Toshiba phasing out HD-DVD! - Page 2

Remember in Back to the Future Part II where there were big trash cubes of laserdiscs and cds in the alley where they leave Jennifer? In the Blu-Ray version they'll use CGI to replace them with HD-DVDs.

Interestingly enough, you can get a Blu-Ray drive (read only) for your PC for $150. I've got a 22" LCD monitor that's begging for HD-content.

http://www.theonion.com/content/amvo...nion_rss_daily


"In Best Buy stockrooms and Costco warehouses across the country, you can look back at the carnage left behind from the HD-DVD–Blu-Ray war and you have to ask yourself: Was it worth it?"

Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits really showed his true colors with his gleeful and stupid declarations of HD's death. Competition is a great thing for everyone, but now that there's only one, Blu-ray prices are likely to go through the roof. You younger kids are going to experience the torture of Laserdisc enthusiasts back in the day.
If they had just lowered the price on the combo player none of this need to have happened.

I keep reading the bullshit that Blu-ray prices will go up now that the war is over.

They won't. Thew more discs sold, the cheaper it will be to make them. That's what happened with DVD, which had no competition.

No shit! I was a semi-early adopter of DVD and I frequently bought discs from reel.com so that I could get them at a "steal" for $25-$30. Any of you remember trying to buy a new VHS tape at the same time it first hit the rental stores?

I'm going to have to disagree with that. The sooner there's mass acceptance of the format, the sooner there are going to be studios competing for your dollars. The guys who created the media never had that much of a vested interest in which format won anyway. All they wanted was to sell their media.

Now that all the studios are competing with each other, media prices should actually start to drop. Especially with their desire to tap into the huge PS3 install base.

Yeah, if they want Blu-Ray to succeed prices aren't going to skyrocket. They beat HD-DVD. That wasn't that great a win. Becoming the next standard is the win, and the only way to do that is being affordable. Think about how long it took for Blockbuster to finally clear the ol' VHS out of the store. It took DVD players being available free when you buy a big gulp.

Paramount is Blu... again.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/21/p...blu-ray-again/

"The Hollywood Reporter expects to see Universal and Paramount new releases hitting Blu-ray and DVD at the same time by late spring or early summer"

Blu-ray's never going to become the standard in the way VHS and DVD did.

In other news, I bought a PlayStation 3 yesterday. This thing's pretty spiffy.

I bought mine the other day (do I sense a trend happening now?). It really is a slick and shiny piece of hardware. I thought it was going to be too much of a "game console" but it really is like a second computer for me, especially with the kind of video capability it has or will have with the future firmware updates.

I remember those days! places like Blockbuster would get the film first and then like a year later you could pick it up in stores.. I remember reading something about how Blockbuster did not strike the same kind of deal they had with VHS so in turn when a DVD came out it went right to the public, but in the case of VHS the Rental chains got the films first then later on the public..

Why can't Blu-ray be the standard? its going to be some time before HD downloads are available.

In a couple of years, a Blu-ray player will cost the same as a DVD player.

This is not Laserdisc mk. II. There are already more BD players than Laserdisc players and they are backwards compatible with the dominant format. You couldn't pop a VHS tape into an LD.

And proper HD downloads are not feasible for the time being. It's a combination of insufficient bandwidth, lack of a unified standard, inability to copy and use in more than one device and lack of players fit for computer-illiterate consumers

For the foreseeable future, downloads will be the niche format. Of course, this will change down the road. And even then, Blu and downloads will probably coexist, like CDs and Mp3s do right now.

For starters, no online service is going to stream 50GB BluRay rips off their servers. What we will see is compressed stuff that is currently available from XBox and Apple TV. I downloaded Superman on XBox Live and Transformers from Apple (both at 720p, each took no longer than 15 mins to download) and they look pretty decent, way better than the onDemand HD content.

I think it will be the optical standard once HD TV sets come down to the price of regular TVs.

The real future will be downloads, but man what a time it is. Actually the groundwork is being put in place, you want it here faster? Well support blu-ray and also get a HDTV.

Okay the 2nd thing is a no brainer. The first thing? Look at Profile 2.0 of Blu-Ray which supports BD Live. Optical media will give the way to downloads, but this is the hybrid cross over. You want that flying car? Get the hybrid.

Now I only endorse getting the PS3, as it can be updated to profile 2.0 and others at the moment have not been shown they can.

Buy more discs, companies learn to use codecs better. Downloads right now (apple TV, HD on demand) are usually rentals, and don't let you keep the movie to watch whenever. Content on demand you usually keep are trailers, and sometimes TV shows. I think Apple has the greatest chance here to unify all downloadable content with their iphones and ipods.

Oh and there is a difference between 720p 5.1 surround and 1080p 7.1 dts ma. People who whine and say thats a niche market, need to look back at themselves, as HD programing itself, while growing, is a niche market. Joe 6 pack still hates those black bars on his movies because he/she/it think its seeing less.

Competitive pricing may have already started. Just picked up GOODFELLAS for $14.99 and 2001 for $18.99 on Blu-Ray at Best Buy.

I'm a junkie.

I hope your right.

No - I hope you're right.

I am right that its in the contract thats everything has to be in original aspect ratio or bloody close on Blu right?

Cause if Disney or anyone else tries to release a pan and scan I will personally dedicate my life to sneaking into wal marts and best buys and putting copies of this on disc on all tv's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcEtFcgfonY

Well, since 1080p is ALWAYS widescreen, the only way you'd have 'Pan & Scan' now is if you take something that is say 2.35:1 and change it to 16x9. They already do this on some HD movies on cable but I find it hard to believe that they'll bother releasing multiple version of discs because the black bars are so much less noticeable on widescreen TV's.

Disney's actually been pretty good about this on standard DVD. I've heard numerous people bitch that there isn't a full screen Pirates of the Caribbean, for example.

Besides to enjoy HD, you need a widescreen TV these days anyways. Yes I know there were 4:3 HD sets for like a few days, but no one cool bought those.

And you shot them right? I mean, you had to? Just say it was a mercy killing to benefit the species as a whole.

My lawyer advises me not to comment on this issue due to a pending legal investigation.

About those Fire Sales on HD-DVDs:

I talked to Wal-Mart, the discs are now obsolete (defective), so the discs will most likely be sent back to the companies for full credit, rather than take a loss. I don't know if this is fact, or if other stores will follow suit. Just an FYI.