Movies. Period.

CES had some major announcement regarding Blu-gay software that' s going to be released in the upcoming year. HD-DVD...? Not so much.

Also of note was this:

Okay… now on to the news from Monday afternoon, the highlight of which was the Blu-ray Disc Association press conference. Pioneer' s Andy Parsons moderated the panel, which featured the home video presidents of Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony, Warner and Disney. The group issued a promotional booklet at the event featuring the bold blue headline, " Blu-ray Victory Inevitable." Of the research the group presented, the most compelling data by far was a list of the Top 20 Selling DVDs of 2006… indicating that only 4 of the 20 would or could be released on HD-DVD, and only 1 was exclusive to HD-DVD (Universal' s King Kong). But of the 20 titles, 19 of them would be available on Blu-ray and 16 of them would be exclusive to Blu-ray. The group cited research by analysis firm GFK indicating that Blu-ray had already won the high-def format war in Japan, with more than 96% dominance of the market. They also reiterated the announcement that Sony had shipped 1 million Blu-ray equipped PS3s to U.S. retailers as of 12/31 (my guess is that they were shipped RIGHT at the end of 2006, in the very last few days of December), and that their survey of 10,000 PS3 owners indicated that 80% planned to purchase Blu-ray movies (after seeing the copy of Talladega Nights included in the package) and that 75% of them planned to use the PS3 as their primary movie viewing device. At an " intend to purchase" rate of 80%, the group calculates an installed base of Blu-ray players in the U.S. of more than 800,000 in the next few weeks alone (provided the million PS3s sell through quickly, which remains to be seen). They also indicated that Blu-ray software sales surpassed HD-DVD sales in December, with a strong surge coinciding with the PS3' s November launch (a 700% increase since mid-November), and that they project Blu-ray software sales to outpace HD-DVD sales by a factor of 2 or even 3 to 1 in the first half of 2007.

I don' t know whether they' ll " win" , but it just got a lot more interesting in my eyes!

Looking at history, proprietary mediums do not work. Betamax, Laserdisc, GD-ROM, Mini Disc, UMD etc... it never works out in the long run. While Blu-Ray could be successful it' s not happening yet.

Blu-Ray movies and the drive used in PS3 are pointless because just as you can encode your own movies for use on PSP, you' ll be able to download HD movies using Sony' s Playstation network. UMD is dead in the water and yet it looked promising for a while but just as with every other Sony developed/forced format it was doomed at it' s conception.

The winner of the physical format wars won' t be a disc based solution. It' ll be Flash memory.

ORIGINAL: Majikdra6on

Looking at history, proprietary mediums do not work. Betamax, Laserdisc, GD-ROM, Mini Disc, UMD etc... it never works out in the long run. While Blu-Ray could be successful it' s not happening yet.

I wouldn' t call Blu-ray " proprietary" per se. I don' t know. Maybe my definition is wrong.

UMD is dead in the water and yet it looked promising for a while but just as with every other Sony developed/forced format it was doomed at it' s conception.

UMD NEVER looked promising to me!

The winner of the physical format wars won' t be a disc based solution. It' ll be Flash memory.

How so? Do you mean the transferring of movies to flash memory after download, or actually buying movies on some kind of flash devices (sd cards, for example)?

I do believe that HD discs will not enjoy the long life-spans of DVDs, but I doubt if any flash devices will upset the balance anytime soon (maybe eventually). Right now, downloading to hard drive based appliances seem like the natural successor. Even that doesn' t seem promising enough at the moment (for HD content, that is). Maybe 4 or 5 years down the road.

ill be buying blu-ray movies more often because of this http://kotaku.com/gaming/blu+ray-shocker/sony-to-include-portable-movie-files-on-bluray-dvds-227862.php

ORIGINAL: Chee Saw

The winner of the physical format wars won' t be a disc based solution. It' ll be Flash memory.

How so? Do you mean the transferring of movies to flash memory after download, or actually buying movies on some kind of flash devices (sd cards, for example)?

That isn' t out of the realms of possibility, especially with the fast dropping manufacturing costs, and the format is technically capable, but i think we' ll see downloadable content including HD movies become far more popular than disc based solutions.

Look at porn. 2 years ago 60% of pornography was sold on DVD & video. 2 years before that even more. Last year it dropped to 38% and now it' s dropped to 28%. Soon the bulk of sales will be made via download on demand websites because a) it' s cheaper, and b) you can move the file to whatever device you want, making copies if you so wish. With increasing bandwidth comes increasing filesizes and soon full HD movies for download will take off proper and be able to rival disc based media. Look at Amazon and Apples download services and what Sony and Microsoft are trying to do with TV, music and film. Discs won' t be a viable format and Blu-Ray' s production costs will go against it.

