> -----Original Message----- > From: Jacob [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 1:24 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: RE: DVD Format Decided > > Yes... HD DVD. Blu-ray will be like BETA.
I'm not sure whose going to "win" (I doubt either will)... but I think it's worth noting a few things: 1) Blu-ray is not "anti-porn" - but at this point it is cheaper. In short the Porn industry is going to go where production is cheap. This price differential won't exist forever however - prices should come into line pretty quickly. Also the porn industry is not as great a power in this race as it was in the VHS v Beta days due primarily to the multiple (and cheaper) distribution paths (namely the internet). The porn industry does have some power at the beginning of a race but if Blu-Ray pulls ahead porn will follow the money, pure and simple. (Also remember that this whole silly story began with ONE porn producer's comments - and apparently not even one of the larger ones. Just like Hollywood I think that you'll find some studios favoring one or the other or both.) 2) Blu-Ray currently has more (non-porn) studio support. HD-DVD has Universal, Paramount, and Warner - but the latter two also producing Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray has, then, 20th Century Fox, Disney/Buena Vista, Lionsgate Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. So (again, as of right now - things might change tomorrow). Blu-Ray has exclusive support of four of the major studios and shared support of two. HD-DVD has exclusive support of one. Don't discount the power of some of these brands: you can only get Disney (and perhaps more importantly, Pixar) on Blu-Ray. 3) Blu-Ray does store more, but more importantly it has a great potential to work better. The BD-J layer is potentially really cool (it's already pretty slick on discs like "Superman Returns"). With this special features can be overlayed on the movie itself, you can access menus, commentaries, etc at any point in the movie. Once production prices come down I think you'll actually see porn studios flocking to this enhanced interactivity layer just as they were the first to really take advantage of DVD interactivity features. 4) There's more selection on the Blu-Ray side of the house. This, of course, has to do with the number of studios showing support but it has the important effect that there's a larger Blu-Ray section at Walmart and Best Buy. People see 10 shelf-feet of Blu-ray and 4 shelf-feet of HD-DVD and they come to their own conclusions. Blu-Ray also has more eye-catching packaging (my mother actually noticed and remembered it but didn't even know about HD-DVD) and (at least seemingly) a catchier name. In the end however this format "war" doesn't really need a "winner". For one thing it's not really a "war" - in general not many people are interested at all. This isn't providing a brand new experience like the VCR or the DVD player did - it's better resolution, yes, but until HD itself penetrates completely there's just not much of a demand for either. Secondly there are at least two avenues for interoperability: hybrid (dual-sided) discs and dual-format players. Since both technologies use the same physical format (a 5" disc) I think that dual format players will become the norm in (a guess based on the similar adoption of multi-format DVD burners) three years. I think counting either format out at this stage is ridiculous. My personal opinion is that the war will be a non-issue: by the time the average consumer will care about this mess they'll just end up buying dual-format players. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:224568 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
