Sony CEO Uncertain of Blu-ray Future

[admin]

After the spanking Blu-ray got at the hands of HD DVD recently, Sony's CEO Sir Howard Stringer commented that the two formats are in a "stalemate" according to the Associated Press. While he doesn't cite the falling prices of HD DVD players compared to their own "budget" $400 players, he did mention that the coup HD DVD pulled by wooing Paramount into an exclusive deal as being a deciding factor in the current state of the format war.


Discuss "Sony CEO Uncertain of Blu-ray Future" here. Read the article.

[gliz]

I posted in another thread (the last BD player review that, (IMHO) HD has all but won the war. Reason being, the players are at a price point where most folks can afford one. Maybe that is too simple an approach but it "appears" to be the case. 400 bucks for a "budget" player is still a lot. Also there are to little letters that are all the rage today, HD, most everyone recognizes those too little letters. that ladies and gentleman is just my open. Still wont but one just yet though maybe in the spring, I need a SVS sub first

[sokrman14]

You should read the whole article at Digitalbits.com by Bill Hunt in the "My two cents" section. He is not quite saying what was just reported.

[gliz]

you are right, he is not exactly saying that , but it is very very close. Like in the movie Highlander "there can be only one" before I jump in. I am old enough to rember getting burned on the whole batamax thing.

[shamus]

LOL!!! What spanking is HD-DVD giving BD?????

[patnshan]

Originally Posted by shamus

LOL!!! What spanking is HD-DVD giving BD?????

The massive influx of HD DVD players sold in the last month is what I guess he means. Maybe also the very high attachment rates of HD DVD versus Blu Ray.

I love seeing the Sony CEO backpedal. He's said so many idiotic things in the past year that who knows what he will say next. I think he's acknowledged a clear victory publically at least three times, and this demonstrates an obvious change.

I also agree that without the PS3, Sony would have another Beta and mini disc on their hands alrerady. I suspect they will soo anyway unless they change their tactics (ie: lower prices drastically).

Pat

[gliz]

Originally Posted by shamus

LOL!!! What spanking is HD-DVD giving BD?????

player prices for a start and finish. cheapest BD player is 400 dollars. that is a lot of money compared to 198 for a HD player. not to mention that Wal-mart has put their sales might to work with HD as well. seems to be leaning to HD to me, but I have been wrong before

[sokrman14]

The only reason the attach numbers dont look as good is because they finally included the millions of ps3's that are in peoples homes, in terms of sheer amounts of discs sold it is still at almost 3-1 bluray. And that influx of HDDVD players was only for one weekend because they clearanced out their last few models of A2's that they were incapable of selling, now they are incapable of selling A3's instead. Even at $400-500 dollars the bluray players including ps3 are still outselling HDDVD players. They say that 40% of ps3 users dont know there is a bluray player in it, but what about 60% of the 10 million ps3's worldwide. That is about 6 million bluray players plus standalones, to about maybe 500,000 HDDVD players that Toshiba says they have in peoples homes.

[gliz]

if we are talking about stand alone players, using the ps3 i dont think that is an apples to apples comparison really. the PS3 is a gaming platform that can play BD disks.

[sokrman14]

You are very correct it is a gaming platform, just as the XBOX360 and the WII. It is also a bluray player. I work retail and most people buying HDTV's buy the PS3 because it is one of the best bluray players available and as a bonus to them it plays video games. It is not just capable of playing bluray movies, it has all of the interactivity of any bluray on the market with the ability to update itself. It is the reason bluray is "winning" right now, and it will continue to stay that way because of it. It is more powerful than an XBOX and better than an HDDVD player. I guess it's easy to have high "Attach rates" when you give away 10 or more movies with a $99 piece o' crap... including giving away some of your premium titles. What the heck do they think people will buy then?