CHill out HD DVD owners!

ilovehddvd

lots of news in the past few days, Best Buy, Netflix, Wal-mart and some yellow journalism in the Hollywood Reporter.

While many have said the Wal-mart move is the "final nail in the coffin" (again) no one says why. that's because its a stupid and reactionary position to take. While it is plausible that Tosh could drop HD DVD, I think its unlikely, and here is why you should not worry so much about Netflix and Wal-Mart moves:

1) Netflix, BestBuy and WalMart represent a small portion of HD DVD hardware and software sales. Amazon.com dominates this area with the A3 and A30 consistently beating all BD players and the PS3 in sales.

The issue with the retailers is whether the move will help Blu-ray - that is, will more people buy Blu-ray because Netflix only rents BD? Not until they significantly drop their prices - without HD DVD comeptition, that is unlikely.

I dont think it matters that Wal-Mart and Netflix dropped HD DVD support. Retail sales for home enteratinment has been shifting to Amazon heavily for years. this is NOT THE VHS/BETA WARS of the 80s! There is much more retail competition so when Netflix drops out there are other places to get your Movies! in the 80's when you rental store stopped renting Beta you were screwed. Well Blockbuster never rented HD DVDs and I dont think anyone really cared.

2) as a corollary, becasue Amazon.com has such a large retail presence, retailers dropping HD DVD does not necessarily mean that you cant get HD DVD movies and that studios cannot make money. There is retail competition and Amazon will be the biggest beneficiary.

3) Best Buy pushed Sony anyway so the announcement was nothing new - unlike Wal Mart Best buy is still selling HD DVDs.

4) Who the hell bought HD DVD movies from Wal-Mart anyway? They were priced more expensive than at Amazon. Even the low income people who shop Wal-Mart can go to Amazon.com to save some duckets.

5) HD DVD is sold in other parts of the world successfully, i.e. France, Canada, Norway ... Even best Buy Canada. HD DVD owners can buy those discs and watch those movies without concern because HD DVD, unlike BD does nto use region coding. Half my collection is from EU or Canada. Check amazon.co.uk

6) CH DVD is still a question mark - if studios will be required to produce movies in HD DVD for the CH market, you can get those movies via the internets, and use your HD DVD player. It would also be economically stupid for studios to not just release those titles state-side in the CH DVD format which is compatible with your player.

7) Maxell, Hitachi and others just released new HD DVD writable media.

I think there is A LOT of CONJECTURE and RUMOR floating around. I would REALLY LIKE to see Toshiba or the DVD Forum address it. Until then, calm down reddies - until Amazon drops support the Wal-Mart and Net-Flix moves should be insignificant.

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ilovehddvd

Just ordered some HD DVDs from Amazon.com to show my support.

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Datus

I spent the whole of last week looking over the entire subject.
At first i was really peved that hddvd looked like it was over.
However there are lots of facts people forget so here are some.

PC market (i believe thats a couple more units than all the games consoles x 10 combined) is HDDVD 80-90%.
HP, ACER, TOSHIBA (no surprise) & Rock are all exclusive.
Porn industy (yes i know downloads etc but they sell a lot of product on disc) is HDDVD, they will produce the odd high profile film on BR but thats all atm.

Amazon has 3 HDDVD players always in the top 5(mostly 1 2, 5). BR highest has been arround 16+ and thats on top of all the bad press.

Toshiba have sold more pyshical player units than all the other BR's manufactures combined.

Initial die hard PS3 fan base has passed and dont see this growing much due to it being number 3 in games console market. This year its all about the players NOT game consoles. Expect the HDDVD figures to rise.

Blu-Ray players are now starting to hit the headlines of them being poor, unreliable expensive and not finished. See Samsung lawsuits etc, this the general public are hearing. Saying to the average Joe buy a Games Console is laughable at best, it won't wash.

In the same token Cheap, reliable, feature rich and finished HDDVD is catching on, for $109 its worth the risk and the exclusive Paramount films are worth it.

Paramount group are happy with the web interface, online shop, features etc so dont expect them to leave for some time.

Most of the best releases this year come from the Paramount group so sales will start to increase dramatically.

Also think of Paramounts potential market share increase, if you poduce films exclusivly for a hardware product rather than compete against all the others your share is going to go up.

Surveys show people 50-50ish about what format they will buy.

Main DVD retailers in this country (uk) have on show 60% BR and 40% HD. Internet companys like amazon etc will sell what ever anyone wants & I get most of mine from them and rentals too!

This is the HDDVD year, if the product isnt stopped I see a different outcome this time next January.

loganhunter200

Damn, you guys do a better job with the PR than the HD DVD Promotional group does.

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F Uuuuuuuuu Toshiba!!!

digs5446

Is there an easy way (a list on a forum, maybe?) to find out which titles exist on HD-DVD only outside region 1? That would be a cool way to build a more complete library.

Also, I was wondering why Blu-Ray didn't make their technology region-free. What's the incentive for them not to do it? Is it a cost factor? Or possibly copy-protection related?

unotis

So some of the members don't buy into all the negative news and still look for some positive news also.

