How Did BD and HD-DVD Get the Same Case?

[TheRealBob]

Stupid question, but I've been wondering about this for a while:

How did it come to be that Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs are packaged in essentially the same style of case, with only a color difference?

Both are smaller than DVD, the same size as each other, and both are translucent.

How was it that when planning to GO TO WAR with each other, they first stopped to make sure they had matching outfits?

[cking2729]

Originally Posted by Recognizer

Why are they red and blue as well? Is this a Republican Vs. Democrat kind of thing? Because I picked the wrong player if I'm supposed to be aligned with my own proper color.

Hah, Ditto.

Pretty interesting question by the OP, though. I never thought about it. Another case of who copied who.

[WickyWoo]

Becuase they had to agree to a common case so the retailers would stock them. They're going to do new shelving ONCE.

[TheRealBob]

It almost seems contrived, doesn't it?

I mean, if you saw a movie that featured a story of two competing products starting an intensely competitive war with each other, and in the movie the two products basically picked the same packaging except they each had their official team color, wouldn't you be rolling your eyes at how unbelievable that was?

Probably the only precedent would be things like pop cans or bottles, which have to fit into standard dispensing machines and so on, so they have to work within limits. If Blu-ray and HD DVD both came out in DVD-sized cases, then it could be explained as them trying to fit existing storage units, etc. But they both went with a different size than DVD, but the same different size.

I didn't catch the Democrats vs. Republicans angle. Maybe we need a new red-state / blue-state map showing how the formats are selling across the country. On second thought, I guess I don't really need to see an all-blue map of America.

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Becuase they had to agree to a common case so the retailers would stock them. They're going to do new shelving ONCE.

So all attempts to agree on a single format failed, they vowed to go to WAR with each other, and then...

...they sat down at a table together and said, yeah, this war is going to be hell, but come on, we both know only one of us is going to win, so let's make it easy on the poor retailers and have the same-sized cases so they can easily reuse the shelf space of the losing format for the winning format?

Or maybe the case size was agreed upon when they were discussing merging the formats, before the talks broke down and they went their separate ways?

Anyway, most places seem to just be using the standard DVD shelving.

[JadedRaverLA]

I don't believe the BDA or the HD DVD PRG really spec'd out case designs -- which would imply one "stole" the other's idea. There's a couple of companies that manufacture these cases and each company's case is slightly different from the others... as they are presumably patented designs. Whichever company proposed their cases first likely just did one design and color-coded it. Now, the general shape and color of the cases is pretty much standard, though the other companies have slightly modified the design to release their own product. There's nothing that says that Blu-ray discs HAVE to come in those cases... though I have no idea why you'd want to release in any other kind of case.

The other possibility is that Sony had the case company come up with the PS3 game case before either format had really looked at proposals... and the movie cases followed.

[WickyWoo]

...they sat down at a table together and said, yeah, this war is going to be hell, but come on, we both know only one of us is going to win, so let's make it easy on the poor retailers and have the same-sized cases so they can easily reuse the shelf space of the losing format for the winning format?

Or maybe the case size was agreed upon when they were discussing merging the formats, before the talks broke down and they went their separate ways?

No, it was a "agree on a case or you can both shove it" thing

[TheRealBob]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

No, it was a "agree on a case or you can both shove it" thing

I see.

Too bad the retailers didn't have the power to say "agree on the format or you can both shove it". Getting agreement on the case size seems to be a pretty minor victory for them.

But then if much of the current news is to be believed, the retailers are beginning to force a single format after all.

[WickyWoo]

Too bad the retailers didn't have the power to say "agree on the format or you can both shove it". Getting agreement on the case size seems to be a pretty minor victory for them.

Not really. Having 2 people fight it out for awhile means you get all kinds of specials and discount as they try to outdo each other. There's just a limit on how long that's fun and practical financially

They don't want to piss off their vendors, so they find one sticking point and stick to it that's actually going to matter in the long run to them

[EricJ]

Also, it was the industries morphing one step closer to using Thinpaks for single non-boxset retail disks, which the customers prefer on their shelves, but which companies still don't want to use, as they think you'll never be able to read the spine title on a Best Buy shelf.

So, we get studios and packagers pushing a new package with the New and Different Formats, thinner (and smaller wasted-vertical size), if not officially Thinpak.

[Denzelio]

Makes it easier to avoid a certain color

they actually stand out very well - eye catching from a distance, and the smaller size makes it so more rows can be placed on a facing/aisle compared to the larger DVD style cases.

[jayrih]

I'm not sure but Warner seems did it as far as I know.

[reiella]

Originally Posted by TheRealBob

So all attempts to agree on a single format failed, they vowed to go to WAR with each other, and then...

...they sat down at a table together and said, yeah, this war is going to be hell, but come on, we both know only one of us is going to win, so let's make it easy on the poor retailers and have the same-sized cases so they can easily reuse the shelf space of the losing format for the winning format?

Or maybe the case size was agreed upon when they were discussing merging the formats, before the talks broke down and they went their separate ways?

Anyway, most places seem to just be using the standard DVD shelving.

NexPak said "We'll make this new form factor case."

And then everyone was like "Ok. That looks good, but can we get it <Red/Blue>?"

[PrinceLH]

Could have been studio's that were releasing in both formats.

[Lord_Phan]

Originally Posted by Recognizer

Why are they red and blue as well? Is this a Republican Vs. Democrat kind of thing? Because I picked the wrong player if I'm supposed to be aligned with my own proper color.

It's ok man, up here in Canada, it's us conservatives that are Blu

[Wreck]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

Becuase they had to agree to a common case so the retailers would stock them. They're going to do new shelving ONCE.

Exactly, As they pay for shelf room and where they want their merchandise displayed, as its all negotiated, and planograms need to match for them to be next to each other, could it work otherwise? Sure, but they knew it was a ***** so im sure they agreed to same aspect size for the cases.

[Living Near Shamu]

Originally Posted by Recognizer

The translucent blue cases remind me of Cabo Wabo and Tron.

LOL at your avatar. You do know that we already have someone here named Tron who has an avatar of the same name?

[quaylie]

I think it's a CASE of (no pun intended) the case war being decided long before the format war was decided..it was decided that this casing is the true "High-Definition" case.

[David Craig]

Originally Posted by TheRealBob

Stupid question, but I've been wondering about this for a while:

How did it come to be that Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs are packaged in essentially the same style of case, with only a color difference?

Both are smaller than DVD, the same size as each other, and both are translucent.

How was it that when planning to GO TO WAR with each other, they first stopped to make sure they had matching outfits?

Good question. I was thinking of asking this myself a while back.

Anyone know the real answer?

[d_rob1031]

Originally Posted by Lord_Phan

It's ok man, up here in Canada, it's us conservatives that are Blu

The color's are backwards from the US? Interesting. I chose the wrong color too actually, but the better format.