Microsoft rep: HD-DVD possibly next Beta-Max

[BatMatt]

I'm gonna have to go with HD DVD. Universal recently announced that they are going to make 100 HD DVDs that are exclusive to the HD DVD format, and 90% of those will be backward compatible with standard DVD players. So even if someone doesn't have a HD DVD player, they have nothing to lose by buying HD DVDs. Also, HD DVD players are less than half the price of Blu-Ray players right now and the discs themselves are cheaper as well.

Well Universal is the only studio exclusive to HD DVD while the other support Blu-Ray, 4 of which are exclusive. So that adds to much more Blu Ray exclusives than the 100 HD DVDs put out by Universal. The difference in disc price is rather minimal and you can buy a Blu Ray player for $500 (20gb PS3) which is the same price as the cheapest stand-alone HD DVD player

 

[imdaly]

Well Universal is the only studio exclusive to HD DVD while the other support Blu-Ray, 4 of which are exclusive. So that adds to much more Blu Ray exclusives than the 100 HD DVDs put out by Universal. The difference in disc price is rather minimal and you can buy a Blu Ray player for $500 (20gb PS3) which is the same price as the cheapest stand-alone HD DVD player

Weinstein Co. is also exclusive to HD DVD. They own the rights to movies such as "Clerks II" and "Jet Li's: Fearless".

Also, thanks to the combination of HD DVD being a region-free format and distribution rights being held by different companies internationally, many of the titles that are "Blu-ray Only" over here are actually available already for import. Movies like the entire "Rambo" series, "Basic Instinct", and "Total Recall" are already available on HD DVD for import at www.xploitedcinema.com This is where I purchased my copy of "Harry Potter 4" on HD DVD from the UK where it's already available.

Also while the cheapest Blu-ray player is the $500 PS3 (which Sony apparently wants to stop making), most of us on this board can just purchase the $200 HD DVD drive for their XBOX 360, which comes with "King Kong" and a universal remote (it also upconverts regular DVDs! Eat that, PS3!) Or for anyone who doesn't have an XBOX 360, you can get the Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player from Amazon for $409.99, still $91 cheaper than the cheapest Blu-ray player (that doesn't upconvert regular DVDs, doesn't come with HD cables, and doesn't support use of Universal Remotes).

 

[CrAzYMoFo]

Well Universal is the only studio exclusive to HD DVD while the other support Blu-Ray, 4 of which are exclusive. So that adds to much more Blu Ray exclusives than the 100 HD DVDs put out by Universal. The difference in disc price is rather minimal and you can buy a Blu Ray player for $500 (20gb PS3) which is the same price as the cheapest stand-alone HD DVD player

Thats true, but there are many non-exclusive studios that support HD DVD as well so most movies will be on both formats. HD DVD also has more backing from major corporations including Intel, Microsoft, and Toshiba. You also have to take into consideration the familiarity factor. Your average person who wants to invest in HD movies are going to invest their money in a familiar name, and HD DVD is far more familiar to the people than Blu-Ray. I'm willing to bet that a majority of people could recognize what a HD DVD is while not knowing what a Blu-Ray Disc is.

 

[BatMatt]

Thats true, but there are many non-exclusive studios that support HD DVD as well so most movies will be on both formats. HD DVD also has more backing from major corporations including Intel, Microsoft, and Toshiba. You also have to take into consideration the familiarity factor. Your average person who wants to invest in HD movies are going to invest their money in a familiar name, and HD DVD is far more familiar to the people than Blu-Ray. I'm willing to bet that a majority of people could recognize what a HD DVD is while not knowing what a Blu-Ray Disc is.

Oh yeah, they do have that support but then Blu-Ray has the likes of Apple and what not.

 

[Halofan1]

UMD was different. It was a lot more limited.

Whilst HD formats aren't taking off yet, there is an explosion in interest of all things HD, and eventually Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, or both, will take off.

UMD failed because Sony thought consumers wanted to buy them at full price and cropped the films to fit the screen. If they had released the films at say, ten a pop, we'd still have what I thought was a selling point to the PSP.

 

[hippie_hunter]

UMD failed because they were only supported on the Playstation Portable. That and what you said. Also, they're ****ing ******ed. I bought a Playstation Portable to play games, not to watch movies.