Why is One Format Better??

[STI Jaguar]

People are saying that dual formats- HDDVD and BD are fueling competition and lowering prices of Discs. So what would the advantage be if One format outright wins?

I am guessing initially that the prices will go up due to lack of competition but then will eventually drop very low due to volume and mass acceptance. I am not a marketing genius so is this pretty much how it goes?

Now is it possible to see duel format wars right to the end of the technological cycle- being HDVD and BD being around until the next generation format wars- like the next 5-10 years?

[dakota81]

That's because they don't know any better. They believe *all* competition is good for consumers, and that anyone who disagrees is a Communist.

Competition between formats improve them... but only up until they hit the consumer market. At that point neither format improves at all, and only leads to consumer confusion and fear of buying obsolete equipment. Consumers also make poor purchasing decisions, like buying a format based on name recognition, or what's cheaper, not necessarily what's best.

Have one format reach the consumer market, then the competition exists between Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to manufacture and sell players with the best quality and lowest prices. You also have the competition between movie studios to put out the best quality movies with the most added features to sell more copies. And when there is only one format, more people are buying goods which likely causes prices to drop even faster.

On the other hand, having two competing formats in the consumer market will force people to either give up access to certain content (which no consumer wants), or they have to buy into both formats (again no consumer wants).

Just look at all the recent rumors concerning hd-dvd. Would you rather have the format decided by which has better features, or have the format decided by which is first to release the cheap, poor quality players?



DVD players came out in 1997 for $1,000. By Christmas 1998 I was able to by a high end Pioneer dvd player for $250 (which still plays perfectly today). HD-DVD & Blu-ray were released in 2006 for the same high end $1000, and by Christmas 2007 the cheapass quality players may or may not make it down to $250, the high end will still be $500+. It's all right there, dvd player prices dropped faster than hi def dvd player prices currently are.

[Chad Varnadore]

Like dakota said, the advantages of competition only take you so far. For high def disc to see DVD level market acceptance, one format has to pull ahead. The industry doesn't support multiple home video formats. If both formats survive, that in all likelihood will mean that high def disc will remain a niche market, which translates to less industry support when fewer people care about it. Such would make it less likely to see smaller sellers, more obscure new release and catalog titles, even bigger films from Spielberg, Lucas, etc if they can't justify the effort due to low sales. Basically we aren't likely to see much better support than we are now. Hopefully it won't be as hard to convince Lucas as it was to get his support on DVD. But, until there is a clear winner, he's less likely to give consent for titles like Star Wars and Indiana.

Smaller production houses like Anchor Bay that owns distribution rights to titles like Halloween, The Evil Dead and lots of great domestic and international horrors can't justify the expense of supporting a format for the fairly trivial sells BD and HD are currently getting. That has to change to attract more support. When most titles are selling less than 10k units, it doesn't offer much incentive. If one format clearly pulls ahead to the point that they're confident in it's long term survival, they'll have more reason to jump in. Criterion is another, which brings with it some great foreign catalog titles like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, The Seventh Seal, Hidden Fortress, etc, . Over time we'll likely see the formats phased out or supported less and less in favor of concentrating efforts on whatever actually is bringing in the bucks, if both fail to excite mass market acceptance because of a "war".

Prices won't go up if one format fails. But, unless one format does claim victory, and we continue to see increased market penetration, prices won't come down from what they are now and we could see even less discounting at places like amazon.

That's another reason to support Blu. The BD exclusive studios actually believe in the next generation of packaged media. Universal and Warner have both basically stated that they don't. They feel that downloads are the future, which is exactly what Microsoft wants.

[ZX-VETTE]

Originally Posted by dakota81

Competition between formats improve them... but only up until they hit the consumer market. At that point neither format improves at all, and only leads to consumer confusion and fear of buying obsolete equipment.

I agree with most of your post, but not the above. Competition is still a factor after products (or formats) hit the market. An example in this case would be some of the bad transfers on Blu-Ray (i.e. House of Flying Daggers) early on. It seems like after the initial complaints and also high video scores for HD-DVD, the Blu-Ray transfers were addressed which has resulted in a much better product.

Another example would be the xBox vs PS3. There's now the xBox Elite. Without the PS3 there wouldn't have been an xBox Elite.

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by ZX-VETTE

I agree with most of your post, but not the above. Competition is still a factor after products (or formats) hit the market. An example in this case would be some of the bad transfers on Blu-Ray (i.e. House of Flying Daggers) early on. It seems like after the initial complaints and also high video scores for HD-DVD, the Blu-Ray transfers were addressed which has resulted in a much better product.

Another example would be the xBox vs PS3. There's now the xBox Elite. Without the PS3 there wouldn't have been an xBox Elite.

I have to agree with dakota on this one. Competition is good if only one format remains. House of Flying Daggers was rushed out, mainly because HD-DVD was already rolling. Even with only one format it would have been difficult to convince consumers to buy into HD optical discs. The only way to do it is with stellar transfers (and Sony a few others) really deliver now.

[Eve6insideandout]

Well think of it this way, if both formats could coexsist there wouldn't be two formats. By the time everyone gets into high-def blu-ray will be the only logical reason because in 2 to 3 years when HD becomes more a standard than dvd the storage capacity will have surpassed HD-DVD capacity in most standards. Look they are already having problems with GTA. Who knows what other space issues they've run into. Plus look at all the companies supporting blu-ray. It's not like the war is going to end anytime soon, but blu-ray will pretty much win due to its superior capacity and growth with the years to come and the supporting casts. Like the sony guy says the PS3 is the future. MS tries to get all the money they can get now!