Like the Gambler so eloquently said … you gotta know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and when to run.

Guess it’s time for HD DVD to skeedaddle.

awesome. good post, i was about 2 buy 1.

Well, if this is it, the battle didn’t quite reach Betamax proportions did it? In Any case when was the last time anyone watched a DVD. Please. Everyone is moving to watch stuff online.

@JohnofScribbleSheet
from the memories of my youth, no, didn’t even go close, betamax hung in there until maybe 86-87, at least in terms of my local video store. I’m just fortunate to have bought Bluray…mind you it was recent and only because it was cheap, but it will last thankfully. Online though say in 5 years will be where its for most, if not all of the market.

I am not surprised at all by this… it was inferior to Sony’s offering from the get-go… I never understood why there was this competition to begin with… Toshiba couldn’t win if you compare the two side by side.

Jon
http://buzvia.com - Share Influence

This will be relevant for some time. Yes, online viewing will continue to explode and is the long term winner. But just as magazines offer a ‘non connected’ platform to enjoy content (and plenty of mags are doing well, they’re not newspapers competing in a time sensitive environment), DVDs offer a non connected way to enjoy movies. It will take a number of years for ubiquitous internet, hardware evolution and consumer habit to combine for online viewing of movies to overtake DVD viewing. Baby Boomers alone will keep DVDs afloat for a dozen more years.

Great news seeing as I have just got myself an HD DVD player !

In the long run, they’re both dead. Neither is a big enough improvement over DVD to make people switch and when internet connected PVRs take off they are finished.

Remember the great debate over MiniDisc and DAT?

I think physical format would continue to be used for a considerable number of years. I also wonder if it has anything to do with the surge of online video. We have always had “pay per view” movies and i think the studios always release the movies much later than when they release it on dvd. i am not sure how the delivery medium matters as much unless of course more people subscribe to internet than they subscribe to cable ? .. I guess in developing countries physical format would still be used if they get everyone to first convert to a good enough TV to watch such high definition videos.

I bought a HD-DVD player (Xbox 360 add on) last year. I remember doing an A/B comparison with BluRay back then. Am I the only one that thought HD-DVD was better? Alright, so you don’t get the capacity of BR but the menu system was better and the picture quality about the same IMO.

Congrats to Blueray
Although HD-DVD was more affordable I always supported Blueray as it is definitely technically superior and is the way forward.

With dual format machines hitting the market formats aren’t an issue, what will be the issue is that cost, and at the moment that means that they’ll be switching back to HD DVD as it’s cheaper to produce.

Blu-Ray = Region Restriction + More DRM + Java!

I still watch DVDs, don’t see the point in HD or Blu right now and not because of price (having to buy a player, new tv, decent surround sound and the discs being over priced) but because the future is online.

DVDs are fine for me and I reckon will be until the d/ling video becomes truly widespread…

I personally dont think that physical media will ever become obsolete. People will still want to own collections of their favourite movies in physical format to be shown in the shelf, and conveniently picked out for reviewing. If I would use an online rental, it would require that the movies delivered in less than half an hour with a price comparable to video rentals.

Now why would I wait with a standard dsl about 6 hours minimum for a film to load when I can go to the local department store or video rental and pay 2-6 euro to get the physical media? The only reason I can think of would be if I was seriously disabled or overweight.

I can only agree with JeffC, online viewing is far from totally taking over DVD.
Especially in our country ( South Africa ) as DSL speeds are terrible due to the inability of our monopolized (well mostly) internet and telecom service provider, Telkom to provide low cost and fast DSL.

Even though our internet usage statistics are a fraction at best compared to countries like the US, the number of internet users are growing but most will for many years to come not be able to stream high quality media from here.

What does Disney use?

I am just glad the format war is over, I could care less as a consumer which format won.

ok, so how does this affect the people who want to use these higher capacity discs for storage instead of watching movies? I don’t know about you but the prospects of running a home raid server and redundant off-site storage seems a bit expensive in the long run to store home photos/movies/docs, for a number of reasons.

I agree with the noob from South Africa

Indeed it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the eventual winner. I personally don’t really care who wins this ‘Battle’ only that their is a definitive winner. I personally still feel burned over the mini disc vs. MP3 player dual a few years back. Online distribution will be increasingly important, but until online distribution legitimizes somewhat, crosses the chasm from computer to TV and is not so US-only centric, adoption will continue to be a problem. Streaming Hulu is not my idea of a service I would even want for free.

