HD-DVD Evangelism

[hyperdine]

Can't wait to see the spin and FUD that comes out of this one. I'm sure the fanboys will be hanging on their every word. I'm sure the question about Universal being a no-show is bound to come up...

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

"We wanted to let you know that Ron, Parker and all our friends over at the Home Theater Forum have informed us that they're holding a live chat with Kevin Collins, the director of "HD-DVD Evangelism" for the Consumer Media Technology Group at Microsoft. The chat will this coming Monday, January 15th at 5 PM PST. Click here for all the details on how to participate. We'll be sure to post a transcript of the chat the next day."

How appropriate that they call it HD-DVD Evangelism. That's exactly what it is and those fanatics will follow MS blindly.

Might be a good idea to sign up and participate to make sure some of the tough questions get asked.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by hyperdine

Can't wait to see the spin and FUD that comes out of this one. I'm sure the fanboys will be hanging on their every word. I'm sure the question about Universal being a no-show is bound to come up...

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents



How appropriate that they call it HD-DVD Evangelism. That's exactly what it is and those fanatics will follow MS blindly.

Might be a good idea to sign up and participate to make sure some of the tough questions get asked.

^^ See?

Some of you have seen me refer to the cult membership like mentality amongst these HD-DVD zealots for months, now.

I rest my case.

[Deane Johnson]

I wonder if when HD-DVD fails, they'll all drink the Kool-Aid. I hope not.

[simpspin]

Originally Posted by Deane Johnson

I wonder if when HD-DVD fails, they'll all drink the Kool-Aid. I hope not.

They'll get knocked out with one 'punch'.

[dobyblue]

If you google HD DVD Evangelism you'll see it's a term being used in a lot of places.

[dialog_gvf]

Corporate sponsored evangelism. That's a comforting turn of events.

Microsoft: The new Scientology.

(shudder)

[phloyd]

Evangilism is not an uncommon term used for the support of technology in tech circles.

[dialog_gvf]

How about the Microsoft/Toshiba scorched Earth policy when it comes to HD DVD?

Microsoft has basically declared themselves to be (CE) king makers. They will do everything they can to promote a bunch of no-name Chinese CE into the middle-tier of consumer electronics companies. Putting the full mass of a corporate giant with no real CE interest behind companies solely to defeat a set of CE.

Imagine if they decided their next market is full digitally tricked out Chinese automobiles. Bet Congress would love that.

Gary

[hyperdine]

Just an update on this event. It just ended. Unfortunately, I missed the first 45 minutes. The digitalbits will have the full transcript later. Anyway, I caught the last 75 minutes.

Can I just say...wow! Just wow. Talk about spin city.

Unfortunately, there were only about 16 people online from what I could see, so a lot of the same people were asking weak questions, like "How many HD-DVD players have been sold?" etc. So it was pretty much everything you've already heard. No real new information from what I saw.

Somebody did ask about Universal being virtually silent at CES, to which the reply was basically the same old, same old, i.e. "Universal have a slew of titles coming out in 2007" etc. Naturally, Kevin tried to drop a lot of hints to string people along, like "There were a lot of deals made at CES", etc.

And as everyone had already guessed here, we won't be seeing any 51gb discs until later in the year (if ever) and they really don't know yet if they're going to work with existing players. In fact, the working group Kevin's a part of is actually concentrating on the 45gb disc, so he couldn't even really comment much on the 51gb disc.

Wait until you get a chance to read the transcript though. It's good for a laugh. It was the same party line...

-HD-DVD players are $499, Blu-Ray Players are $999
-Recommending eproductwars.com as a good site
-The XBox 360 add on is selling like "hot cakes"
etc, etc...

Too funny.

[pretender2j]

Just checked out eproductwars. They have the best Blu-ray product (Crank) ahead at position 146 compared to HD-DVD's best selling product (Mummy Returns) at position 209. Seems fair enough to me?
Am I missing something that has happened in the past?

JB

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Deane Johnson

I wonder if when HD-DVD fails, they'll all drink the Kool-Aid. I hope not.

I do.

[hyperdine]

Transcript of last night's chat with Kevin Collins is now available on HTF...

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/chat/hdvd07.txt

[dialog_gvf]

<kevincol> For instance, the Matrix trilogy will be coming out this
year from WHV, Star Trek will be exclusive to HD DVD this year,
Babel and The Good Shepherd. All in all there will be over 600
HD DVD titles by EOY.

