Howard Stringer, the chief executive officer of Sony Corp., said at a news-conference that the war between two high-definition formats – Blu-ray and HD DVD – is a stalemate and that it was just a matter of prestige for Sony or Toshiba to see their backed format win. The claim seems really logical as the war between the formats slowdowns adoption of high-definition video in general.
“It’s a difficult fight. […] We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides. [But winning] doesn’t mean as much as all that,” said Howard Stringer at the 92nd Street Y cultural center in Manhattan, reports Associated Press news-agency.
Currently Toshiba sells its HD-A2 players for about $200 in the U.S., whereas Blu-ray disc players are available at the price that exceeds $400. Nevertheless, since Sony PlayStation 3 game console (which was sold in more than 4 million units quantity) features built-in Blu-ray disk drive, Sony can claim higher installed base of BD players compared to Toshiba-backed HD DVD format. Nevertheless, given that gamers acquire PlayStation 3 to play games, but not watch high-definition movies, Toshiba has all chances to win the format war in the longer term due to the fact that customers buy its standalone HD DVD players specifically to watch movies.
The format war has been slowing down sales of both Blu-ray disc as well as HD DVD players and obviously both Sony and Toshiba have suffered from the war. Nevertheless, neither Sony, nor Toshiba, have announced plans to release a player capable of both BD and HD DVD playback.
Toshiba lead the development of the original DVD format as well as HD DVD in the nineties, whereas Sony developed such failed standards as ATRAC, Betamax, Super Audio CD and UMD. Nevertheless, given that Blu-ray disc is also supported by companies like Matsushita, Pioneer and others, it may not share the destiny with Betamax, which lost the video cassette war against VHS.
Blu-ray and HD DVD formats compete for replacing the DVD standard. HD DVD discs can store up to 15GB on a single layer and up to 30GB on two layers. Its competitor, Blu-ray, can store up to 27GB per single layer and up to 50GB on two layers, but Blu-ray discs are more expensive to produce. The HD DVD is pushed aggressively by Toshiba and NEC as well as being standardized at the DVD Forum, which represents over 230 consumer electronics, information technology, and content companies worldwide. Blu-ray is backed by Sony and Panasonic, which are among the world’s largest makers of electronics. Among Hollywood studios HD is supported by Warner Bros. Studios, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, whereas Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox endorse Blu-ray.
Comments currently: 6
Discussion started: 11/12/07 02:08:13 PM
Latest comment: 11/16/07 12:35:49 PM
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1.
HD-DVD has more standalone players only if you don't count the PS3, which they only count when they want to rave about HD-DVD's high attach rate. But if you look at actual sales of hi-def movies, almost all the top selling ones are Blu Ray, and I believe the latest numbers shows 71:29 after both Transformers and Spiderman 3 (not counting the ones bundled with the 40GB PS3) are released. In fact, Spiderman 3 was reported to have sold more than Transformers.
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/11/09/nielsen-videoscan-high def-market-share-for-week-ending-november/
[Posted by: RW | Date: 11/12/07 02:08:13 PM]
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I agree with u. Just compare the available standalone players is meaningless. Toshiba are selling their HD player @ $200 while Sony and Pioneer are selling BR player @ $1000+. It implies that for those who pick Toshiba, they are low end customer with lower buying power. They won't spend much on buying HD-DVD software. I am wondering if they will spend more $ on software item than the hardware player!
Meanwhile, those willing to pay >$1k for BluRay are the true consumer who made key contribution to the format war. Their contribution will be the key to the result of the war. In practice, these people may spend more than $700 to gap software video contents to unleash the full capability of their expensive high end player.
That means on average, each standalone BR player can generate at least 3 times more software market share than HD-DVD. That absolutely explained why HD-DVD software acquisition is much slower than BluRay even though there's much more HD-DVD standalone player in the market!
With HD-DVD, Toshiba can never gain the heart of those high buying power customers. It is because HD-DVD is built for low end and low quality from sketch, with heavy emphasis on cost control! Everybody knows lower capacity means lower bitrate, and resulting low end quality!
Toshiba had also forgotten that a whole AV setup for HD, including 1080p TV, HDMI enabled Dolby/DTS-HD format amplifier, as well as the speaker setup which can let u hear the "HD" difference still cost over $50k. No one will care spending $1k on a HD player if they have already invested $50k on their system. They'll just worry if a $200 HD-DVD player is too cheapie to become a bottleneck that implicating their $50k+ system!