I think people are over-emphasising online video.

For every bleeding-edge techno-nerd in San Fran or New York, there are five hundred families in the mid-west who are still relying on their VCR.

I don’t own an HD player but I get the impression the uncompressed movies are >20GB.

If you’re compressing HD to be small enough to fit down a home broadband connection, isn’t it going to look worse than a DVD?

About time. It was over before it started anyways. Nice try. Now let’s watch how this is going to impact the whole industry. Next thing you know gaming will pack more punch in this format due to higher storage capacity. We can sit back and watch how gaming will evolve and from there, everything will follow. New video cards, new processors to compute the higher workload and obviously better graphics and an overall experience. This all boils down to some fun time and positive soon to be memories. When will greedy coporations understand that they’d make a higher profit if they make everyone happy instead of terrorising us with their DRM’s and limited actions.

Just get on with one standard will you !

because in a few years we will move to a different one !

but then competition is healthy even though irritating it seems now.

Every standard of video now has to have the ability to be compatibility of being easy and accesible online.

Internet (online connectivity), i object should now be considered an utility !

Utility = water, electricty, phone and now internet !

what say ?

thats where the future is

Ujw
exoticbuddha.com

Er, correct me if I’m wrong, but Blu-Ray is a Sony product and Sony has a long-standing policy against allowing it’s products to be used by the “adult entertainment” industry. As a result, the entire pr0n industry is going HD DVD.

Sounds suspiciously like the “it’s-better-vs.-it’s cheaper-and-there’s-porn!” battle between Betamax and VHS. I’m thinking HD DVD isn’t entirely over.

Personally I think that Sony hasn’t just won the HD format for movies, but also secures its game distribution on its disc format against piracy for the next two years. However in the long term not just IPTV should be the ultimate solution, game downloads on demand should be as well. But time will tell.

For the better good.

http://pa.gd

This is great, can’t wait to hear another story… keep us posted techcrunch!

nhick
http://www.itrush.com

All those millions wasted in FUD and Payperpost!

M$ shareholders should ask for some heads to roll…

Unethical bastards

hmm… Everyone is quick to jump on the “online is the future” bandwagon. I must be the only person here that CAN’T seem to get the outrageously high throughput from my internet provider that would allow me to stream full HD content? Oh, you guys don’t have it either?

Both the technology AND the infrastructure has a long way to go before we can begin the download for an HD movie and be watching it in less time than it takes to drive 50 miles both ways to a video store.

I have been waiting for this day, bluray it is! … wait … can I download that….

I thought the Deadpool was only for companies…has it just become a general garbage can now?

The lovely things they don’t tell you about blu-ray is that:

1. it takes 1 minute for your player to boot
2. it takes up to 3 minutes for a movie to start (loading)
3. no “pick up where u left off” feature

The good, it makes regular DVDs look close to HD quality.

Good for Paramount and Warner Bros. How many other studios are out there? How many other people have tried to watch Blu-Ray, not noticed any difference in quality (because us “normies” can’t) and have been dissatisfied with the user experience of any Blu-Ray player and DVD?

I’ll stick with my modest growing library of HD DVD’s, think about picking up samsung’s $500 combo player and grab a Blu-Ray disc when I absolutely have to.

What about the On demand services? I’ve been watching HD movies over Comcast On Demand service and it works great.

I think we’ll definitely find this physical disc format to survive for several years more, but I also think ultimately we’ll find more efficient means of storage whether that be through direct transferring of files through hard drives or through internet downloads or whatever else is available in the near future.

I own an HD DVD player, but only because I own an Xbox. It’s good that a format has been chosen - I just don’t like the way Sony deals with physical media. They don’t like to play with others and love forcing their proprietary media down your throat, and distributors have just married themselves to them. We’ll see if that ends up hurting.

Duncan, you say this is as if it’s fact, when it’s far from. Deadpool? Please. Yes, it’s looking like Blu-ray will win, but you can’t say game over already.

36, right, Microsoft is so much more delightful a company to deal with relative to Sony. Give me a break.

The obsession with online distribution (and DRM) that seems to rattle around the echo chamber of the Valley and tech blogs can’t hide the reality that for any sort of high definition content (most especially movies), there isn’t the infrastructure that will provide the experience the consumer demands. Not even close, and not any time soon.

