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Hi-Def Media Lovefest: The war is over and we can all go home.

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Onix said:
I'm not sure if Panasonic has stated this ... but even if they have, that doesn't mean its going to happen.

Most people don't even have a room that would support something that size.

Exactly, especially around the world.
Hell have you ever seen an apartment in Japan?
 
Onix said:
Yeah ... I've never really understood this argument (nor a majority of them to be honest).

It is an attempt to garner support from all of those who are militant anti sony because of the drm issue not long ago
 

Azrael

Member
Has this been discussed yet?

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/J7L7H2R4

Rumours were circulating today that Microsoft is set to dump HD DVD and bring out a Blu ray Xbox 360 by as early as May 2008. The move will allow the Company to go head to head with the Sony PS3 gaming console which has been credited with being one of the main reasons that retailers have preferred Blu ray over Toshiba’s HD DVD.
Insiders at Microsoft in the USA have told SmartHouse that Microsoft have already configured a standalone Blu ray player that can be connected into an Xbox 360 and that subject to internal marketing and sales approvals the model could be on sale within 3 months.

I'm sure MS would rather 360 owners rent movies off XBLM than watch Blu-rays, but if consumer demand for Blu-ray is too high, they may not have a choice but to offer both.
 

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
OokieSpookie said:
It is an attempt to garner support from all of those who are militant anti sony because of the drm issue not long ago

So there is an assumption that if someone was pissed at the Sony/BMG's rootkit crap, it should also be assumed they are borderline retarded? :p
 
Official HD DVD obituary a matter of days, not weeks
By Ken Fisher | Published: February 17, 2008 - 12:29PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...-dvd-obituary-a-matter-of-days-not-weeks.html

On Friday, rumor spread fast that Toshiba was about to bail on HD DVD, following a string of unhappy news for the HD DVD camp, beginning with Netflix and Best Buy's decisions to throw their weight behind Blu-ray earlier in the week. While a Toshiba marketing exec denied on Friday any definite plans to bail on HD DVD, in the past two days sources have come out of the woodwork to tell Ars Technica and many other publications that the HD DVD machine is grinding quickly to a halt. Yesterday, Reuters reported that a source said that "Toshiba was in the final stages of planning to exit the HD DVD business."

We've reached out to a few sources to find out what's going on. Here's what we know, starting with the most recent information gleaned from a source close to the HD DVD camp. Surprisingly, our source tells us that exit plans for HD DVD were already in the works before the Netflix announcement this past week. The loss of Warner Brothers demoralized the HD DVD camp, and when it was clear that deep price cuts weren't going to give HD DVD a second wind, the writing was on the wall. The only question, pre-Netflix announcement, was how to gracefully shutdown while liquidating existing product. Now that retailers and rental joints have turned their back publicly on the format, there's nothing graceful about the shutdown plans. There's little face to save on the consumer side.

What's more, our source says that Netflix and Wal-Mart were aware of HD DVD's impending official death, and rather than allow a long and drawn out withdrawal from the market that could burn customers, those companies chose to broadcast their intentions to the marketplace immediately. This puts pressure on Toshiba and its partners to exit the business without spending months trying to unload product that's essentially already obsolete.

At this stage, the hold-up on an official announcement, according to our source, is the need for a definitive shutdown plan that can be announced at the same time Toshiba officially gives up HD DVD. Toshiba and its partners are concerned to show that they have plans that can minimize the financial damage resulting from the shutdown, presumably to keep shareholders happy. But the damaging announcements from Best Buy, Netflix and Wal-Mart have forced an acceleration of the company's plans. An announcement could come as early as Tuesday, and will be most certainly made by the end of the week, our source indicated. At the top of Toshiba's list is how to maintain investor confidence in the face of factory shutdowns that will cost the company and some partners dearly.
 

NumberTwo

Paper or plastic?
Rob Beschizza said:
HD-DVD Death Made Official. Downloads To Kill Blu-Ray Next.
I try my best to sidestep these conflicts as they really lead nowhere. But damned if I've never seen such bitter tears roll down a cheek as I have with Wired's article. I fail to understand how digital distribution will be killing hard media anytime soon. Do people realise that their are STILL areas in the US (or the world for that matter) that still do not have access to high speed internet? Aside from that, some people view buying optical media as a much more cost effective mean than paying for a high speed connection fast enough to download HD movies in a reasonable amount of time. How about the fact that people just flat out prefer to have tangible goods over a digital copy?

