DVD format war looms

[Ne007]

Chances looked slim that consumers will be spared a DVD format war, as the backers of one standard said on Friday there was no common ground for a unified format and it was on track for a market launch within a year. "If we want a unified standard, it has to be better than the sum of the parts. We would like to find something that's better in the other standard than ours, but we haven't found it," said Frank Simonis, a spokesman for backers of the Blu-ray standard. Speaking on the sidelines of the IFA consumer electronics trade fair, Simonis said the Blu-ray association was ready to lay down the specifications of the higher-capacity DVD format in the spring of 2006. The rival HD DVD camp has recently had to push back its launch into the New Year. "We're no longer lagging behind," said Simonis, who is also strategic marketing director at the optical storage unit of Philips Electronics. At stake is the multibillion dollar market for DVD players, PC drivers and optical disks. Blu-ray promises higher capacity DVD disks (up to 50 Gigabytes) that can store high definition films and better interactivity and security. The HD DVD camp, on the other hand, claims it has a cheaper technology compatible with current DVD and CD players.  

Read the complete article (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/5667/DVD+format+war+looms/)

[tomars]

Perhaps a little off topic, but what will these new standards be used for? Movies?
I cant see how DVD quality could be improved upon on my 17 inch analogue tv and its just going to mean more cost for me right? Am I going to have to buy a new player and replace all my DVD's with shiny new formats?

[GiR]

In the end, HD DVD will become the standard format. Most people don't give 2 shits about capacity of a disc, as long as they don't have to go out and buy another machine to play it with. Besides. more capacity just means more content you need to fill the capacity with, and that just drives up the cost of the media itself. Blu-ray has a better future for video games.

[beardedwonder]

great! nice to know that lessons are being learned from betamax vs VHS. Oh well screw them both, i'll wait 'til one of them wins, no way i'm buying any new hardware 'til i see who wins. Hopefully though the consumers won't lose, although right now it looks like we might do.

[ducttapeBigSexy]

I hear that beardedwonder - I'll be waiting this one out

On a side note, I think they need to be honest - this isn't about who's is better, but the fact that they each want to control the market and make all the money. Not that there's anything wrong with that (in my opinion, at least), but they should at least be honest (like that's gonna happen!)

[mountain_rage]

So if i read correclty hd dvd's will play on my current player so basically that standard is already compleatly in the market so hasnt it already won??? Unless people go out and actually hord out a bunch of blue ray players I cant see blueray breaking ground.

[ivand67]

tomars, if you have a shitty 17" analog TV, no one cares about you, period.

Should the rest of us have to wait for everyone to buy newer TV sets and get up to date for technology to improve?

Hell no... Those of you complaining about things like this should stick to VCR tapes.

[Ne007]

This is what I found funny:


On top of that, consumers should expect punishment for tinkering with their Blu-ray players, as many have done with current DVD players, for instance to remove regional coding. The new, Internet-connected and secure players will report any "hack" and the device can be disabled remotely.

"A hacked player is any player that is doing something it's not supposed to do," Setos said, adding the jury was still out if regional coding would be maintained or scrapped.

[tomars]

tomars, if you have a shitty 17" analog TV, no one cares about you, period.

Should the rest of us have to wait for everyone to buy newer TV sets and get up to date for technology to improve?

Hell no... Those of you complaining about things like this should stick to VCR tapes.
Umm, how about I'm 17 and have better things to spend my money on than trying to show off how big my TV is.
Did I complain once about the new standards? No. I asked a couple of simple questions - "What will they be used for?" and "Am I going to have to buy a new player and replace my DVD collection?"
So thanks for disrupting the thread, gimp.

< Negative reputation points go here

[DigitalJunkie]

Personally, I don't care which format wins! I, won't buy anything, until DRMs are cracked first.

[notbob]

tomars, if you have a shitty 17" analog TV, no one cares about you, period.

Should the rest of us have to wait for everyone to buy newer TV sets and get up to date for technology to improve?

Hell no... Those of you complaining about things like this should stick to VCR tapes.


so who is the idiot here?

the guy who owns the product that works (17" tv) or the dunmbasses who bought hdtvs that have little or no use?

seems pretty stupid to me to toss away thousands on a tv that needs programming that is only 10% available

[DrainBamaged]

Lets not forget the other deciding issue here, gang: WHICH CAMP's FORMAT WILL THE MOVIES AND ENTERTAINMENT COME OUT ON??

