The next generation Hi-Def war is over, Standard Def DVD won
I hate quoting myself but..(Link see Comments 31/10/2007)
One company could end the debate over formats in a heartbeat and that is Warner Brothers, if they chose a single format instead of supporting both, the game would be over.
Yesterday January 4th 2008 Warner Bros have announced they are going to pick Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, thus ending the raging format war between the two camps Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.
Just to point out the obvious they waited a full 10 days after Christmas 2007 to announce this, milking the last out of early adopting HD types.
Being a PC guy I would have chosen HD-DVD as my preferred choice. Microsoft also chose this format for PC and Xbox 360. So I would have guessed wrong but I would have been in good company. Microsoft, Toshiba etc.
Interestingly both Dell and Apple chose the right format (Blu-Ray). I think HP offered both.
Well the good news all the format nonsense is now over. Sadly there are millions of consumers stuck with the “Betamax” of this century.
So lets look at the lay of the land.
Standard Def DVD: By far the most dominant by miles. It looks great and is inexpensive to buy titles and players.
Blu-Ray: There is no and I mean no low cost route into Blu-Ray. You need either a Sony Playstation 3 or a dedicated Blu-Ray player. These are currently going to set you back £250 upwards. Until the hardware is between £49-£99 your average consumer is going to run a mile.
Digital Downloads: Hi-Def streaming and downloads are just around the corner. In the UK Sky have just signed up major movie studios so this is going to take off in 2008. Likewise Microsoft will weep momentarily about HD-DVD then fill the Xbox market place with more HD content for download. Finally iTunes will start renting movies this year.
The Blu-Ray HD format is now dead in the water. It is going to be beaten savagely by the aging Standard Def DVD format in the coming years. During those years Digital Downloads will slowly take hold.
The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war a good thing, it kept driving down the cost of Hi-Def to the consumer.
Blu-Ray is the new laserdisc, Standard Def DVD is the new VHS
January 6th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Your pushing the boat out there with your prediction, Colin.
Perhaps the HD-DVD camp will do the right thing and slash the prices so the players are £99 and the films are no more than £2 above regular DVD prices. They shouldn’t expect to make money out of it until after establishing a massive user base.
Microsoft could have tried to do more by launching a Microsoft branded HD-DVD drive for £70 and a recordable drive for as close to £100 as possible. That would rope in millions of computer users to the format. They could have even released a free showcase HD-DVD, one containing all sorts of video clips, short films, trailers, whatever, and another packed with downloads and trial versions of their software just to show how superior the capacity is to DVD.
January 6th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Hi Gary
My boat is heading straight for the iceberg on this one.
I agree HD-DVD should have had more than a push. Microsoft and Toshiba must be really, really disappointed (along with many HD-DVD owners).
Bill Gates is giving a CES Key Note tonight I am looking forward to his reaction.
Wow Microsoft are on the losing side of a format war. HD Downloads would be my guess.
If I were Toshiba I would rush to market with a set top box for HD downloads.
Standard Def DVD is about 10 years old with a good 5+ years left in it.
I cant find the market share data online but I believe both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray combined accounted for about 3% of the market DVD having the other 97%
Colin