Warner Bros gives all its hi-def loving to Blu-ray

Warner Bros is abandoning HD-DVD to settle down in monogamous bliss with Sony's Blu-ray. The company today cited "consumer demand" for its decision to stop selling HD-DVD-format movie titles at the end of May. It is the only movie major to sell high-definition DVDs in both formats, but has already tired of playing the field. …

[Neil]

Sony learned from their Betamax loss

and bought a film studio.

Toshiba and Microsoft may regret not having invested in the content side of things before starting this phoney war, which I'm glad is now drawing to a conclusion. Only Paramount and Universal are left with any realistic support for HD DVD - every other major is now on board with Blu-Ray.

It will be interesting to see what announcements are made at CES next week - more pro Blu-Ray announcements is my expectation. And I very much doubt we'll be seeing the speculated "360 with built-in HD-DVD drive" announced - if it is announced I'll be forced to laugh at Microsoft in another of their Zune-moments. :)

Existing HD DVD owners will be looked after by Toshiba going forward. I'm pretty sure Toshiba will bundle legacy HD DVD support in their future Blu-Ray spinners in order to soften the blow of this eventual loss.

[LaeMi Qian]

consumer confusion and indifference

"consumer confusion and indifference" has also likely caused prices to drop somewhat faster than they otherwise might, so it isn't all bad. ;-)

Here's hoping that the same "consumer confusion and indifference" might yet have a similar effect on snakeoil Content Restrictions Management usage. I can dream!

[Anonymous Coward]

But, but, but...

The PS3 doesn't count! There are so many more standalone HD-DVD

players! The difference is even bigger if you only count people whose

surnames start with letters A-M!

What about HD-DVD's interactivity, PIP, and all that other crap that

nobody cares about?!

[Bas Scheffers]

Not that simple

In the wonderful world of HDBluDVRayD nothing is black and white.

All these announcements about allegiances are really only for the US market. Most studios have different distributors in different countries/regions and they may have another allegiance. It is not uncommon for a title that is exclusively Blu-Ray in the US to be available only on HDDVD in Europe.

And they wonder why consumers are confused about the formats...

[Highlander]

As I was saying....it's all over now

As predicted Warner has made their decision - at last. This format war is a royal pain in the ass. It's dragged on at least a year beyond where it should, and it would have been unnecessary had Toshiba been a little more receptive to Sony(and vice versa) during the early talks to bring the formats together.

Ah well. Now then, let's just get on with releasing new movies, putting out a nice catalog of older movies and bringing the rest of the consumer electronics industry to the party to make players at a reasonable price.At the end of the day this is good for everyone. Now MS can forget the distractions of HD-DVD and get on with their other plans for world domination - notably the Xbox360. Sony can concentrate on marketing the PS3 and bringing down it's cost thanks to the dropping price of the blu-ray drive inside it. Movie makers and production companies can just get on with the whole movies and TV shows on Blu-ray release schedule and Toshiba can go back to being a world class consumer electronics company instead of a Sony/MS wannabe.

I bet this doesn't hurt sales of the PS3 either.....

Oopsie, I guess it's "Flame on!" now, eh?

[yeah, right.]

not over yet.

The fight isn't over until the fat disk sings, and it hasn't done so yet. There's still lots of time for the technically inferior product to win this particular spat.

Personally, I'm not playing this fools game. I'm of the firm opinion that storing information on easily scratched spinning disks is a thing of the past, and I'm looking forward to a more robust solid state approach to data storage, be it for movies or backups.

[mark carlisle]

@but but but

'ps3 doesn't count'

sorry but, bollocks.

when the ps2 was launched, it greatly helped put a dvd player into every home, especially ones who wouldn't have spent £300 plus (1999 remember it well- good old samsung) for a stand-a-lone machine.

I was a manager of an electrical retailer during this time so this is first hand experience.

whether or not someone buys a ps3 to watch hd movies, they still have THE CAPABILITY to do so and sooner or later they will use it.

not so when you rely on price point to sell your sole-use hardware and throw millions of dollars to studios to force backing..

i hope this will end the whole 'format-war', so I can watch 'Transformers' on bluray!

[John]

I don't hear the fat lady...

And I really don't think we will hear her in this case, unlike the VHS and Betamax which this is constantly compared to, there will be no loser skulking back off to the shadows.

