As Dave pointed out earlier, when prices go through the floor on high-def DVD players, it’s easier to ignore the HD format war and pick up some hardware for a little extra HD viewing pleasure. However, I wouldn’t have guessed that a large percentage of folks get their high-definition DVD playing capabilities as merely a bonus feature in some other investment. According to the Inquirer (via CrunchGear), a full one third of HD-DVD players sold in the US are add-on drives for the Xbox 360. (And of course that doesn’t even compare to the three quarters of Blu-ray players sold as PS3 consoles)
It’s kind of like when DVRs invaded the market in low-cost, subsidized form from your local cable operator. Bundle it up at a low cost with something else consumers want, and high-def DVD players could achieve mass-market saturation yet.
a series 3 tivo/hd-dvd player would be amazing. the network connectivity of the s3 alone would be huge for adding functionality to the dvd player. similar to the PS3 release today, which added extra blu-ray functionality
You hit on one of my pep peeves, it’s not high-def DVD players or Blu-ray DVDs.
It’s high-def movie players or high-def discs. This is not as annoying to me as when someone says HTTP protocol, which really means hyper text transfer protocol protocol, but it’s close. ;)
As for the point of post, yes people will buy them when they are affordable, but that goes for movies too. It doesn’t do much good for Toshiba to sell an HD DVD player at $99, when the movies cost $30.
I guess since you spend your life writing about HD, you’re entitled to a peeve or two. ;) But enlighten me. Why can’t I refer to a high-def digital video disc player? Where’s the equivalent redundancy to HTTP protocol?
I wonder what percent of people buy discs? Or buy all their discs. I haven’t purchased a DVD in years and I’ve never paid for an HD DVD. Heck, I didn’t even redeem my free films voucher.
I have yet to buy a Hd-DvD and I’ve owned the 360 add on for about a year now. I get every movie that I can in HD-DVD format from netflix and I’m happy with that arrangement. Now, if Samsung would only get the BD-UP5000 to work properly, I caould add Blu-Ray to my netflix que.
When do the recordable versions start coming down in price, I have some 14GB MPG files looking for a home
I think both medias will fail once digital downloads become more common. Just look you can download movie from your tivo,360,PS3,and on demand from your cable co. And with hard drive space getting bigger and cheaper I see this as the new DVDs. But thats just me :)
As long as Hollywood clings to DRM, physical formats will never die. I own a disc, and while I’m not licensed to do certian things with it (exhibit it publically, distribute it), it’s still mine. I can hold it, and I can see it. Unless all DRM goes away, physical media will always be preferable. Plus, most people are saying the internet as it is will be choked up in a few years…what happens when people start downloading movies instead of renting them?
to razordullwit: Those are good point but companys are starting to move away from DRMs to “digital watermarking system” more here http://rationalsecurity.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/watermarking-an.html yes its still like drms
but gives customers alittle more play room with files.”I bet the DRM-free song off Itune have this ;)”
And as for the “internet choke” it could be true if our internet speeds stay where they are now between 2-6mbps. But also note that here in the states we are in the “slow lane” in internet speeds with Japan @ 61mbps – maybe a 1gbps
my source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801990.html.
And if you believe Michael Bays comment from a few weeks ago, MS is looking to start this.
Sorry Mari for going off topic ;)
Mari,
No redundancy in this one, it’s just that Blu-ray discs are not digital versatile discs, they are Blu-ray discs.
HD DVD is in fact a high-def digital versatile disc, so it works.
The BDA went out of their way to avoid having DVD in their name for just this very reason. Obviously it didn’t work.
Ben, DVD is more than a technical spec. For the mainstream, it’s also a concept and short-hand – for movies on optical discs. And actually, classifying either of these as “high def DVDs” will help in mainstream marketing, along with emphasizing they’re backwards compatible. Adoption has been slow…
Dave,
Ohh, I know why people do it, it just just annoys me.
I own the XBOX HD-DVD drive hooked up to my PC, and don’t even have an XBOX.
It was, when I bought it, by far the cheapest way to get the hardware. Yeah, I paid for software to play the movies, but I did have a need for some of that functionality on the PC anyway.
I’m now considering a combo internal HD/BluRay drive (it also writes HD discs).
As for HD disc content…mostly Netflix rentals.
I do consider all the concepts you’ve introduced on your post. They are very convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too quick for newbies. Could you please lengthen them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.