Blu-Ray has won the Hi-Def war!

Post by **Meg** » August 21st, 2007, 6:46 pm

Is Michael Bay not directing Transformers 2 a bad thing?

Post by **Randall** » August 21st, 2007, 9:37 pm

Update: Bay changed his mind! Now he loves HD DVD!

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/o ... -dvd-mind/

... Sounds like someone at Paramount got to him, eh?

Post by **Meg** » August 21st, 2007, 11:57 pm

That guy is so unintentionally entertaining.

Post by **Daniel** » August 22nd, 2007, 1:42 am

I was just about to post "wow, he's not doing a sequel because of the format war? " But now a 90 degree turn? Hysterical! Yup, no doubt he was paid off.

As for this topic... I agree with everyone. Sad that this has to drag out longer, but thems the brakes.

Post by **Jeroen** » August 22nd, 2007, 2:20 am

Oh Bay, you never fail to amuse me.

Post by **Josh** » August 22nd, 2007, 3:58 am

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if 300 wasn't the only number Bay saw yesterday.

Post by **Meg** » August 22nd, 2007, 8:16 am

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if 300 wasn't the only number Bay saw yesterday.

Ha, I love you Josh!

Post by **YCougar** » August 22nd, 2007, 1:15 pm

This is only going to make me hang on to DVD longer - it's cheaper and I need to see which format is gonna end up being standard before I dive in.

Kinda counterproductive.

Post by **James** » August 22nd, 2007, 1:55 pm

YCougar wrote:This is only going to make me hang on to DVD longer - it's cheaper and I need to see which format is gonna end up being standard before I dive in.

Kinda counterproductive.

Which is exactly what Microsoft was hoping for. Drag out the format war until something else - something Microsoft has some control in - can take over.

The same thing happened to the successor to CDs. DVD-A and SACD fought it out so long that eventually music downloads became the more popular choice, ven though they were technically inferior.

Post by **Ben** » August 22nd, 2007, 2:37 pm

I still believe in SACD, though there's now a distinct lack of any decent software for it, and John Williams' score for AI is the only disc I ever got in DVD-A format.

The real problem there was that people couldn't care less for an upgrade to the already amazing sound of a well mastered CD. After all, most people listen to such things on the movie, or in the car, where sound quality is compromised anyway. So why have something that sounds better but can't actually be appreciated in the environment they are listened to?

The issue with BR/HD is that there is an interest in these developments but not the clear answer. James is 100% right that Microsoft want to prolong this to get a grip on the download market, which is pretty much the ANTI-HD way of looking at things from a quality standpoint.

I really hope MS loses out over this in some way, and praying that WB doesn't jump back to being HD only. If that happens, we're in trouble for a good while yet.

Post by **James** » August 22nd, 2007, 4:11 pm

I think if there had not been a format war SACD or DVD-A would have caught on, though maybe not as THE permanent successor to CD, but as a sustainable product. But the point is neither had a chance because of the confusion and something inferior but easy took their place. What is past is prologue.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » August 24th, 2007, 7:48 am

James wrote:I think if there had not been a format war SACD or DVD-A would have caught on, though maybe not as THE permanent successor to CD, but as a sustainable product. But the point is neither had a chance because of the confusion and something inferior but easy took their place. What is past is prologue.

You really think downloading killed the music industry?

I don't think so.

I've heard recently that downloading mp3's only accounts for around 11% of total music grosses. Whether it's 11% or not, it's still significantly less than people think. It's certainly not half, let alone 1/3 or 20% of all music sales based on my knowledge.

I think what hurt music sales far more is the continuing mediocrity of albums in general. When you have pop-tarts (the Britneys and Simpson Sisters of the World) being promoted as the "Big Thing" and about a million American Idol-clones plus albums that generally don't have more than 1 or 2 tracks you like, I think that hurts the sales far more than downloading does.

