Odd Sony Rumblings

[atomik kinder]

Here is a commentary from DVDfile about the Sony "stalemate" statement.
Interesting, pretty much what other people here have been saying. DVDfile

[jsteinhauer]

Hindsight is always 20/20.

There is no way to settle this diplomatically, now, and everybody is losing.

If a settlement had been negotiated at the outset, both camps would be reaping greater profits, because no one would feel the need to sit back and await a winner.

History repeats itself, over and over and over again.

[mystiksuicide]

Originally Posted by jsteinhauer

Hindsight is always 20/20.

There is no way to settle this diplomatically, now, and everybody is losing.

If a settlement had been negotiated at the outset, both camps would be reaping greater profits, because no one would feel the need to sit back and await a winner.

History repeats itself, over and over and over again.

Sadly you are so correct, let's just hope 2008 see the end of HD DUD so it will be a blu year in 2009. Which in fact it's what I think it's going to happen.

Does anyone know what month and year the Paramount's ***** payoff run out?

[sj001]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

Sadly you are so correct, let's just hope 2008 see the end of HD DUD so it will be a blu year in 2009. Which in fact it's what I think it's going to happen.

Does anyone know what month and year the Paramount's ***** payoff run out?

August 2007 - fast forward 18 months -->
On or around February 2009.

[powersfoss]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

Sadly you are so correct, let's just hope 2008 see the end of HD DUD so it will be a blu year in 2009. Which in fact it's what I think it's going to happen.

Does anyone know what month and year the Paramount's ***** payoff run out?

I believe its late 2008. It was an 18 month deal.

[NARMAK]

Toshiba are the cause of all this, back in the DVD era when it was their tecnology up against Sony's proposed tecnology, Sony folded to allow the better tecnology to come out without causing consumer confusion

Toshiba were ignorant this time round by not folding to SOny who had the better tecnology, probably because of ten years of royalties for the tech & being greedy mofo's

[Elandyll]

From the article:

The whole transition to high definition on disc could stall and fail.

I just cannot believe that Toshiba would rather destroy the whole disc market (HD DVD and Blu Ray alike), and hand over the digital media distribution of movies to Apple (itune) and Microsoft (Xbox Live)...
Apple is playing more straightforwardly than M$ in this, obviously (I think they absolutely envision a market where digital DL co-exists with physical medias), but it is little consolation when we might be witnessing the end of both formats.

Let us hope that Warner and Toshiba (imho the two that can end this war early) will see the light and be willing to put an end to this war where both Movie studios and specially the consumers are losing, and all the more over time.

[dialog_gvf]

Blu-ray recorders have captured nearly 25% of the overall recorder market in Japan (isn't that AMAZING?!). Everyone one of those also plays a Blu-ray movie disc. The war ended in Japan a year ago.

Europe is 3:1 to 4:1 in favour of Blu-ray.

The only place there is a war, is in North America. And it's being perpetuated exclusively by payoffs, subsidies, and dumping hardware. It has caused a bit of a stalemate here. But, that will continue for only as long as the studios and retailers allow it to.

And, for as long as Blu-ray supporters allow doubt and fear to settle into their concious. Ignore HD DVD. Buy Blu-ray discs. Give Blu-ray the growth that makes the decision easy for the studios and retailers.

Gary

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

And, for as long as Blu-ray supporters allow doubt and fear to settle into their concious. Ignore HD DVD. Buy Blu-ray discs. Give Blu-ray the growth that makes the decision easy for the studios and retailers.

Gary

Thank you. That is just what I intend to do. Did you also notice the coment about how they weren't going to talk about sales stats anymore either because with a big release they can go up and down drastically.

[bkbluray]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

The only place there is a war, is in North America. And it's being perpetuated exclusively by payoffs, subsidies, and dumping hardware. It has caused a bit of a stalemate here. But, that will continue for only as long as the studios and retailers allow it to.

+1 Good post

[Rup_Muk]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Blu-ray recorders have captured nearly 25% of the overall recorder market in Japan (isn't that AMAZING?!). Everyone one of those also plays a Blu-ray movie disc. The war ended in Japan a year ago.

Europe is 3:1 to 4:1 in favour of Blu-ray.

The only place there is a war, is in North America.

..snip
Gary

I agree, Gary. The VHS-Beta war was fought mainly in North America. In India, where I grew up, we had heard rumblings... but VHS was all there was. I believe that the widespread adoption of Blu-Ray in other parts of this planet will finally win the war - no matter what we North Americans say or do...

My $0.02.

Rup.

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

And, for as long as Blu-ray supporters allow doubt and fear to settle into their concious. Ignore HD DVD. Buy Blu-ray discs. Give Blu-ray the growth that makes the decision easy for the studios and retailers.
Gary

Sorry, but this format war isn't all that important in the grand scheme of things.

If the BDA cannot bring this format war to a relatively swift conclusion with, what one would think, is a relatively simple tactic, buying WB/Universal exclusivity/support, this format war is going to drag on and on, we'll all lose out.