Blueray can't vanish because of the PS3, thats too many installed players for anyone to ignore. Microsoft won't get into bed with Sony, just because there is too much history. With other massive names backing each player none will simple vanish it will be a long slow lingering and painful death with ill informed consumers being given short thrift yet again by choosing the 'wrong' format and getting left with a unsupported player/collection.

Now, if I was a betting man I would be expecting Sony to gently lube up Warner and they both take a small hit on a couple of free movies for buyers, especially now Sony is taking less of a loss on the PS3 (if they are still at all)

[DrXym]

Hopefully the end is in sight

Assuming no more studios play musical chairs, this change in stance might finally drive a stake through the heart of HD DVD. This format war is pointless and has been going on longer than it has any reason to. A single format plus numerous affordable players ensures that the HD market is going to undergo a massive expansion this and next year.

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor Christmas sales of HD DVD

Well I wondered how the Christmas sales of HDDVD vs BluRay went, Amazon sales chart says it all.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/dvd/all

Bluray positions 1,2,3,4,8,16,17,20,24,25... and lots more

HD DVD positions 36,77,85

So Bluray outsold it's HDDVD competitor by a long long way. The studios that signed to HDDVD exclusive have condemed themselves to low low chart positions for their movies. Ha ha!

I watch Sunshine on Bluray and it's a very very impressive movie BTW, I was very surprised given how little I'd heard about it.

[Richard Spooner]

Foolish to ignore PS3 Blu-ray

From the off, I'm no PS3 fanboy, but all along I've said it's stupid folly to ignore Blu-ray players in the shape of the PS3. A BR player is a BR player is a BR player regardless of what is is contained in. The HD-DVD consortium despite it's posturing on the subject, surely acknowledge this to one another, and to be publicly saying "they don't count" is...... b******s. Anonymous coward, my goodness, don't say such short sighted things on a generally well informed forum. No the PS3 isn't a dedicated top end BR player, but it is a BR player in homes and owners are buying BR movies in larger and larger quantities. Warner have seen this, and with the HD-DVD consortium thinking a bargain bin HD-DVD player sold on a tat home shopping channel is going to win the format war, and bring the big studios over, then they deserve the bloody nose. I've seen the QVC HD-DVD player running and it made me wince at the poor quality of the picture. Should we discount this as a HD-DVD player because it isn't technologically superior enough, like the PS3 it to 'proper' BR players? No, because it plays HD-DVD's.

[Hugh Sweeten]

This will end it.

Well, I think this will end it. I would rather it have gone the other way, but I think one side dropping out will be good in the long run.

After SO many failed tries, Sony finally has grabbed control of a major new entertainment format. Don't kid yourself, they own the major Blu patents and are in control. DRM is on the way up for movies, not out like music.

I've been eyeballing the Panasonic Blu players for a while, but I think I'll still wait a year or so. Best let them finish the profile completely. What are they at, 1.1 now? Prices should be much lower by then anyway. Maybe. With Tosh spinning down the tube, the big price war we've been seeing may slow down a lot. I hope the prices on the movies come down a bit at least. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

As for helping sales of the PS3. I don't think it will make much difference. The prices on the stand alone players are almost low enough now to make people jump. Like I said, give it a year. The only thing that will really help the PS3 is some good games. There aren't nearly enough to make me think about buying one yet. And with few exclusive titles on the way, I doubt there will ever be. I'm more of a PC gamer anyway.

[Anonymous Coward]

Consumer choice? What consumer choice?

So, before the consumer has decided which format is the most desirable, the MegaCorps have made up our minds for us! Whilst I certainly don't believe that consumerism is particularly good thing, it does strike me as hypocritical in the extreme that big companies are always pushing for removal of any restrictions on their business practices whilst at the same time undermining the basic economic principles of free markets that supposedly underly modern Western consumerist economies.

The argument by the companies is this: give us the freedom to sell our goods and the natural forces of cunsumerism will drive the market to ever increasing efficiency and product quality. In reality, corporations make agreements that run directly against the needs of the consumer so as to protect their own shareholders. In a genuinely free market, all film studios would be forced to sell movies on BOTH formats thus ensuring that consumers have genuine choice. In reality (especially in the US) the governments protect cartels and monopolies and so put the needs of the companies above those of the electorate they supposedly serve.

