David,
I don't agree that consumers "ignored" the HD disc formats. I think you can only claim this to the extent they have "ignored" HD in general.
I say this based on adoption rates for HD disc formats compared to that of DVD at the same point after inception. If memory serves (and it may not), sales of players match or even exceed that for DVD at the same point, whereas the sales of discs is roughly half. (Hope I have that right.)
But to make a REAL comparison, you have to keep in mind that the market size at comparable points in time is roughly one quarter what it was for DVD. (i.e. there are only a fraction of HD capable homes now then there were SD capable homes back whenever.)
So, the adoption rate for HD media has been fairly good, it seems to me. You can only say the consumer has ignored these media by also claiming they have ignored HDTV also.
Without dragging this back-and-forth out too much longer, I just want to further make the point that, fundamentally, my negative reaction to articles like this stems largely from my strong suspicion that this article would have been written REGARDLESS of how the war turned out.
I mean, that is the narrative the media were always going to push, right? The consumer got screwed by the man? It was always going to be a new Betamax fiasco regardless of what happened. Except with Betamax, the story was that consumer choice didn't work because the dummies chose the "wrong" one. (Complete BS in my opinion.) Now we have a conspiracy theory where the consumer didn't really have a choice, an assertion that requires dismissal of the actual sales data by saying they are too small to mean anything. This is also the reason for breathlessly focusing on tales of "payoffs" to studios, as if the job of a format consortium goes much beyond lining up content provider support, because the consumer demands such support on a broad level.
Actually, you are completely off base for two reasons.
I am not part of the media in the sense that you refer to as I am not a professional journalist, I am an engineer who also happens to write for a technically oriented audio/video site.
The point of the article was to relate the technical information that is available to convert between two media formats that are identical on a fundamental technical level, but differ to incompatability only in details of implementation.
As an engineer, I am frustrated that the war had to occur in the first place, for technical reasons, and not for just the typical media everyman spin.
Both foramats have the same 1080p video resolution, they both support the same video encoding schemes, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and VC-1, and they support the same audio encoding schemes, Dolby Digital, Digital+, TrueHD, DTS, DTS HD, and DTS HD MA.
The only two differences are the physical structure of the disc where BD uses smaller divits for the data with a tighter track pitch to cram more in and the data file structure, ie the order that the data is stored in those divits. Both of which are inconsequenetial to end user experience who will get 1080p video.
As contnet that was previsously only available on HD-DVD migrates to BD, everyone who buys the BD version will get the identical audio and video encode from the HD-DVD version run essentially through the process I just outlined. It would be a silly waste of money for the studios to reencode the original video back into the same codec. You can expect that to occur down the road when the studios want to resell it again when they will claim that the reencode would make for an improved special edition, and even then, they might not.
You have read way too much into the article or you only really read certain parts an imbuded them with your own spin through interpretation.
As to sales data, HD players at the height of holiday discounting were less than 10% of the sales for DVD players.
High-def player sales still just 10% of standard DVD
DisplaySearch: Discounting gave HD DVD two-thirds of next-gen holiday sales
There is no dismissal of sales numbers, people were not buying in and Warner said as much:
“Not only did neigher format really take off as expected in the fourth quarter, but standard-def was softer than expected given the release slate,” said Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders told VB in explaining the studio’s decision. “We’re seeing research now that shows that consumers are starting to delay purchases because of the format war, not just on high-def, but on standard-def purchases as well. That’s alarming.”
“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusivity release in the Blu-ray Disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Warner chair and CEO Barry Meyer. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers and, most importantly, consumers.”
“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high-definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corp. in promoting high-definition media, and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them in the future.”
Look at the double speak about consumer indifference side by side with consumers clearly choosing BD. Warner took miniscule sales data that showed preference for BD among early adopters and extrapolated it to say consumers clearly choose BD while simultaneouly saying they had to pick one for the consumer in an attempt to jump start the HD disc market before downloads come along to dominate with smaller profit margins, just like what has happened to the music industry.
Why early high-def disc adoption rates don't really matter
Battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD fizzles as consumers watch and wait
While Warner repeats statements about consumer preference, in the end,
all the consumer wants is HD quality video, he does not care which version of an otherwise identical shinny disc it comes on, looks just like old CDs and DVDs. The only benefit to the consumer is that now the choice is clearer which way to get HD without further worry that the compatable machine will go the way of the dodo because of the
war.
Think what you want, but this fight never got to Joe Sixpack and that is what the sales numbers say.