You have a lot of different models for bringing interactive content to consumers, and none of it’s close to sticking. What are you going to tell your Aunt Sally when she wants to start playing high def movies and have other types of content available on demand. Tell her to get an Xbox? Use one of those icky cable VOD services? Amazon unbox? Apple TV? PS3 and PSN? Netflix? Get that Linux box that was just written up in the NYT to tape shows to her hard drive? All of these solutions are unintuitive and won’t have more than a fraction of the regular disc purchase and rental business for at least five to seven years.

@32, which is completely ridiculous and shouldn’t be accepted.

Personally I think the whole format war was stupid. I refused to buy either. However, I am/was definitely pulling for HD-DVD.
I find it hard to support a company with inferior technology… not to mention getting shafted by root kits has still left a me bitter.

WHOOOO!
I’m going out buying blu-ray players and discs now. cya

“For every bleeding-edge techno-nerd in San Fran or New York, there are five hundred families in the mid-west who are still relying on their VCR.”

No, no there aren’t. DVD players can be had for $10, $15, $20 - the midwest has moved on, and so should your stereotypes.

Paramount confirmed that they are not moving to blu-ray. Here is there official word;

Paramount/DreamWorks responded to Warner’s shift to Blu-ray exclusivity today, saying that the studios have no plans to abandon the HD DVD format.

Following Warner’s shocking defection to Blu-ray last Friday, and the subsequent cancellation by the HD DVD Promotions Group of its planned CES media event Sunday night, speculation has run rampant regarding Paramount’s next move, as well as the fate of any HD DVD title announcements they had originally planned for CES.

High-Def Digest contacted Paramount for comment, and we were told by a spokesperson that despite the events of the past few days, “we are still supporting HD DVD,” and that neither Paramount nor DreamWorks had any further statements on the matter at this time.

As for any Paramount HD DVD title announcements originally planned for CES, at press time any such plans were “up in the air.” Needless to say, we’ll keep you posted.

@38 Actually MS is pushing for DRM free on their music store and stuch. And the DRM they use on the 360 hardly counts and does not upset anyone as it works as it should (unlike the live service over xmas lol). I am rooting for HD-DVD, I have hated sony since the start of the Vaio range and its big push on propriatary crap like memory stick duo, mini disc, strange audio formats, special equivilent of firewire ports, and now blu-ray… the slow loading heavy bitch that adds even more loading time to a movie than the “do not steal films” crap that dvds tend to have at the start these days.

So in short, far from over, a few companies making a switch with some well spun PR is by no means a win for anyone. Look at the spin that was about from sony and ‘partners’ when the rootkit stuff when crazy, or even back in the days of beta max, and mini disc etc etc.

“All just a little bit of history repeating”

Heh, who would have guessed that the random url I put in the url box actually loads a site

Back fired a bit though as it says to boycott hd dvd and blu ray… ah well.. it makes a few valid points too.

@25, I think that this is a fair point. If the whole movie industry goes blu, does that mean they’re going to sell hd-dvd players at the back of the store in a small room? I’m personally pulling for Blu-ray, but hd-dvd might still have a chance. A lot of people watch pr0n.

This sucks. My fiance just got me the add on for Christmas. I purposely was waiting for something to tip the scales one way or another. It’s just really going to suck to tell her that the present that she got for me is already obsolete.

Well we are all very early adopters of both formats. I’m sure over time the load times will improve just like it did in game consoles as they matured. Paramount and Warner are not the only movie studios out there, so this fight is long from over IMO. I’m just looking forward to downloadable HD content.

Considering many people have DVD collections in the undreds, the HDDVD or BluRay would take a long while to catch on EVEN IF either one didn’t have any competition.

It’s not like switching from cassettes to CDs or from VHS to DVD where the technology is a significant difference (and where you could eventually transfer your old content to the new)

Plus with a perception (perception=reality) that the economy is in decline, mainstream consumers won’t want to drop $500 to $1000 just to get a player and 10 to 20 movies.

DRM???

I’ve been able to break both HD DVD and BlueRay formats. No real challenge here.

Will Hollywood go after me? Not sure, but if they do, I’m ready.

I have all the little pieces of the discs I’ve broken in a Ziplock bag. Oooops, there’s one under the table. Gimme a sec.

Douche: The most popular Blu-Ray player, the PS3, boots in about 7 seconds. It does seem to be lacking a resume where you left of feature (but then again, so does my Toshiba DVD player) - I’d assume that’s a firmware fix, not a problem with the format.