The format war. It’s over. Done. Break out the blue victory hats and Curaçao, right? Wrong. There won’t be a Blu-ray victory party. Don’t take my word for it? How about Sony Electronics CEO Stan Glasgow’s? “From our perspective, the battle really begins now.” Now that HD DVD is dispatched, the members of Team Blu-ray can start fighting standard-def DVDs, digital downloads, consumer apathy, the Chinese and—of course—each other. Here’s the current state of Blu-ray, post-war edition:
Phil
March 14, 2008 at 2:57 PM
Warner has already denied that Sony paid them anything to go Blu, citing the value of their home media market as too critical to be enticed by either side. This article is referencing reported heresay. As compared to DVD, Blu-Ray is out-shipping and hardware is cheeper than it was at the same point in DVD’s adoption cycle. Limited number of replication sites and lower yield…as compared to HD-DVD? Wrong…Blu-Ray discs out-shipped HD-DVD discs more than 10:1 thanks to PS3 games being published in the format… and there’s plenty of spare capacity, including a brand-new US production facility that’s less that 25% utilized today. So what’s the point of your whole article? Oh, and by the way, more than 90% of all existing Blu-Ray players are spec 2.0 upgradeable…. thanks for a future firmware announced by Sony… so what was that point about waiting? Badly researched article, stringing together disparate “facts” reaching to produce a (somewhat muddly) argument. Why bother? At least you didn’t go down the ridiculous downloads-will-clobber-Blu-Ray route that so many ill-informed journalists are treading.
Report Permalinkrambo
March 16, 2008 at 1:22 PM
thanks for preaching the blu-ray gospel, phil!
so how does one add internet connectivity and persistent storage, so crucial to BD-Live, to older players? somehow i don’t think a firmware update will cut it.
oh and if you seriously believe that blu-ray will quickly sweep to victory over DVD, you underestimate how prolific and cheap DVD has become. for the average consumer, blu-ray won’t be an affordable option for several years.
keep believing!
Report Permalinkphool
May 1, 2008 at 7:08 PM
Heh, spot the blu-boi. (hint: 1st post)
“…a brand-new US production facility that’s less that 25% utilized today…”
If I built that facility, I’d be pretty pissed at that low utilization.
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