SD, Flash and their direct successors are the future of physical data storage. I can' t see anything but solid state memory winning out in the long run.

I like having physical collections of movies so I' ll stick with discs of some sort.
Blu-ray looks promising.
HD-DVD has porn but I don' t COLLECT porn so I don' t mind getting it via the Internet.
People enjoy going to stores choosing between different movies and looking at covers etc. It' s fun to have movies on your shelves.
Porn on the other hand isn' t exactly something you have in huge collections to show of in your living room (or did I miss something? ).
But of course, even though people liked to collect CD' s the sales have steadily decreased since mp3 became known.
Who knows, it' s a hard call.
Digital media destroyed Sony' s MiniDisk so it might be the same thing now.

But people still read news papers made out of paper when they can do it cheaper and easier on their cell phones or on the Internet...
It' s a strange world we live in.

Only problem is with flash-memory is that it' s not regular user friendly. If they can jack up transfer rates by something amazing, then I' m sold, but you also have to look at the mass market. People buy a disk, put it in a player, and it works. Flash-memory & transferring to TV' s, the actual download of stuff, it' s all very alien to the common consumer. I mean, I' m sold on the idea, but I don' t think the Wal-Mart worldwide shoppers will be.

Granted but just 10 years ago the internet was alien to what are now casual users.

I think HD-DVD will do well, or Blue Ray. HD movies on xbox live are something like 8 GB. Even for fast internet connections this will still take hours to download. Until the costumers internet is mostly fiber with speeds of 100MB+ I don' t think HD movies will be big sellers online. And I don' t think they will sell movies on flash memory disks. Those are way too expensive.

I just thought of this, but do movies really matter? I mean you can easily download them for free on the internet.

Even If BR does win, it certainly wont be because of ps3. They have reached a new low. I can understand ps3' s being on target and other store' s shelves, but now they are racking up at walmart. OH MY TEH SIGHZZERZ

ORIGINAL: mastachefbkw

I just thought of this, but do movies really matter? I mean you can easily download them for free on the internet.

But not in HD quality, and even when the resolution is in HD, the bitrate is so low that you see lots of artifacts. 8GB for an HD movie coming from Xbox Live is still really, really small for HD. That' s less than many standard definition movies on regular DVD.

often when you download online they claim it is in " HD" but it isn' t. The resolution is usually around 800x450. HD is 1280x720 and 1920x1080. It is really annoying when they do that. And if you download DVD rips online the compression isn' t the greatest. It usually looks just as good as the DVD except for at the dark areas where you can see really bad compression.

I haven' t downloaded any full length movies in HD on the XBL marketplace yet. But the game videos, interviews and other stuff in HD has awesome quality. I couldn' t see any compression artifacts or anything. Windows Media Video codec is really good but I don' t think it can do a lossless 90 minute 720p movie in 8 GB.

Standard definition PAL DVD' s are 576i50.

Well that' s because you europeans are b1tches. You & your higher low-resolutions.

Granted but just 10 years ago the internet was alien to what are now casual users.

& it still is to a great majority. People know how to check their internets -cough- I mean, emails, and open up the occasional eCorbis flash X-mas card, y' know, the ones that get sent in chain letters under headers such as

RE: AMAZING OPTICAL ILLUSION
RE: FREAKY AGE TEST
RE: COOL PICTURES
RE: SACRED PULSING SPITWAD

You know the ones. Not to mention, if it takes 10 years to get a decent install base (not meaning to construe your words here, just using it as an example), it really doesn' t follow current format lifespan trends. 5-7 years.

Granted, if somebody can create a Blockbuster/iTunes for these sorts of people, the ones who can' t figure out why the typewriter connected to the television is working so slow, then we' re in pretty good shape, but untill then.

Granted, if somebody can create a Blockbuster/iTunes for these sorts of people, the ones who can' t figure out why the typewriter connected to the television is working so slow, then we' re in pretty good shape, but untill then.

LOL

Blue-gay

I am rather confused on how a non-living disc media can develop Homosexual preferences...

ORIGINAL: Silentbomber

Blue-gay

I am rather confused on how a non-living disc media can develop Homosexual preferences...

Because Sony is trying to slip it in our back-door!

I am rather confused on how a non-living disc media can develop Homosexual preferences...

The same way a non-living energy drink can develop Homosexual preferences.

(You all better be appreciative of that gag, you have no clue what I had to go through to get that image.[:' (])

LMFAO

(You all better be appreciative of that gag, you have no clue what I had to go through to get that image. )

LMFAO

Lots of emphasis on the word gag, I might add.

Granted, if somebody can create a Blockbuster/iTunes for these sorts of people, the ones who can' t figure out why the typewriter connected to the television is working so slow, then we' re in pretty good shape, but untill then.

LOL