new movie sales?



akuma587 on 26 December 2008
Kasz216 said:
Won it on it's own?

Maybe not.

Make it so nobody could win? I'd say they are big enough for that.

So what are the movie companies going to do? Let both die and say screw new movie sales?

Sony tried that with Beta.  It didn't turn out very well...

Move studios at the end of the day care about money.  Disney and Fox liked Blu-Ray a lot because of BD+ (or at least there PR departments made it seem like they did).  It is true that BD+ is far superior in terms of effectiveness versus HD-DVD's basic DRM.

But both Disney and Fox would have eventually jumped ship if Blu-Ray was lagging behind in sales.

And a lot of people forget, but Warner Bros. and Paramount were originally HD-DVD exclusive studios.  However, they decided that Sony putting put Blu-Ray in the PS3 was a pretty strong move on Blu-Rays' part, so they went neutral.  The war would have been different from Day 1 if Sony hadn't put Blu-Ray in the PS3.  Blu-Ray would have been doomed, IMO.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson