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Originally Posted by AV_Integrated
Let's be fair here... Across the street from the main entrance to CEDIA was a large black trailer emblazoned with HD-DVD logos. Inside they had set up a full HD-DVD demo with a demo reel and a good front projection setup and decent speakers. Outside, which was covered with a tent, were all the current HD-DVD products as well as X360 w/HD-DVD add-on drive (not connected). There were friendly people there to field HD-DVD specific questions and deliver answers. Keep in mind that HD-DVD includes the movie and PC industry so there was more than just Toshiba being represented.
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Did anyone say or suggest otherwise here?
We're having a little fun here, but let's all of us get real:
CEDIA and IFA were non=events for HD-DVD and you know it, once you get past the A2 and Xa2 stuff, which we've all known about anyways.
That's it. Those two Toshiba players are pretty much all the news fit to print for HD-DVD past maybe HP, NEC, and Lite-on doing some stuff for them at least in the PC market. Nothing concrete there.
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In fact, it was a far more in-your-face presentation than I felt Blu-ray offerred at the entire show. While Blu-ray had MORE, it was scattered throughout the facility. Most definitely HD-DVD was at just as many, if not MORE demo locations from what I saw. It was a suprise that with all the CE and studio support that Blu-ray offers that they did not have a cohesive section at CEDIA that focussed intensely on the product as a whole.
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Interesting. I haven't seen many others quite put it that way...
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One of my friends who is a custom installer is aware of the format war, but has avoided it altogether, so he remains a bit naive about it all. That is EXACTLY the difference that will swing someone like that one way or the other. He sees HD-DVD, he sees a well presented product on its own, and then, he catches a glimpse of Blu-ray at the Sharp display maybe... or Pioneer (which did it better).
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Exactly. Naivete and ignorance is what HD-DVD has been counting on since day one.
It's amazing how often I see HD-DVD supporters and zealots pretty much admit this right out in the open.
Laughable, really.
Who in their mind would buy a Toshiba player if they had wide open choice, formats notwithstanding?
Not many.
I remember on varying forums going all the way back to January all the "Joe Six pack is going to carry HD-DVD to the finish line" arguments and what not.
I still see some people try to peddle that nonsense to this day.
It's real simple: ANY new CE venture out of the gate that cites Joe Six Pack is DOA. Kiss of death when you hear desperation like counting on J6p for ANYTHING.
It's 100 percent against the typical lifecyle of consumer electronics, and these two optical formats are NO exceptions.
We are in an early adopter market, probably for years to come, no matter what.
But that's what HD-DVD has relied on. Smoke, mirrors, half truths, bashing of the competition, and cheapskates.
I remember:
"HD-DVD was going to kick ass in the Walmarts, Sears, Target and other places that people who are serious about consumer electronics would never have been caught dead in and wouldn't be. Joe Six packs would see it, fall in love with it, buy players and HDTV en masse and the format war would be won by HD-DVD in time for Christmas! "
Some idiots still think the format is already over.
WRONG!
Real world results:
Most of the stores can barely sell it and they're walking away from it.
End result:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/news/show/233
Six uncontested months with Blu-Ray shooting itself in the foot repeatedly = 25,000 players for HD-DVD. That's it. For all the propoganda and MS employees living around the clock on at least one prominent AV forum, you name it. That's all there is.
You know the PS3 alone is going to blow this figure out of the park by year's end, to say nothing about the rest of the BD standalone players.
HD-DVD is LUCKY that Blu-Ray stumbled out of the gate.
They have a nice product. NO ONE is bashing the format itself.
BUT:
They cannot continue to survive long term, or possibly even another full year if the following happens:
1.) BD ascends, eliminate QC issues.
2.) If it continues to be Toshiba, Microsoft, 40 percent studio support and a few PC company strays vs. pretty much the rest of the entire world and 90 percent studio support.
The stockholders of these companies are going to start red flagging this stuff down before long. You can count on it.
I think the A2 and the XA2 are going to be Toshiba's last hail mary pass at this whole thing.
I think once Microsoft gets VC-1 adoption via most of the studios, that ends their stake in this whole thing. I don't think they give a rats' ass about formats. It's all about VC-1 for them. They win via royalty $$$$ no matter what.
No getting around these facts.
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But, no section dedicated to ALL that Blu-ray has to offer, which is just plain sad considering the event and time of year.
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It almost feels like CEDIA has kind of been this "skip and gloss over" event for the past several years, in general.
Am I right in that perception?
But if you want to talk about coverage, let's talk about IFA 2006.
https://www.blu-ray.com/ifa2006/
What did HD-DVD have going against all that?
None of the above matters, of course, if Blu-Ray doesn't really start delivering the goods in the 4th quarter of this year. But we see news about BD 50 titles like Black Hawk Down coming out THIS year, we see picture quality improving on discs all over the place, the hardware is coming soon, we all know that, so...
We'll see what happens.
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