[Anonymous Coward]

Failed and Successful Sony Formats

Failed:

Betamax (to VHS)

MiniDics (to cassette tapes and mp3s)

UMD (to downloads)

Digital Video8 (to miniDV)

Successful:

Video8 (beat VHS-C)

HiVideo8 (beat SVHS-C)

MemoryStick (is equal to CompactFlash, SD, miniSD, etc.)

CD (with Phillips) (beat, uh everything)

Blu-ray (with Phillips and Matsushita/Panasonic) (beat HD-DVD)

The Paris angle? I hear she recorded her pr0n video on miniDV.

[vincent himpe]

The war is over

Lg electronics has a blu-ray / HD DVd drive on sale at fry's, newegg, amazon for 239 $ . pop it in the computer and you can play BOTH formats.

If you want a box to hook up to the TV : that will set you back 451 $.

The drives exist and are on the shelves. The war is over. It doesn't matter anymore who seels what opn which format. Just make sure you have a dual format drive.

Exactly the same story happened with DVD-R and DVD+R. they will never learn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Warner Bros or not

Sony cannot win!!!

the name BluRay sounds like blurrey ... that's a silly name for a crispy picture device. betamax was another silly name.

Anyway who gives a flip; people are watching TV, movies ... on their mobile phone or PSP, and as someone said in Reg's forum crap in HD is still CRAP.

I can only see the benefits as mass storage device so HD DVD is more likely.

[jai]

blu-ray seems to have done it

on another news site they linked to this pie-chart, showing the market share of the studios and the formats they are releasing - now that Warner have moved it's mostly blue - before it was 50-50

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/a/af/20080105024317%21HighDefShare.svg

[Craig]

Big downside (for consumers that is)

HD-DVD still appears to region free, but my Japanese PS3 is pretty much useless for playing UK Blu Ray discs these days :(

[Chad H.]

death of the media...

I thought it all didnt matter cos downloading was going to wipe the floor with them both!

[Martin Usher]

"Consumer indifference to HD"

Says it all, really. HD isn't so compelling a technology that you need to spend extra dollars on it (and obsolete your existing kit). Currently the problem is that there aren't enough HD titles and what titles there are are sold or rented at a hefty premium. Since BluRay and single format HD discs are unusable in any other player you pay extra and sacrifice usability to be able to see picture details that are essentially irrelevant.

(BTW -- We have a HD setup with all the trimmings but we usually watch SD discs.)

[Anonymous Coward]

But..But..But

But..But..But... it seems a few people completely missed the massive amount of sarcasm in this post

[Anonymous Coward]

@carlisle, @spooner

I thought my "surnames starting with letters A-M" point made

it clear that I was kidding.

You guys need a picturebook icon spelling it out for you? How

about this one.

[tempemeaty]

I wonder what the party will be like

So will Sony celebrate by sacrificing a goat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Bad news for film lovers

So I am forced away from region-free HD-DVD to region-locked BetaRay and will lose PIP and gain inferior java based interactive features.

Thanks Warner!

I guess the $500 million paid by the BDA to ditch HD-DVD was too much too ignore.

Welcome back to the situation where everyone but the USA is in the third world.

A sad sad day.

[Anonymous Coward]

Long way to go yet

There's still at least another 9 months whilst Paramount and Dreamworks are to be HD-DVD only so the format war is going to be prolonged at least that long still.

Ignoring that though we have to look at the bigger picture, Blurays current success hinges entirely on the PS3 but in terms of the console wars the PS3 is a distant last. Whilst the Wii will likely never go hi-def what happens if the 360 ends up including an HD DVD drive? what happens if continue it's current trend in the console wars and reaches the number of homes the PS2 had as the winner of the previous war? even sharing sales with the Wii there's a hell of a lot of potential for the 360 to push HD DVD into more homes albeit later than the PS3 did the long term trend is simply impossible to predict right now, there's far too many variables in the game still.

HD has a problem in general also in that a lot of films really aren't any better in HD than in SD. Whilst documentaries like Planet Earth truly show off how fantastic high def content can be for some areas, many films in many peoples collections ranging from full metal jacket, to the godfather, to any run of the mill love story simply aren't worth buying in HD when they can cost upwards of 3x as much as the DVD version - not to mention many of these films exist in people's DVD collections already anyway, many people wont buy twice!