Successor CD format or not, unless the software (and talent) is good, the music industry won't be able to sell albums. Mediocre singing talent is also a big driver in poor sales, too. There's only so many albums a cute face can sell when the vocal talent just isn't there. Some of the best singers in the past were dog-faced. Too bad that's been lost by marketing that seems to believe looks are everything.

The fact that CD is 25 years old doesn't hurt the format. Records were around a lot longer and underwent several technological changes that improved them along the way. I imagine even 2-channel stereo sound CD still has room for improvement, successor or not.

As much as I hear about downloading becoming the big thing for movies, I just don't buy it. Bandwidth just isn't there and download speeds aren't fast enough for decent file sizes. Those factors have to keep ahead of increasing Net use. I'm just not convinced from what I've seen that the technological curve is keeping ahead of Net use. There are times with high-speed cable that the Net slows to a crawl. Imagine how bad it'll be if you have several thousand people trying to download huge half-gig or bigger files. There have been network outages for files far smaller than that.

I just got into archiving old videos onto DVD and it's pain enough dealing with standard definition video files... Hi-def files are going to be an order of magnitude greater in size no matter what clever compression somebody uses. For the amount of time it took a guy like me who's relatively comfortable with video technology and computers to get acquainted with basic DVD authoring (with consumer-level equipment and mostly free software), imagine what it's going to be like for someone who is a technophobe or computer illiterate!

As reliable as hard drives are in general, they do break down after a hard few years. Unless the end-user takes the initiative to back up their video files, those files are effectively lost with a broken HD.

Who knows if the companies providing downloadable files will make the files easy to back up, or will the end-user have to be clever and convert files to formats that can be burned?

You know with computers that manuals and companies NEVER tell you everything you want or need to know. There's always trial and error with these things if you're persistent and clever enough.

Nah, I'd be smart and stick to 5" discs if I were running one of these conglomerate companies. They sure are gutting themselves with the current next-gen DVD format wars... I sure wouldn't count on downloading to pick up the slack if I were them. That's a recipe for disaster IMHO.

Post by **Meg** » August 24th, 2007, 9:44 am

I think what hurt music sales far more is the continuing mediocrity of albums in general. When you have pop-tarts (the Britneys and Simpson Sisters of the World) being promoted as the "Big Thing" and about a million American Idol-clones plus albums that generally don't have more than 1 or 2 tracks you like, I think that hurts the sales far more than downloading does.

Good point. 12-year old girls may dig that stuff but I personally find it screechy and dull, and I'm sure many others think the same as well. \

Anyway, on the HD vs BR thing...I'm holding off on buying either as well, although I do have an X-Box 360 (which either comes with an HD DVD player or offers an upgrade that plays them, not sure which) so if I do end up buying one or the other it'll probably be Blue Ray. Of course, first we need to get an HD TV...

Post by **James** » August 24th, 2007, 10:05 am

GeorgeC wrote:
James wrote:I think if there had not been a format war SACD or DVD-A would have caught on, though maybe not as THE permanent successor to CD, but as a sustainable product. But the point is neither had a chance because of the confusion and something inferior but easy took their place. What is past is prologue.

You really think downloading killed the music industry?

No, I said the format war dragged out the crowning of a possible successor to CDs to the advantage of downloads. What killed the music industry is crappy artists.

Post by **eddievalient** » August 24th, 2007, 11:25 am

Something has just occurred to me. While it's not true HD, if you watch a standard dvd on a hi def player it upconverts it to HD, right? So why the big fuss over Paramount/Dreamworks? If you want a movie of theirs (like Transformers), just buy it on dvd. When they see that their HD-DVD product isn't selling, they'll go back to being for both formats. Yeah it stinks that this is being dragged out, but you've just got to be patient. For me, it'll be awhile before I can afford to go HD (I have to graduate first, then find a job, then find an apartment, then figure out how much I can squirrel away each month...) but I'm hoping that will work to my advantage and the format war will be a bit closer to being over by then. Call me an optimist.