Which format war is longer?

[U4K61]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

vhs/betamax its not even close. betamax still had usefullness into the 90s.

this will go down as the most hostile format war, because of the excessive amounts of flaming on the internet.

Of course the internet was quite a bit diffrent in the 80's then it was today. But it is interesting to see how the game has changed. Back then four music formats coexisted for years without a format war - 5 if you include 8 track.

[Geech]

Don't know cause I was only born in 84

[Mericalis]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

Also, will this format war go down in history as the worst format war ever? I think so... what do you think?

I think this war will go down as the worst so far. I mean when people are being escorted out of CE stores because they become a threat to themselves, employess, and other patrons and people almost coming to blows inside CE stores (actually heard of a few that did, but I only saw a few heated arguments that almost got out of hand). Also, with words being thrown back and forth between people on forums as harshly as we've seen. And just to think that is just from consumer's part in this format war.

[Drayton]

One bit of FUD that I could never understand in the BD vs. HD DVD war is as follows:

HD DVD supporters seemed to always mock Sony (not the BDA, mind you) about the Beta vs. VHS war. Sony can't get a format off the ground, "it'll be Beta all over again".

As has been stated in this thread, one of the main reasons that VHS won over Beta is because VHS offered longer recording times for consumers.
By this logic, the public traded picture quality for recording time. In essence, VHS tapes had more "space".

Flash forward, to BD vs. HD DVD and we see that Blu has equal or better PQ/AQ and more importantly more space. The reasons for wanting more space are a bit different than they were in the 1980s, but they still apply. I'd still rather support the format that gives me 25/50gigs vs. 15/30gigs when backing up stuff on my computer. Moreover, the hardcoating is icing on the cake.

The winning factor in both format wars I've been a part of has been media capacity.

Lesson: Support the guy with more space, they seem to win.

[Balian]

I believe the wheel format lasted the longest. It was a battle between limestone and granite. Those cavemen can sure drag a format war to biblical proportions.

Speaking of which, the most interesting format war was saline vs silicon IMHO.

[Beta-guy]

I've heard the argument HD-DVD will win because it is cheaper, when I hear this argument on internet I keep telling them that this format war is an investment in the future, don't cheap out on the future, I don't want my viewing expieriance ruined by a lesser product, most movies the impact will be minimal however movies like LOTR or Patton, the long movies will cause HD-DVD to iether split the movie on to 2 discs or lower the bitrate thus downgrading the video quality... Blu-ray however can handle the format...

[Mystique]

I was born in 1988 so I have no clue, but I'm guessing Blu-ray and HD-DUD?