[X4U] Blu-ray vs HD (ii)

[Stroller]

[continued]

On 16 Aug 2007, at 05:28, Randy B. Singer wrote:
> Currently Blu-Ray has an arguable lead in the war in that Sony is  
> behind this standard and millions of customers already have Blu-Ray  
> players in their homes in the form of a Play Station 3  console.

I'm not convinced of this particular influence, although I'm  
obviously not able to comment from personal experience on a US  
perspective. And obviously the US is the biggest and most influential  
market. The PS3 is lagging behind the Wii in sales and here I even  
know of people using them with standard-def tellies - in gaming it's  
often said "it's the games, stupid" which sell the platform. Plenty  
of people who have bought into the whole hi-def telly thing only have  
720p sets, and I'm unconvinced of the advantage of hi-def content on  
those, compared to a 576p DVD viewed through a good upscaler. Finally  
the majority of PS3s are bought for the kids and middle-aged parents  
have no interest in them - for these folks DVDs already offer all the  
convenience they need and hi-def formats offer little additional  
advantage over VHS.

> Sony also is one of the major content providers in the movie  
> industry, owning Colombia Pictures, which gives them an advantage  
> in pushing their standard.  In addition, Blockbuster recently  
> announced that they will only be carrying Blu-Ray DVD's, not HD.
> ....
> So, for now, it is too early to bet heavily on one over the other.

Indeed. There were rumours a while back about Walmart offering a $299  
HD-DVD player, placing an order for 2million units. Although this  
rumour was subsequently scotched - and reduced to a statement that  
Wal-Mart merely inquired about a Chinese manufacturer's ability to  
"provide a schedule" along with "cost and quantity" details - it  
would significantly change the landscape of the format war.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/26/fuh-yuan-retracts-299-wal-mart-hd- 
dvd-statement/

IIRC I've read that - perhaps due to the licensing restrictions &  
costs of the two formats? - HD-DVD is a more interesting & practical  
proposition for Chinese mass-manufacturers, so if they were to get  
production capacity ramped up quickly enough it would stuff Sony &  
their Blu-Ray plans. The studios will sell movies on whichever format  
consumers are able to view, and if HD-DVD players were to outsell Blu- 
Ray by a factor of three or four then even Sony's film-making arm  
will have to come into line.

Stroller.