The content companies will NOT release on BOTH so-called competing formats. When you see actual titles appearing *and selling* on one over the other, you will have your common-place winner. Technical differences be damned. BetaMax and VHS are proof of that twenty-five years ago. One was technically better... the other WON.

[Digital Bliss]

In the long run this will just hurt consumers again... Remember the dvd + - war that was a mess its happening all over again just great....

[Signa]

i dont like blu-ray just because its sony. i have seen WAY TOO much shit come from sony and their inflated ego lately. dont get me wrong, sony is good, but they are turning out to be as bad for the electronics industry as the RIAA is for the music industry.

[Mels_Smileys45]

The format I prefer is P2P. They can come up with whatever discs they want, I'm not buying them except for storing more content that I download.

[crestfallen]

Blu-ray has more industry support, at this point. The fact that Sony will be including the technology in their PS3 only helps to convince entertainment distributors to create content for this format--the drives will already be in a lot of people's homes. Too, Blu-ray is seen as being more secure and therefore harder to circumvent. Some extra capacity never hurt either, especially for TV shows on DVD.

The only advantages HD DVD really has are lower cost of production, backward compatability, and being first to market. While these three factors would usually sound like a pretty good deal, the fact is that Sony is still seen as a very reputable, reliable brand by alot of consumers. With the launch of the PS3, the prospect of, in theory, a very large installed base on Blu-ray players already in the market only works to their advantage. And let's face it--IP is everything today, and Blu-ray offers more protection.

[meyou123]

I think that no matter WHAT format wins, they WILL come out with a crack for it! Don't believe me? Wait and see!

[ABC123666]

On top of that, consumers should expect punishment for tinkering with their Blu-ray players, as many have done with current DVD players, for instance to remove regional coding. The new, Internet-connected and secure players will report any "hack" and the device can be disabled remotely.

"A hacked player is any player that is doing something it's not supposed to do," Setos said, adding the jury was still out if regional coding would be maintained or scrapped.

They expect people to stick in another bloody cable and have a net conection runing through it just to make sure the player isnt gona get hacked? :roll: idiots.

[Ne007]

They expect people to stick in another bloody cable and have a net conection runing through it just to make sure the player isnt gona get hacked? :roll: idiots.


That IS how stupid they are! As if the first thing that people are going to do is hook their DVD player up to the internet.

What good would a dvd player be if you're hooking it up to the internet....REALLY!?

It would almost like having a stupid version of a DVR. Even a Tivo would be better.

[tackdaddy]

i will never buy another dvd player just to play another format, that is total bullshit just to sell more dvd players. they can fuck themselves i go back to vhs if i have to. i alreadt got a vcr/dvd player,dvr/cable box,ps2 and stereo hooked up to my tv.....i would probably have to buy another tv to hook the other dvd player up......fuck it.

[crestfallen]

DVD manufacturers, the first of which is Samsung, already have plans to produce dual-format DVD players.

Since HD DVD is backwards compatible, you can simply sell your old DVD player. Really, this is an "upgrade" to your DVD player. It isn't much different from upgrading computer parts or the like. It just isn't socially equivalent.

[boogiedan]

For myself
i would personally just want the most hugest storage n cheapest way 2 succeed
more n more n more Data

Hoot Hoot!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Domethius]

I will never buy a DVD player again either, got one on my PC which is hooked up to my TV (picture is 100% perfect) and speakers that are better than BOSE for my PC as well. I can play any format on my PC and watch it on my TV, they can do whatever they want :)

[The Hunter]

This is the player Im going to pick up. I think it would probably play a piece of salami.

http://www.techtastic.ca/reviews3/dvp642.html

[Krell]

Damn hunter I might pick up one of these just for the 800 Divx titles I already have.

Decent price too



.

[The Hunter]

Rainbowdemon picked one up, and hes very happy with it.

[Afn]

DVD blu ray is the better standard, will be used for HDV dvd type CD roms. The capacity of a single sided blue-ray disc is 25 GB, and that is also the same quality as 1 hour of DV format video or HDV in HDTV compressed MPEG2.

In the end Blu-ray will win, it is just a gimmick to sell HD-DVD before blu-ray is in stores.

The HDTV standard is 1920 by 1080p, and any HDTV that does not display 1920x1080 progressive is a waste of money. I think that in 20 years the HDTV standard will be 4092 X 1920p.