What magical fairy tale do these people live in?
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Topher said:
I try my best to sidestep these conflicts as they really lead nowhere. But damned if I've never seen such bitter tears roll down a cheek as I have with Wired's article. I fail to understand how digital distribution will be killing hard media anytime soon. Do people realise that their are STILL areas in the US (or the world for that matter) that still do not have access to high speed internet? Aside from that, some people view buying optical media as a much more cost effective mean than paying for a high speed connection fast enough to download HD movies in a reasonable amount of time. How about the fact that people just flat out prefer to have tangible goods over a digital copy?

What magical fairy tale do these people live in?

Yeah, that wired headline is really bad, especially from an online publication. That kinda crap you can get away with, with a blog. But not a news website.
That's like gamespot level of bias.
 
BoboBrazil said:
Official HD DVD obituary a matter of days, not weeks
By Ken Fisher | Published: February 17, 2008 - 12:29PM CT

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...-dvd-obituary-a-matter-of-days-not-weeks.html

On Friday, rumor spread fast that Toshiba was about to bail on HD DVD, following a string of unhappy news for the HD DVD camp, beginning with Netflix and Best Buy's decisions to throw their weight behind Blu-ray earlier in the week. While a Toshiba marketing exec denied on Friday any definite plans to bail on HD DVD, in the past two days sources have come out of the woodwork to tell Ars Technica and many other publications that the HD DVD machine is grinding quickly to a halt. Yesterday, Reuters reported that a source said that "Toshiba was in the final stages of planning to exit the HD DVD business."

We've reached out to a few sources to find out what's going on. Here's what we know, starting with the most recent information gleaned from a source close to the HD DVD camp. Surprisingly, our source tells us that exit plans for HD DVD were already in the works before the Netflix announcement this past week. The loss of Warner Brothers demoralized the HD DVD camp, and when it was clear that deep price cuts weren't going to give HD DVD a second wind, the writing was on the wall. The only question, pre-Netflix announcement, was how to gracefully shutdown while liquidating existing product. Now that retailers and rental joints have turned their back publicly on the format, there's nothing graceful about the shutdown plans. There's little face to save on the consumer side.

What's more, our source says that Netflix and Wal-Mart were aware of HD DVD's impending official death, and rather than allow a long and drawn out withdrawal from the market that could burn customers, those companies chose to broadcast their intentions to the marketplace immediately. This puts pressure on Toshiba and its partners to exit the business without spending months trying to unload product that's essentially already obsolete.

At this stage, the hold-up on an official announcement, according to our source, is the need for a definitive shutdown plan that can be announced at the same time Toshiba officially gives up HD DVD. Toshiba and its partners are concerned to show that they have plans that can minimize the financial damage resulting from the shutdown, presumably to keep shareholders happy. But the damaging announcements from Best Buy, Netflix and Wal-Mart have forced an acceleration of the company's plans. An announcement could come as early as Tuesday, and will be most certainly made by the end of the week, our source indicated. At the top of Toshiba's list is how to maintain investor confidence in the face of factory shutdowns that will cost the company and some partners dearly.

*Obligatory mocking of Bobo for posting news already discussed*
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Suikoguy said:
Yeah, that wired headline is really bad, especially from an online publication. That kinda crap you can get away with, with a blog. But not a news website.
That's like gamespot level of bias.
It was on one of wired editors' blogs though. Like a personal opinion. I doubt they would put something like that in an actual news article. Also, other than the headline, the blog post itself does not really state things all that matter-of-factly.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Marconelly said:
It was on one of wired editors' blogs though. Like a personal opinion. I doubt they would put something like that in an actual news article. Also, other than the headline, the blog post itself does not really state things all that matter-of-factly.

Oh, well that's a bit different.
I did not look at that closely at the page
 

Replicant

Member
Topher said:
I try my best to sidestep these conflicts as they really lead nowhere. But damned if I've never seen such bitter tears roll down a cheek as I have with Wired's article. I fail to understand how digital distribution will be killing hard media anytime soon. Do people realise that their are STILL areas in the US (or the world for that matter) that still do not have access to high speed internet? Aside from that, some people view buying optical media as a much more cost effective mean than paying for a high speed connection fast enough to download HD movies in a reasonable amount of time. How about the fact that people just flat out prefer to have tangible goods over a digital copy?

