Paramount/DreamWorks fallout... a primal scream therapy thread for Blu-ray fans

[NutsAboutPS3]

Originally Posted by Need0fMany

Some of the differences with your example is that Paramount had current titles out on Blu-ray and also had announced titles for release on Blu-ray in the near future, indicating to customers that they were Blu-ray supporters (at least partly) and contributed to influencing customers in buying Blu-ray players. If a company backs out of supporting a format for another because it sells less, that's a good business decision. To switch to exclusively supporting the format with lower sales (against customer interests) because a 3rd party pays you, that is illegal. If you need any more proof of that, it is why the business deal was worded as "for future promotional consideration" because anything more direct would not be legally viable for them.

Okay, so similarities with cable and satellite: Lost and 24 used to be available on both satellite and cable in the UK. Sky paid the studios to make that content exclusive to satellite. People had bought cable believing those shows would be available to them, and had already watched part of the seasons. Sky rubbed their faces in it with adverts telling them if they want to carry on watching those shows, there's only one way to do it, and that's to get satellite. Customers ditched cable in droves, and the cable company is in huge financial difficulties.

However, perhaps there will be some sort of competition investigation into it at some point, problem is these things always take so long that they have absolutely no effect.

[hippy fascist]

Serisously. This paramount news is FANTASTIC.

If blu ray won by christmas players would still be at the $500 mark this time next year

Competition forces suppliers to improve their product and lower their price.

Without paramount switching sides fox would never have gotten off their arses with blu-ray or at least it wouldn't have been till next year.

A market without competition is a market where customers basically take what their given. By increasing choice naturally producers will have to offer more to the consumer

I know for a fact that this will also help to speed up the transition to ver1.1

And for those who say HD-DVD's move is anti competition...

wake up

you really think sony didn't offer SOMETHING for their exclusive studios to keep them sweet. And then of course there's blockbuster and target.

The more competition the better, as far as I'm concerned

[oldmike]

what you fail to see is the longer this war drags on the worce it is for the buyers
many will not get in till the war is over and the longer it drags on the chance it becomes like laserdisk rizes for the two formats
also it is anti competition as they no longer will be head to head sales for the movies

[aygie]

Originally Posted by hippy fascist

Serisously. This paramount news is FANTASTIC.

If blu ray won by christmas players would still be at the $500 mark this time next year

Competition forces suppliers to improve their product and lower their price.

Without paramount switching sides fox would never have gotten off their arses with blu-ray or at least it wouldn't have been till next year.

A market without competition is a market where customers basically take what their given. By increasing choice naturally producers will have to offer more to the consumer

I know for a fact that this will also help to speed up the transition to ver1.1

And for those who say HD-DVD's move is anti competition...

wake up

you really think sony didn't offer SOMETHING for their exclusive studios to keep them sweet. And then of course there's blockbuster and target.

The more competition the better, as far as I'm concerned

I think you speak a lot of truth in what you have said, however dragging this war out is good for people like us who have embraced high definition but it's going to make every normal consumer even more afraid to jump in to the next gen of home entertainment.

If the war ended tomorrow i think sales would double even triple due all those people sitting on the fence waiting to wait for this to end. Just my thoughts.

[buckshot]

there would still be competition within the winning format (blu ray) because there are multiple companies making players. i hate this fud of "no competition if blu ray won to quick". hd dvd has only 1 company that makes its hardware. that in essence means no competition.

hey hd dvd people, use that thing between those nubs that are forced to listen to compressed audio . its your brain. if 1 company makes the hardware for hd dvd thats called a monopoly. if multpile companies make make blu ray hardware that is called competition. "where did you go to school? the university of DUUUUUHHHH"

besides M$ is keeping your side alive and they are the largest opponents of competition. i'm typing this on a windows vased machine so i'm not a full fledged m$ hater, just someone who sees the truth.

and if when people say "competition" they mean anti consumer behaviors then why not have a different format for every studio. hell i'll have to get a bigger entertainment center to hold the 12 different players, all of which will need to be color coded i suppose.

[mrinck]

What you say is true if we would have all studios were releasing on both formats. It's not the case and it will never happen.

Micro$oft's project is to make sure that BD/HD-DVD are never successful; there are promoting the download-movie thing. In this case, both BD and HD-DVD owners would be stuck in a dead format... great!

[tjsmangina]

onkyo are making a high end hd dvd player and there are also 2 more companys ion the process of making cheaper players.

[NutsAboutPS3]

Originally Posted by hippy fascist

The more competition the better, as far as I'm concerned

CD and DVD worked just fine as definitive formats.

SACD and DVD-A failed miserably, so much for your argument.

Competition is a good thing, yes, we need different studios competing to get us to buy their movies, different hardware makers competing to get us to buy their players. We would have all that if we had one definitive high def format.

The majority of people will NOT buy into high def if they aren't sure which format will win. Combo players will NOT solve this problem because people still won't want to end up with discs from a format that might eventually disappear. The only solution is to have one format, and without Paramount's shift we could have more or less been there early in 2008, and consumer mass adoption could have followed.

