The (in)significance of Blu-Ray & HD DVD technology February 1, 2007
Posted by Daniel Stephens in : Artfully Deranged, The Film Industry , trackbackPerhaps we’re forgetting why DVD eventually took off? Yes, it offered better picture and sound quality than VHS videos but only technophiles, cinema projectionists and die-hard movie buffs really cared about that in the first place. The average consumer bought their DVDs because of convenience. DVDs were small, they didn’t need rewinding back, and by 2005 the players and the DVDs themselves were cheap. Blu-Ray and HD DVD producers now have to convince the public they need even better video and audio quality even though these were minor factors in the average consumer’s conversion from VHS to DVD. So in effect, the Blu-Ray and HD DVD makers have to convince us to spend more money on the same things we already have the ability to skip to any part of a disc, additional features like making-of documentaries and blooper reels, easy storage and ease-of-use. It has to be asked does the average consumer who wants to watch a good movie on a Friday night really care that Blu-Ray discs have five times as much storage space than the average DVD? Does the average consumer care that high-definition DVDs improve upon normal DVD flaws such as edge-enhancement and artefacts? There’s a simple answer to all this no. (Extract, read full article)
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As time goes on and HD becomes more ingrained in consumer society it’s interesting watching the power struggle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. At the moment, even though I know a lot of people with HD TV’s, not one has a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. In terms of actual sales, HD-DVD is outselling Blu-Ray by far, but they’re still niche and will remain at least for 2008 and probably well into 2009.
For me, HD-DVD now looks like the front runner. As soon as the players hit the £100 mark I’d be interested in purchasing one.
Your optimism isn’t shared by the media though Daniel, with Warner Brothers’ recent move to Blu-Ray being hailed as the beginning of the end for HD-DVD. They’ve got a point too, as it’s really the studios who control which format wins this war.
I’m not saying that HD-DVD will go away completely (it may find a use in the consumer recording / video camera market), but for professionally-released feature films it’s no stretch to say that Blu-Ray is sitting in a much better position at the start of 2008.
HD-DVD is dead!
http://www.dvdfile.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6550
It was only a couple of months ago I was touting HD-DVD as the front runner. How wrong was I!
My pseudo-enthusiasm was based on facts – HD-DVD outselling Blu-Ray, HD-DVD players well under the £200 mark, and some favourable press. But, as we all know, it’s the big conglomerates who tell us what to buy and when to buy it, and they’ve decided through pure brute force, that Blu-Ray will be the HD’s home video format.
From DVDfile.com:
At a news conference held in Japan on Tuesday afternoon, Toshiba Corporation president and CEO Atsutoshi Nishida announced, “We have reviewed the overall strategy for the HD DVD and concluded that it is best that we not further develop, manufacture, and market HD DVD players and recorders. This was a very difficult decision to make…but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence. We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called ‘next-generation format war’ and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop. While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality.”
Paramount and Universal are now free to produce content for Blu-Ray discs.
I’m sure Toshiba will end up supporting Blu-Ray fully, but I don’t feel this will speed up home cinema’s transition to high-def video since we now only have the most expensive version on the market.