What magical fairy tale do these people live in?

Does it matter? The crazier they sound, the more amusing they become.

I'm looking forward to the day when I can download 50GB in seconds but as it is now (ie. the reality), my service provider caps my bandwidth to 20GB/month and it usually takes 7 hours just to download 2GB file. So there's no way I'll be spending days or using all of my monthly bandwidth just to download....oh wait, I can't even download 1 movie if said movie is over 20GB. I can't even be bothered to download DVD-size movies since it takes too long to do that.

Plus, who the hell wants to lug hard drive to a friend's house just to watch a film with them?
 
Can´t this thread just be closed? It was made to see how the fight between HD-DVD and Blu-ray was going... now that is IS INDEED ENDED, there´s no need of it.

Just close it, put it in the archives of course :D and open a new one for the Only HD media format. Blu-ray.
 

sprsk

force push the doodoo rock
Well, I think we're mostly waiting on the official press release.

If you guys want to give this thread a proper send off, I wouldn't be against discussing what that proper send off should be (in this thread)

I mean, a thread this massive shouldn't end on a random post.
 
sp0rsk said:
Well, I think we're mostly waiting on the official press release.

If you guys want to give this thread a proper send off, I wouldn't be against discussing what that proper send off should be (in this thread)

I mean, a thread this massive shouldn't end on a random post.

This thread is tradition now
 

Tideas

Banned
sp0rsk said:
Well, I think we're mostly waiting on the official press release.

If you guys want to give this thread a proper send off, I wouldn't be against discussing what that proper send off should be (in this thread)

I mean, a thread this massive shouldn't end on a random post.

Long live Blu. Let this usher in an era of awesome HD-goodness.

That should be good enough.
 

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
sp0rsk said:
Well, I think we're mostly waiting on the official press release.

If you guys want to give this thread a proper send off, I wouldn't be against discussing what that proper send off should be (in this thread)

I mean, a thread this massive shouldn't end on a random post.
I say someone should write an obituary, like the ones in newspapers. :D
Cause of death should be exploding head, natch. :D
Oh, and someone should googlebomb HD-DVD so it shows up in the "miserable failure" search. :lol
 

dabig2

Member
Gattsu25 said:
I say let the thread live at least 24hrs after the official PR


I agree, just so we can get it all out of our systems and then go into the real thread with it all behind us. I'm sure some guys are preparing their onslaught of victory .gifs as we speak :lol
 

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
dabig2 said:
I agree, just so we can get it all out of our systems and then go into the real thread with it all behind us. I'm sure some guys are preparing their onslaught of victory .gifs as we speak :lol
I'll just post the Michael Bay exploding pool gif and go on with my life. :D
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
ghostmind said:
I think Nico should deliver the eulogy for the thread, and for the format...


Why lock it at all? HD DVD will probably have a comeback after tomorrow's president's day sales. I expect it to be neck and neck til Xmas.
 
Is the Toshiba announcement not official? My local news just announced it as official from the Toshiba CEO saying they were no longer going to manufacture HD-DVD players and go strictly Blu-Ray. Didn't state an official date, but they did report it was happening immediately.

Anybody know if Blu-Ray will do one last 5 free movie deals with a player purchase? Or with the final nail in HD-DVD will they no longer offer that since it's no longer necessary?
 
Silent_Echo said:
Is the Toshiba announcement not official? My local news just announced it as official from the Toshiba CEO saying they were no longer going to manufacture HD-DVD players and go strictly Blu-Ray. Didn't state an official date, but they did report it was happening immediately.

Anybody know if Blu-Ray will do one last 5 free movie deals with a player purchase? Or with the final nail in HD-DVD will they no longer offer that since it's no longer necessary?

It is as official as it can be before Toshiba makes their official statement for the US.
 

