Who are you rooting for in the DVD High Def format war?

[davo]

Im rooting for VHS,the whole format war is silly & is fleecing consumers.

On the contrary, I believe it is helping to push prices right down. Imagine what we would be paying if Toshiba and Sony had agreed to one format from the start?

j-garcia
Dowloading media from the web will replace most or all physical media. Get used to it.

The internet is a contentious issue in Australia because it is so slow and a viable solution is years away. Down loading high def movies is a non-issue for the forseeable future.

 

[Steelheart1948]

I'm rooting for a video version of 8 track tape. Seriously, I don't care which one wins, as long as one of them wins. The longer this "war" goes on, the greater the likelihood that these 2 formats will suffer the same agonizing fate that happened to sacd and dvd-a.

 

[emorphien]

I'm so annoyed with Sony these days that I root for HD-DVD.

In reality I think both are more or less destined for failure.

 

[Bryce_H]

I'm rooting for a clear winner and clear loser.

Stupid format war

 

[rgriffin25]

My Thoughts

I find it interesting that this format war is compared to SACD and DVD-A. While the comparison can be justified there is a couple of major points left out. First lets talk about HDTV. Oh yeah there is some deadline coming in 2009. I realize this has nothing to do with HD or Blu-ray, but this has a lot of people out shopping for new HDTVs. Well when they get their new flat panel home, most people are not happy with the amount of HD programming available. So this is one reason once prices fall that people will buy into these new formats.

Secondly, SACD and DVD-A were poorly marketed and came at a time where napster offered free music in a format where you can put several hundred songs on a single CD. Then came along the iPod and hundreds of other portable devices. While there are a few of us that like to sit at home and listen to music on our stereo, most people like to take their music with them. Also, you could never find a SACD or DVD-A at stores like walmart or target, unless it was a SACD hybrid.

So that leaves us with HD DVD and Blu-ray. Will both formats survive? Probably not, but it does give consumers and home theater people like us an excellent picture and improved sound. I also think that DVDs taught us that people like to have movies at their fingertips, not from a download. While downloading HD movies will probably be very popular in the future, I think we are still aways off.

Well to answer the question Blu-ray or HD DVD? I am picking Blu-ray, there are far more blu-ray movies available, especially ones that I want to watch. HD DVD simply does not have enough content to survive at this point regardless of how cheap you can buy a player.

 

[SamW]

Studios need to produce movies in both formats

I am a dual format supporter!!.

I'm gonna take the "I hope both survive" route too. If the movie studios would produce their movies in both formats then having more player options in the market is only going to drive prices down more for consumers.

Currently I have both...I can't tell image differences between either.

 

[Johnd]

I find it interesting that this format war is compared to SACD and DVD-A. While the comparison can be justified there is a couple of major points left out. First lets talk about HDTV. Oh yeah there is some deadline coming in 2009. I realize this has nothing to do with HD or Blu-ray, but this has a lot of people out shopping for new HDTVs. Well when they get their new flat panel home, most people are not happy with the amount of HD programming available. So this is one reason once prices fall that people will buy into these new formats.

Secondly, SACD and DVD-A were poorly marketed and came at a time where napster offered free music in a format where you can put several hundred songs on a single CD. Then came along the iPod and hundreds of other portable devices. While there are a few of us that like to sit at home and listen to music on our stereo, most people like to take their music with them. Also, you could never find a SACD or DVD-A at stores like walmart or target, unless it was a SACD hybrid.

So that leaves us with HD DVD and Blu-ray. Will both formats survive? Probably not, but it does give consumers and home theater people like us an excellent picture and improved sound. I also think that DVDs taught us that people like to have movies at their fingertips, not from a download. While downloading HD movies will probably be very popular in the future, I think we are still aways off.

Well to answer the question Blu-ray or HD DVD? I am picking Blu-ray, there are far more blu-ray movies available, especially ones that I want to watch. HD DVD simply does not have enough content to survive at this point regardless of how cheap you can buy a player.

Good points. I would augment by saying that the vast majority of people are visually provoked...few people are aurally provoked. So whilst it does not take an afficionado to appreciate sacd, its' superiority is lost on most ears. Another reason why the analogy is unfair to the current format war. My $0.02.

 

[renegade87]

... with the growing accessibility of high speed internet and decreasing prices of large hard drives the solution will most likely be nonphysical media.

Tough to disagree with avaserfi here. I'd personally like to see a universal high definition disk recorder/DVR with a 500+GB hard drive with HDMI 1.3+ (meaning whatever is the latest standard at time of intro) ... from the Denon's, Onkyo's, Sony's, Yamaha's ... of the world at a sub $500 price point.

Given the fact that 1TB drives are available in retail and 500GB drives can be had (in etail) for under $110 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073 it shouldn't be too much to ask. But $2000 for a Denon Blu-Ray player is just out of control.