I'm Purple, so I'm covered no matter what and I certainly won't get rid of my HD DVD player and all my HD DVDs even if HD DVD fails completely (which it might not for quite some time) there are still almost 600 movies on HD DVD many I cannot get on Blu-Ray and even if in the future they did offer them it would probably be years before they were available (if ever).

In my opinion anyone who suddenly sells his HD DVD player and HD DVDs because of the recent set backs for the format must be very much easily swayed and maybe just a little ignorant.

Are Blu-Ray discs better then HD DVDs in PQ or SQ?

NO, they are pretty much the same except right now HD DVDs are less costly and likely to remain that way since I doubt we will see repeated BOGO sales anymore.

Do all the Blu-Ray players more complete then the HD DVD players?

NO, the PS3 is the closest and even it is not as good of an upscaler as several of the HD DVD players (like the XA2) and the others for the most part lack the hardware to decode lossless audio.

A few do but they are obsolete 1.0 players and several of those have problems playing all the available discs right now (the Samsung players like the BD-P1200 and even the BD-UP500 dual format player) something to do with the BD java?

I'm pleased with my PS3 but still might get the Panasonic BD50, it will finally be a Blu-Ray player that might match the better HD DVD players.

I'm hoping they will soon follow up that player with some more well designed and finalized stand-alone players, but they better do it quick or Blu-Ray will fail and disappear soon after HD DVD does.

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bloodthirsty

I NEVER post in this subforum and do not come here to flame. I'm not a fan boy either I just happened to buy the PS3 for Christmas.


That being said HD DVD is now dead. Wal Mart is the biggest retailer on the planet. This will be the death blow. Sorry to those invested in HD DVD.

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Bleedgreen71

Neither side has tapped the mass market as of yet and since the WB announcement their has yet to be a major blockbuster title released in the HD-DVD format. The Kingdom was the closest. Sales of movies like American Gangster should be interesting. With the recent release of HD-DVDR players, the technology is going no where, and as the price point shifts into the area most of the mass market will pay under $100 either side, HD-DVD will pick up momentum and eventually win studio support back. Blu-Ray is along way away from mass adoption...people who Spent $1000 or less on an HDTV set are not going to drop $300-$400 on a DVD player. The days of anyone paying more than $2000 for Tv's other than hardcore CE lovers are over. Vizio has high sales volume for a reason....its cheap....price will be the deciding factor in this war.

As long as studio support can remain for HD-DVD (and I beleive it will) we will creep toward the mass adoption price points and the tide shall turn. Good Luck Blu-Boys.

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Chris Gerhard

If you have been following the HD DVD supporters statements, you know you can't convince them of that. Of course you are right and it is obvious. That doesn't matter to this group. After Toshiba decides to quit making players, a thread will be started stating that HD DVD can continue on due to the strength of the dual format player sales for both LG and Samsung.

Two years down the road, when nothing has been seen or heard of from HD DVD in two years, we will have two years of threads stating how much better it would have been if HD DVD had won the format war. Players would be $12.95 and movies, $2.99 if that had happened. It is all very funny to me.

Chris

Steve44

HAHA,
That's because they're on a 50% off sale because no one wants this anymore!!!! I sure hope you didn't pay full price. DID YOU???

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/14...f-150-hd-dvds/

Quite a few reasons why the HD-DVD is about to die....
http://www.engadgethd.com/category/hd-dvd

FOP

It sure seems that way !

BANDB

This has been beaten to death, but a long time ago I bought a Sony betamax because it was the only act in town. VHS came along but betamax still had the best image quality. A no-brainer, right? Well, I stuck with betamax and eventually there was only one store in Seattle that rented tapes. The supply of recording studios fell and that was the end of betamax.
Now its HDDVD. Less costly and better finished product, but it will go away. BD is rapidly building a critical mass and there will be no stopping it. None of it makes sense.
That said, I'm glad I waited it out with an OPPO player, and I guess that if BD ever gets finished and the price comes down, that's what I'll buy. Sigh...

ilovehddvd

The differences between VHS/Beta and BD/HD DVD are many. Importantly, however, is the fact that Beta served only one purpose - playing/recording Beta tapes. So after studio support dropped, people dumped their players.

HD DVD is different in that if studio support is gone here in the US, the HD DVD cans till be used. The players upconvert and play CDs, etc. Furthermore, with the advent of CH DVD and the continuing support of HD DVD In Europe and Canada, HD DVD discs will still be available. Half my collection was purchased on amazon.co.uk ...

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Stew4HD

WTF is up with the PS3 blu boyz posting in an HD DVD thread? Get the hell out, you little jerks!

HD DVD has died so many times, it's not funny yet I can buy HD DVDs today, tomorrow and next month. Go back to bluray.com and leave real HD enthusiast alone! GRR!

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hdtvjunkie

Have to agree with you Stew. It doesn't matter that it is an hd-dvd thread. Certain people have to attact hd-dvd supporters. Its not dead until I cannot buy another hd-dvd.
This is but Stew I like your new avatar. I'm a big Zeppelin fan.