It's been said many times before, but high def content really is a victim of DVD's success and by the time people really are going to start accepting HD discs, HD content will already be well available by Internet-TV and other comparable services.

To suggest a format has currently won or is definitely going to win is really no better grounded than a random guess that Britain is going to score an overall win in the olympics this year.

[Anonymous Coward]

pc's and laptops

i'd be interested 2 know how many laptops and pc's have been shifted which have hd players! As the format could still live on if the number is significant

[Anonymous Coward]

@martin usher

"HD isn't so compelling a technology that you need to spend extra dollars on it"

personal preference

"(and obsolete your existing kit)."

depends on how old you existing kit is, i needed a new telly bought a hd one and then bought the rest of the gubbins for hd films, my old dvd player still work fine (could do with a region free player, so i can ditch my region A ps3)

"Currently the problem is that there aren't enough HD titles and what titles there are are sold or rented at a hefty premium"

sounds like dvd vs vhs or £18.99 vs £10.99/£12.99, but dvd did offer more of an improvement to vhs than blu-ray does to dvd

"Since BluRay and single format HD discs are unusable in any other player you pay extra and sacrifice usability"

give it time and you'll have portable blu-ray players, rippers to get the films on video ipods etc, i know you'll loose the 'blu-ray' visual improvements on a 7" back of the seat tv screen but i'd rather start with the best source possible and work it down to the quality needed

[Andy Pellew]

Region Encoding ...

Check out:

http://bluray.liesinc.net/

It shows you which Blu-Ray disks from other regions are being released "Region Free" (and which are locked).

HD DVD has region encoding in the specification ... the studios supporting it just haven't turned it on yet. If you think they'd win the format war and leave it off ... well HD-DVD players are about $99 now if you run you'll be able to get one!

[BitTwister]

@Bad news for film lovers

> So I am forced away from region-free HD-DVD to region-locked BetaRay

Yep, that's about the size of it. How depressing - and how predictable. As soon as I read that HD-DVD wasn't region-locked I knew it was dead already.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Long way to go

What you're missing is that even "distant last" in the console wars is still a big number in the context of standalone HD players. If anything, the PS3's sales are picking up, and even the bargain basement version still has BluRay.

Even if the 360 "ends up" including HD, when? Probably too late. And we all know how MS works, they won't miss the chance to pick up a little margin by putting the HD player on only the high-end models.

[Anonymous Coward]

pc's and laptops

that should have read how many pc's and laptops have hd-dvd players.

I think the format wars are on three fronts.

1 movies. Looks like blu-ray have this one.

2 console gaming- to me this looks like this one will be a draw as both the 360 and ps3 will hang around and while they do there will be a market for both formats (even though the 360 doesn't do hd-dvd as standard i can see some content being brought out).

3 computer software. A lot me new mid range pc's and laptops come with hd-dvd player and some high end ones with blu-ray. If a significant no have been sold i can see a future for hd-dvd (imagine microsoft have some software/content which can't fit on a dvd, which format would they pick).

Ultimately i think dual format player will be commen at which point whichever format is cheaper will get a lead.

Anyway these are just thoughts and ultimately anything could happen ... As people are creatures that defy logic at the best of times!

All i'm saying is it ain't over yet.

Potentially there is another front because data back-up may be bother area but i don.t know much about that!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody move ...

The HD-winnah was HDDVD last week right ? This week it's Blu-Ray ?! Apart from mentioning that I pay exactly the same to rent a BR as an ordinary DVD (lovefilm) isn't it a bit soon to declare Sony over MicroTosh ? I want BR to dominate as much as any other PS3 owner but until that lousy Transformer film is on Blu-Ray the war is still being fought. Stupid Michael Stupid Bay.

> The only thing that will really help the PS3 is some good games. There aren't nearly enough to make me think about buying one yet.

Wow did you think about buying a PS2 ? That has the highest number of good games of any console, or should that be the SNES or the 2600 ? The PS3 already has more great games than I can finish - if only I didn't waste so much time watching hi-def movies maybe I'd have run out of games to play by now.