I'm not putting myself out buying more movies/players than I would normally do, just to prop up the format, when the BDA have stated time and again they aren't going to alter their strategy from the norm, even if they're in a format war.

[richteer]

Originally Posted by JAGUAR1977

If the BDA cannot bring this format war to a relatively swift conclusion with, what one would think, is a relatively simple tactic, buying WB/Universal exclusivity/support, this format war is going to drag on and on, we'll all lose out.

I think Warner is the more important of those two. And maybe,just maybe, Warner can't be bought? I (somewhat optomistcally) like to think that some companies are honourable. And they were reportedly offered a bribe by the HD DVD camp last Summer, which they turned down. If they could've been bought easily, they'd have already been bought.

Warner have publically stated that they support Blu (though not exclusively), and that they're watching Q4 sales to help their decision. Assuming that's true, then 52 straight weeks of Blu victory plus a strong Q4 for Blu would make that decision pretty easy for them.

[JAGUAR1977]

If we knew Warner would follow the sales, even if it was another 12 months before they switched, we could rest easy and enjoy our Blu-ray movies.

But you and I know other factors come into play, and so far, HD-DVD is the format that has explored these other factors, successfully with Paramount, unsuccessfully (so far) with Warner.

So many big hitters on both sides of the fence, and straight down the middle in Warners case, could bring this format war to an effective end immediately, so why doesn't it happen.

Early adopters are the very last people they care about, we're cash cows who can be exploited and ditched at the drop of a hat.

[Neo65]

At some point, it ceased to be about sound business practices and more to do with "Face" or "Saving Face".

On the other hand, you have to "Give Face" to expect the other side to "Save Face".

And while MSFT doesn't care about this face thing, toshiba and sony and panasonic do, so MSFT will quite happily do things in their best interest to try to move this to the direction they wanted.

Sony and Panasonic's fault is that they could have compromised on a couple more things to get Toshiba on board, (and maybe they tried), but Toshiba decided to go down this road for a reason, and if Toshiba did not agree to go with the fundamental storage media and work on other things like file formats or other innovations they had to contribute, then it just wasn't logical for sony and panasonic to drop the higher density and faster storage media for the smaller and slower one.

Toshiba at least showed they don't care about the business and are spending large amounts of money for this "Face" thing. Can Sony or Matsushita do the same? You'd think adults would know how to solve this thing earlier without now inflicting this grief on their best customers.

[talbers23]

Originally Posted by Rup_Muk

I agree, Gary. The VHS-Beta war was fought mainly in North America. In India, where I grew up, we had heard rumblings... but VHS was all there was. I believe that the widespread adoption of Blu-Ray in other parts of this planet will finally win the war - no matter what we North Americans say or do...

My $0.02.

Rup.

i hope you're right becasue this is just dumb. blu should have won before it hit the market because its better. nothing to do with studio support, its better.

[jsteinhauer]

Originally Posted by Neo65

At some point, it ceased to be about sound business practices and more to do with "Face" or "Saving Face".

This may be the heart of the matter. Most of us here look at this "war" from our Western perspective, but these corporations, at least at the top, are Japanese. Sound business practices are not the same in Asian cultures.

[hardcore_canadian]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

From the article:


I just cannot believe that Toshiba would rather destroy the whole disc market (HD DVD and Blu Ray alike), and hand over the digital media distribution of movies to Apple (itune) and Microsoft (Xbox Live)...
Apple is playing more straightforwardly than M$ in this, obviously (I think they absolutely envision a market where digital DL co-exists with physical medias), but it is little consolation when we might be witnessing the end of both formats.

Let us hope that Warner and Toshiba (imho the two that can end this war early) will see the light and be willing to put an end to this war where both Movie studios and specially the consumers are losing, and all the more over time.

Suddenly, i have more respect for toshiba, a "If i can't have it, nobody can!" kind of plan. Yet, i have a feeling that if/when HD-DVD bites the dust, toshiba won't sit aside and watch Sony Take all the Royalties that they were used to with DVDs, so they'll come out with the NEXT big thing. Something Like....Holographic Projection TVs that use only Holo-DVDs manufactured by Toshiba (Note, I know that Blu-ray is a lot closer to this, especially with Mitsubishi being amazing....too bad their cars suck)

[Leopold BUTTERS]

Warner knows what will happen if they go HD-DVD exclusive. That it will be a stalemate and no money will be made of the HD market. Which is why Warner Brothers WILL go Blu. Warner wants money, and if there is a stalemate then WB won't be making anything so the only thing to do is to go blu. in 2008 WB will be blu! They are looking at thier best interest and that is money!

[blu2]

Originally Posted by Leopold BUTTERS

Warner knows what will happen if they go HD-DVD exclusive. That it will be a stalemate and no money will be made of the HD market. Which is why Warner Brothers WILL go Blu. Warner wants money, and if there is a stalemate then WB won't be making anything so the only thing to do is to go blu. in 2008 WB will be blu! They are looking at thier best interest and that is money!

Warner is not going to abandon a format that has 35-40% market share. Blu Ray needs to figure a way to win this without depending on a studio to make a move.