[Posted by: HD-DVD is built for failure! | Date: 11/13/07 03:39:41 AM]
2.
Blu-Ray enjoyed a minor surge from the PS3 but thats over with. The ps3 hasn't sold enough games tor really satisfy vendors and it's moivse sales aren't going to woo studios long term. For movies a dedicated set top box is the way to go. Toshiba is getting the HD DVD players into ordinary folks hands and thats the bottom line
Blu-Ray was betting on PS3 hype to win a format and the strategy may cost them their position in the videogame market. The longer this war goes on the less likely Bluray is going to win. Bluray needed a quick knock out and it's not going to get one.
[Posted by: Spirit of Tech | Date: 11/12/07 06:00:21 PM]
3.
>>>>Toshiba lead the development of the original DVD format as well as HD DVD in the nineties, whereas Sony developed such failed standards as ATRAC, Betamax, Super Audio CD and UMD. Nevertheless, given that Blu-ray disc is also supported by companies like Matsushita, Pioneer and others, it may not share the destiny with Betamax, which lost the video cassette war against VHS.
Who says SACD is failed? SACD is a true winner in the high end audio HiFi market against DVD-Audio, which originally introduce by Toshiba to compete with SACD. True high end HiFi manufacturers all support SACD format rather than crappie DVD-Audio. Today, everyone can easily pick up a SACD/DVD multi player in the market but not DVD-Audio. Please check out in HMV how many SACDs vs DVD-Audio.
Toshiba was not the orginal developer of DVD. Sony and Philips leads the MMCD format which was originally planned for successing Sony and Philips's award winning CD format. However, Toshiba, Pioneer, Hitachi and Panasonic team up with another development. It was Hollywood who don't want to see a format war. As a result, 2 camps group together and jointly developed the DVD format!
With Panasonic, Hitachi and Pioneer now switched into the BluRay camp, I can't see there's any chance for HD-DVD to win. In fact, the only place have real format war is USA. In Asia Pacific, Oceania and Europe, u nearly can't find a HD-DVD player or disc on shelf.
[Posted by: XBit Labs tell lies again! | Date: 11/13/07 02:59:02 AM]
4.
they are both wank...
[Posted by: .......... | Date: 11/13/07 07:45:12 PM]
5.
(note: PS3 sales = 6 million, not 4)
BLU-RAY
Blu-ray Disc has gained a large amount of support in the corporate world,[76] with companies such as Apple, Dell, and Panasonic backing it. Blu-ray Disc was started by Hitachi, LG, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson
Among the movie studios, Blu-ray Disc is currently exclusively supported in the United States by Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM (20% of MGM's stake is owned by Sony) as well as Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate.
It is non-exclusively supported by Warner Bros., and New Line Cinema.
Blockbuster, the largest U.S. movie rental company, offers Blu-ray exclusively in 1450 stores. Previously, the company test-marketed both competing formats at 250 stores and found that more than 70% of high definition rentals were Blu-ray discs.
On July 25, 2007, Target Corporation announced they will carry Sony Blu-ray Disc stand alone players in their stores and promote them with end cap displays including exclusive Blu-ray Disc movies from Sony and Walt Disney. Sony has publicly stated that the promotion will last at least through this holiday season.
On August 20, 2007, Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks announced they would no longer be supporting the Blu-ray Disc format.
Movies directed by Steven Spielberg are not included in this announcement, as Spielberg controls his films.
two Viacom executives who spoke to the New York Times disclosed that the terms of the agreement were for $150 million(paid by HD-DVD camp) in incentives in exchange for an exclusivity period of at least 18 months, or through the next two holiday seasons.[
On September 24th 2007 the Home Theater Specialists of America, a national buying consortium of 62 dealers and 800 installers with combined annual revenue of more than a half-billion dollars, officially endorsed Blu-ray Disc as its next-generation format of choice.
HD-DVD
the main promoters of HD DVD, namely Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Microsoft, RCA, Kenwood, Intel, Venturer Electronics and Memory-Tech Corporation.
In terms of major studios in North America, HD DVD is currently exclusively backed by Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, The Weinstein Company, and First Look Studios.
The format is non-exclusively backed by Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema
On October 29, 2007, Toshiba announced that Kmart would exclusively carry HD DVD standalone players in their stores, however Kmart later denied that it was exclusively selling either format.
[Posted by: more accurate facts.... | Date: 11/16/07 12:35:49 PM]
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