Your argument is like saying the world would be a better place if we split the road network into 2 parts, and made it so that any car you buy can only go on one of the two parts. But hey, you probably think that would be great, you can always buy two cars if you want to use all the roads!

[buckshot]

Originally Posted by tjsmangina

onkyo are making a high end hd dvd player and there are also 2 more companys ion the process of making cheaper players.

true, but those are announced. just like paramout announced that hd dvd didn't have the room necessary for their flagship special features, hd picture, and hd audio. so only blu ray would get the hd audio tracks. then a few weeks later they magically think hd dvd is a better standard despite admitting better sales in blu ray. i don't believe anything until you can see it. by the way its typically bad manners to be a newbie at a forum and start sh*t here's something to check out.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/Relationshi...cumentid=27876

[eat_me_cool]

MS preference is that neither format wins, they want downloads, their downloads, to succeed.

So prolonging the format war (by stopping consumers buying into each format due to FUD) is damaging to consumers who want HD films at the best quality possible. Downloads will give the worse quality for the highest price. That is what we will get by prolonging the format war.

[Amel]

lots of kids take this personal

I actually like it

its interesting and exciting

[tjsmangina]

Originally Posted by buckshot

by the way its typically bad manners to be a newbie at a forum and start sh*t

by starting shit do you mean by not buying into the blu ray brainwashing and misinformation machine ? oh the irony of having "fight for free speech" in your signature.

[hippy fascist]

Originally Posted by Amel

lots of kids take this personal

I actually like it

its interesting and exciting

Exactly!

[hippy fascist]

Originally Posted by tjsmangina

by starting shit do you mean by not buying into the blu ray brainwashing and misinformation machine ? oh the irony of having "fight for free speech" in your signature.

Exactly, I have a 360 add-on hd-dvd player AND a ps3

I have not picked a side.

I just saw a load of RAMPANT FANBOYISM and MISINFORMATION and decided to make things a little more even

[tjsmangina]

Originally Posted by hippy fascist

Exactly, I have a 360 add-on hd-dvd player AND a ps3

I have not picked a side.

I just saw a load of RAMPANT FANBOYISM and MISINFORMATION and decided to make things a little more even

i`m predicting a banning or the fact you cant have a decent conversation without the fanboyism everywhere being the end to my posting.you put across some points that dont praise or go along with what the fan boys want and your lambasted

[cawgijoe]

On the surface competition sounds great, however whats really stopping this hi-def disc medium from rolling is the format war.

There are alot of people I know with shiny new HDTV's that want more than OTA, cable, FIOS, or satellite feeding HD signals to their prize. They want a hi-def disc medium such as blu-Ray (or God-forbid, HD-DVD). But the majority (which does not include us nutcases), are afraid to commit to one format or another for fear of being on the losing side and having to use their discs as frisbies for Fido.

With the CD....happy 25th birthday!......and the DVD, everyone agreed upon a standard and the rest is history. It did not take long for DVD players to come down in price from over $1,000 to $200-$300.

This format war is really hurting the growth and acceptance of this medium.

What Paramount did just prolongs the issue.

[hippy fascist]

exactly. i'm not saying screw blu ray, HD FTW!!!!!!!11!1!!!1!

What i'm saying is look at both formats equally and make an eductated decision rather than some obsessive brand loyalty.

Maybe it's my leftover journalistic integrity from my uni newspaper days but I just want to see the best movies in the best quality, with the best features and at a fair price

Troll, lol

[buckshot]

Originally Posted by tjsmangina

by starting shit do you mean by not buying into the blu ray brainwashing and misinformation machine ? oh the irony of having "fight for free speech" in your signature.

coming to a blu ray website and throwing out a blanket statement about hating competition is starting shit. much like if I walked up to a guy in an iron maiden shirt and said ''god that band sucks, how can you support such crap''. did you go to the miss manners link? free speech and tactfullness should go hand in hand. :-) which means I should apologize to that coworker with the iron maiden shirt.

[tjsmangina]

SUPPORT THE FILMS NOT THE MEDIA is what i say.

[hippy fascist]

Originally Posted by cawgijoe

On the surface competition sounds great, however whats really stopping this hi-def disc medium from rolling is the format war.

There are alot of people I know with shiny new HDTV's that want more than OTA, cable, FIOS, or satellite feeding HD signals to their prize. They want a hi-def disc medium such as blu-Ray (or God-forbid, HD-DVD). But the majority (which does not include us nutcases), are afraid to commit to one format or another for fear of being on the losing side and having to use their discs as frisbies for Fido.

With the CD....happy 25th birthday!......and the DVD, everyone agreed upon a standard and the rest is history. It did not take long for DVD players to come down in price from over $1,000 to $200-$300.

This format war is really hurting the growth and acceptance of this medium.

How many people would be willing to pay $1000 for a blu-ray player and $30 a disk? Cause that's how much they'd still cost if not for this war. Blu ray will get players out at the $300 mark by march at the latest.

And loathe though most of you will be to admit it

You have HD-DVD to thank for that