[Signa]

Damn hunter I might pick up one of these just for the 800 Divx titles I already have.

Decent price too



.


OMG you have to buy that. i own one and its is fucking awsome. it is THE BEST dvd player you could ask for. i have had only two problmes with it.

1) subtitles on fan-subed animes dont always show on screen because they placed them too low
2) ONE video didnt work right because the encoder used somthing really obscure.

other than that its just as good as hooking your PC to your TV, but easier

[MrCoggy]

Unless the next DVD software format comes with its own cinema sized, flat, crystal clear mega hi-definition screen/10:1 speaker pro speaker system and an automatic leather reclining seat that shoots out free and fresh popcorn/beer/chips AND a free Hi-Def DVD player then I'll stick to the format that fits my living room and my pocket. Thanks all the same. I've got DVD, DivX, Xvid and it works for me.

Stop trying to repackage every piece of media entertainment I own every 10 years.

[transduction]

I agree with Mels Smileys45. Why buy disks when you can download what you want directly onto your computer. This stupid companies are wasting money on technology that won't work.

Now I want to make a comment about another recent article that was posted here at Zeropaid that I was not able to comment on for some reason. It was about the journalist who was jailed by Yahoo helping China. I know that it is not the topic here but as I said, I couldn't comment on it under the headline.

I just want to say that people, especially here in the US, had better wake up. Big corporations based in this country like Microsoft and Yahoo are helping China police their country and place control on the Internet there. This is totally undemocratic and unamerican. These big corps are purely driven by profit and don't care about the freedoms of people.

If you are thinking to yourself "it doesn't matter to me because I live in the US, not China" than you are dead wrong. What stops the US government from exacting the same control over the Internet in the future that China is currently doing?

The other thing I wanted to mention is that China is rapidly building a extremely powerful military ready to do battle on a global scale. The Associated Press has ran articles several times in the last few months saying that the US is watching China carefully. The point is we help build China's military when we go out and buy stuff made in China.

[Afn]

I agree with Mels Smileys45. Why buy disks when you can download what you want directly onto your computer. This stupid companies are wasting money on technology that won't work.



From an industry distribution standpoint, it is more profitable to sell and resell shiny plastic discs, and to control that market than to allow for online media on demand for free or all you can download for 9.95 a month.

the journalist who was jailed by Yahoo helping China. I know that it is not the topic here but as I said, I couldn't comment on it under the headline.

I just want to say that people, especially here in the US, had better wake up. Big corporations based in this country like Microsoft and Yahoo are helping China police their country and place control on the Internet there. This is totally undemocratic and unamerican. These big corps are purely driven by profit and don't care about the freedoms of people.


Yes, the world is run by corporations, and corporations are undemocratic.

Freedom is more or less an advertising slogan. We need to wake up and mass organize people before your children are owned and sponsored by corporations, and the rest of us, adults and children are forced by corporations into slavery.

Walmart is slavery. That would make for a good book. Walmart is the new plantation.


building a extremely powerful military ready to do battle on a global scale. The Associated Press has ran articles several times in the last few months saying that the US is watching China carefully. The point is we help build China's military when we go out and buy stuff made in China.

One report claimed china's military is about 1970's capacity. I think china is less of a threat, since it now has a real middle class, but as energy problems continue, may become agressive when the oil party is over, and still needs cheap oil to run it's polluting factories.

This winter is going to be interesting, we may have a very nasty winter, and christmas. If the us recovery is financed on credit, (it looks like it has), the real growth of the "economy" is near 0. Some think we went into a depression in 1991, except for the stock market bubble based on wild speculation, that we never really solved the problem. The Gulfwar 2003 was an attempt to prop up the economy, and secure oil, needed as reserves dwindel and dependence on cheap energy increases.

If we are out of a major global depression by 2007, it will be a mircle.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

A patent application has been filed for a disc that would play two competing high-definition DVD formats, which, if successful, could help appease a battle that has divided Hollywood and confounded consumers.

The patent application was filed by three Warner Bros. employees, two of whom are engineers for the company.

The "multilayer dual optical disk" would have one layer of data in the standard CD or DVD format, a second layer able to play one high-capacity format and a third layer for the competing high-capacity format.

Rival formats Blu-Ray, which is backed by Sony, and Toshiba-supported HD-DVD both work using a blue-indigo laser beam but are not compatible with each other.

Read entire story here (http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/2100-1035_11-6117383.html?tag=nl.e019).