Considering the slew of Blu Ray players (1.1 and 2.0) headed our way in 2008, including a now officially presented cheap 1.1 Korean (Daewoo) one at $199 and a Funai under $300 (also 1.1), price will rapidly become a non issue. I fully expect Bogos and B2G1 to continue to entice people to start a collection vs DVD, as well as to entice HD DVD owners to switch to software in BR and make the transition easier. Add that to a huge amount of commercials on TV for BR discs, plus the PS3 presented as Blu Ray player, and the amount of publicity the drama around this war has given to Blu Ray (delayed adoption, yes, but also made the name known, and associated with HD). On top of that the bajillion of articles recently published burrying HD DVD and proclaiming Blu Ray the next gen formt for high Def ... I wouldn't be too worried :)
They only need to continue their work on educating people, and bundling BR discs with PS3's :)
If we allow certain videophile forums to serve as a barometer of what is to come, it seems many are, or are going purple, or are in the planning stages for either.
I'm not going to buy a Blu-ray player because it's suddenly the only option if that option is still $300 for a quality brand. My $149 360 HD DVD player still works fine, so I'll continue to enjoy that and existing HD DVD's as I wait until (if) Blu-ray gets below $150 as well, which has been my original plan all along. This is something the Blu-ray fanboys have never understood... although HD DVD might not win the format war, it's still a functional product that's mostly identical to Blu-ray in terms of capability; my start-up cost to enjoy this technology was only $150, while Blu-ray's start-up cost remains $300+. If Blu-ray wins, I stick with HD DVD until Blu-ray players are $150 and then I get one of those, for a total cost of $300. If Blu-ray loses and I had started with Blu-ray, I would be out $300 PLUS the cost of an HD DVD player. Movie cost is irrelevant since I only rent from Netflix.
For me at least, this war never had anything to do with which format was technically "better" (since that was essentially a draw) and everything to do with which format would cost me the least in the long run.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1stGreg @ Jan 8th 2008 11:04PM
Considering the slew of Blu Ray players (1.1 and 2.0) headed our way in 2008, including a now officially presented cheap 1.1 Korean (Daewoo) one at $199 and a Funai under $300 (also 1.1), price will rapidly become a non issue.
I fully expect Bogos and B2G1 to continue to entice people to start a collection vs DVD, as well as to entice HD DVD owners to switch to software in BR and make the transition easier.
Add that to a huge amount of commercials on TV for BR discs, plus the PS3 presented as Blu Ray player, and the amount of publicity the drama around this war has given to Blu Ray (delayed adoption, yes, but also made the name known, and associated with HD).
On top of that the bajillion of articles recently published burrying HD DVD and proclaiming Blu Ray the next gen formt for high Def ... I wouldn't be too worried :)
They only need to continue their work on educating people, and bundling BR discs with PS3's :)
matt @ Jan 8th 2008 11:15PM
I wouldn't count on HD-DVD owners to switch anytime soon.
hemmy @ Jan 8th 2008 11:22PM
@matt
If we allow certain videophile forums to serve as a barometer of what is to come, it seems many are, or are going purple, or are in the planning stages for either.
Don @ Jan 9th 2008 10:28AM
I'm not going to buy a Blu-ray player because it's suddenly the only option if that option is still $300 for a quality brand. My $149 360 HD DVD player still works fine, so I'll continue to enjoy that and existing HD DVD's as I wait until (if) Blu-ray gets below $150 as well, which has been my original plan all along. This is something the Blu-ray fanboys have never understood... although HD DVD might not win the format war, it's still a functional product that's mostly identical to Blu-ray in terms of capability; my start-up cost to enjoy this technology was only $150, while Blu-ray's start-up cost remains $300+. If Blu-ray wins, I stick with HD DVD until Blu-ray players are $150 and then I get one of those, for a total cost of $300. If Blu-ray loses and I had started with Blu-ray, I would be out $300 PLUS the cost of an HD DVD player. Movie cost is irrelevant since I only rent from Netflix.
For me at least, this war never had anything to do with which format was technically "better" (since that was essentially a draw) and everything to do with which format would cost me the least in the long run.