<RonEpstein> That's pretty incredible!

<kevincol> Also, don't forget that HD DVD does NOT have region
control, so you can get really good titles from Japan and Europe
and play them on your HD DVD player in the US. For instance, The
Rambo series is out from Studio Canal in Europe along with Basic Instinct.
In the US, these are BD titles.

I wonder how much they paid for delaying Star Trek on BD? Disappointing, but hardly a format issue. I can get POTC, Casino Royale, or Cars but I can't get my fourth format version of Wrath of Khan (VHS, LD, DVD, HD disc) until next year?! Wow, I'm going HD DVD.

As for 600 titles. This is from the premise there are 300 now (is that right?). So:

- 300 titles in 12 months instead of 300 titles in eight months. That's massive rate REDUCTION when it should be accelerating!

- That is worldwide, so figure three markets (NA, Europe, and Asia) means 100 per territory.

- Of that 100, how many will be HD DVD exclusive? Right now, extremely few since Universal has announced squat, and Weinstein simply isn't putting out enough movies to matter.

- Sounds to me like some paid exclusivity for 2007 will gain them some difference.

What is the announced count so far for BD? 70 titles? And we expect that to accelerate.

By "cheap"-Chinese-time the gap will be staggering, and not recoverable. Content is king.

Oh, hasn't Kevin heard? Basic Instinct plays with a PAL speed up in North America! The examples are striking. I can't fathom how Europe ever put up with this. Voices are wierd, but music is completely destroyed!!!


Gary

[Longshot]

Joe 6 Pak or whatever you want to call him may very well buy a cheap chinese player. But I can asssure you that when he finds out he cannot watch Sony, Disney, Fox or MGM films that player is going rite back to the retailer.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Longshot

Joe 6 Pak or whatever you want to call him may very well buy a cheap chinese player. But I can asssure you that when he finds out he cannot watch Sony, Disney, Fox or MGM films that player is going rite back to the retailer.

Yeah, but that 90 percent studio support really isn't that important just like it really isn't any big deal that Universal was a no-show for HD-DVD at CES.

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Longshot

Joe 6 Pak or whatever you want to call him may very well buy a cheap chinese player. But I can asssure you that when he finds out he cannot watch Sony, Disney, Fox or MGM films that player is going rite back to the retailer.

I'm not convinced J6P is even looking at $299. But, certainly a wider audience would look at them. I'd be a fool to argue otherwise.

But, I also think that nobody buys $300 disc players without looking at the titles available, frequently in the same store they are looking at the player in. If they haven't already passed the shelves with BD domination many times as they start thinking about it.

Honestly, if I were to recommend a better strategy to Microsoft it would be to release one great player under their own brand. People are confident in the support for Microsoft product. They know they will get a good warrantee.

Not only is this Chinese thing going to be a tough sell. It is also going to make Microsoft the enemy of most of the traditional CE, permanently. At some point the CE stars they try to build up will start competing against Toshiba's interests.

Gary

[Nismobeach]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Imagine if they decided their next market is full digitally tricked out Chinese automobiles. Bet Congress would love that.

Gary

Honestly they don't care. A flood of cheap no-name Chinese cars will be hitting American shores around 2008-2010.

[Nismobeach]

I'll take access to a wide variety of current top grossing Hollywood movie releases over access to a nerdy niche movie franchise.

Spiderman 2 > Star Trek II
Casino Royale > Star Trek Generations
etc

[joeorc]

<DaveMoritz> Other than Onkyo do you know of any other companies that
will be offering HD-DVD players this year? I currently own a Toshiba HD-A1
and am looking forward to upgrading it to a HDMI 1.3 player using better
components and one that is a higher end piece of equipment and one that
boots up quicker as well. I have been happy with my HD-DVD player so
far but am thinking of the future and going beyond 5.1 audio.

<kevincol> Meridian announced at CES for HD DVD. There are others
that will announce, I just can't say them here. There were alot of
deals done at CES...

lets see if that player ever see's the light of day

[blitz6speed]

The chinese government is stoping DVD players from being made to go overseas by jan 1st 2008. So whatever they pump out by then is all they will have. Basically a last hooray and then its lights out for hd-dvd. Will suck for anyone who buys into it, but thems the breaks.