Ripclawe

Banned
http://www.reuters.com/article/busi...Type=RSS&feedName=businessNews&rpc=23&sp=true

TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares of Toshiba Corp jumped 5 percent on Monday as analysts applauded the company's expected move to abandon its HD DVD format, leaving Blu-ray technology backed by Sony Corp to become the standard for the next-generation DVD.

Shares of Sony rose 2.5 percent, while Matsushita Electric Industrial, a key Blu-ray supporter, fell 1.3 percent.

A source at Toshiba told Reuters on Saturday that the electronics conglomerate was planning to give up on the HD DVD format after losing the support of key retailers and several movie studios including Warner Brothers.

Toshiba, which led a consortium promoting HD DVD, would suffer losses of hundreds of millions of dollars to scrap production of its equipment and other steps to withdraw from the business after losing out to the Blu-ray camp headed by Sony, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.

But analysts gave high marks to Toshiba's seemingly quick decision to pull the plug on HD DVD because of the heavy costs involved in promoting the format.

Nikko Citigroup raised its rating on Toshiba to "buy/high risk" from "hold/high risk". JP Morgan maintained its "overweight" rating while predicting the elimination of sales promotion costs would add 30 billion yen ($280 million) to Toshiba's operating profit in the next business year from April.

"Since the business has no growth potential without video software, we think the company will probably withdraw completely rather than just partially," JP Morgan analysts Yoshiharu Izumi and Masashi Hayami wrote in a note to clients.

PRESSURE FOR WINNER

While keen on a new format DVD that can hold more content and produce higher-quality pictures, movie studios and retailers want a single format that would avoid the cost of producing and stocking two different types of DVD.

Shoppers, faced with two formats and movies that might only play on one or the other, have tended to buy neither at a time when the entertainment industry was hoping the new generation discs would revive the $24 billion home DVD sector.

An end to the war means consumers can now be sure they won't be stuck with a 21st century equivalent of Betamax -- Sony's videotape technology that lost out to VHS in the 1980s.

Shares of Toshiba were up 4.3 percent at 819 yen as of 0037 GMT. Sony was up 2.5 percent at 4,970 yen while Matsushita lost 1.3 percent to 2,265 yen. The benchmark Nikkei average was up 1.3 percent.

The defection of Time Warner Inc's Warner Brothers to Blu-ray from HD DVD in January was a heavy blow to Toshiba's plans.

It took Hollywood's biggest film library into the Sony consortium's camp and meant 70 percent of Hollywood movies would be in the Blu-ray format.

When the world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, said on Friday it would quit stocking HD DVD movies in its 4,000 U.S. stores, pundits predicted the end was near.

The decision matched earlier ones by consumer electronics chain Best Buy Co Inc and online video rental company Netflix Inc

Wal-Mart's own movie and gaming blogger put the future of HD DVD in stark terms.

"If you bought the HD player like me, I'd retire it to the bedroom, kid's playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard def movies, and make space for a BD (Blu-ray disc) player for your awesome Hi Def experience," Wal-Mart blogger Susan Chronister wrote in a posting.
 

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
sp0rsk said:
Well, I think we're mostly waiting on the official press release.

If you guys want to give this thread a proper send off, I wouldn't be against discussing what that proper send off should be (in this thread)

I mean, a thread this massive shouldn't end on a random post.
I think it should end on Toshiba's official PR.
 

twinturbo2

butthurt Heat fan
captive said:
I think it should end on Toshiba's official PR.
No, it should end on this.
30lnl9g.gif
 

pxleyes

Banned
+1 for Nico giving some sort of send off to HD DVD before this thread is closed. Some sort of massive post with like photos of his collections, crying over his player, you know, things like that.
 

C.Dark.DN

Banned
pxleyes said:
+1 for Nico giving some sort of send off to HD DVD before this thread is closed. Some sort of massive post with like photos of his collections, crying over his player, you know, things like that.
i bet he's wacthing blu-ray wondering what to say. cause mhm, had to be a joke char

i bet he never posts, and we wonder if he commits suicide, while he has another login id?
 
It should end with this: このスレまじで魔力ありすぎ… おまいらにも光あれ…
 
DarkJediKnight said:
I think you'll find out it'll be much closer.

It is all up to the studios.
Warner is taking a big step in pushing for all day and date and catalog releases to match their dvd counterparts as well as the fact that they are starting to put blu only extra features.
 
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