[Neil]

@Long way to go yet

A 360 with built-in HD DVD drive would be foolish on two counts:

1) It would be a transparent attempt by Microsoft to prolong this war - it's over. Having two formats doesn't really benefit the consumer in the long run, and if Microsoft were to continue to back HD DVD it would only be for their own benefit and not the consumer. Their interest is to see both formats fail so that they can push their download agenda.

2) Retailers will put the nail in the HD DVD coffin when they decide to stop wasting shelf and warehouse space on inventory they can't sell.

While I expect #1 to happen as Microsoft have deep pockets and see downloads as their bright future, I fully expect #2 to finish HD DVD once and for all, and within the next 6 months too.

Now that the optical HD format of the future has been sorted (well, very nearly) I expect sales of Blu-Ray PC/laptop drives to take off and come installed as standard.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Still a long way to go yet

"There's still at least another 9 months whilst Paramount and Dreamworks are to be HD-DVD only so the format war is going to be prolonged at least that long still."

I doubt that, if you look at the Amazon chart, Blu Ray is outselling even *DVDs* in their charts. So I doubt someone would buy a HD DVD player just to watch a movie they can see on DVD, or in the Theatre or just wait 9 months till it comes out on BL.

There's just too many easier/cheaper ways to see the movie and too many other movies coming out they can see as an alternative to be entertained.

Can you name a Dreamworks movie that you so desparately wanted to own on Hi Def disc that caused you to go out and buy the player only for that movie? Shrek??? AI?

[Rune Moberg]

I declare blu-ray the winner

Given that HD-DVD seems less intrusive when it comes to DRM, I was for a long time tilted in its favor.

However, given that it takes HD-DVD three layers (not yet even implemented by anyone) to match blu-ray's 50GB worth of storage (spread over only two layers), I think time has come to bury HD-DVD.

When these two formats were first announced, their promised storage capacity seemed sufficient or even overkill. Today, many of us have very clear ideas of what to do with all that "excess" space. HD-DVD now seems tiny and I would say blu-ray barely qualifies as "acceptable". Hopefully blu-ray burners will see a price cut soon.

Of course, if HD-DVD burners turn out to be readily available at a decent price, then my comments above will not apply. (I just want a drive in my computer dammit -- any high capacity optical thingy will do! Don't even need write capability, just want to watch high-def pr0n)

[John Boyarsky]

It has a cooler name

I know why Blu-Ray is gonna win...

It has a cooler name!

Think about it. Would you rather own a "Blu-Ray" disk player?

(Sounds cool, like a Star Wars type laser gun!)

Or the boring "HD DVD" player.

(Bleargh... :P)

Just my cent-and-a-half

Thanks,

John Boyarsky

Fairbanks, AK

[jai]

@Long way to go yet

also - the 360 with HD-DVD argument doesn't cut it

the machine has been out so long now, that all of the people who are likely to buy it in order to play hd-dvd will have already bought it and got the add-on

all of those who have the 1st gen or the elite version already, are not suddenly going to go out and buy a new one if MS include a hd-dvd player. so it isn't going to suddenly create a spike in the hd-dvd userbase.

[Mike Dailly]

Sales will tell....

First, I do think simply claiming that BlueRay has 10 billion players (or whatever) is wrong, as only a fraction of them will be used for video playback; most are for games. HDDVD sales are all for video/movies. So it would be interesting to get real figures. I do know many that have a PS3 and do watch movies, but most simply dont own one (in the UK).

The other big concern is that in the UK, BlueRay is simply more expensive. Until pretty reciently a player would cost you around £600, and films were around £5 more. This is changing a little, but HDDVD is still quite a bit cheaper.

The other issue is region coding. Now its true that americans simply dont care as they (for the most part) dont watch anything other than region 1 (and probably dont even know any other regions exist), but here in europe its a major factor. I like HD DVD because not only do I get region free but on some disks I get both versions, so on my projector, I can use the HD version, and on the TV I can use the DVD version.

I think this time next year it will be pretty much decided, and I hope HD will win, but what I suspect is BlueRay will win in the US, but may not in Europe; at least its not a done deal.

I dont even know which BlueRay player to buy as they've just changed the spec and made many players redundent - I wouldn't be happy if I'd bought one of the early £1000 blueray players to "support" the format.

HDDVD format is stable, region free, and simply cheaper with the added bonus of dual HDDVD and DVD. I really hope it wins..... but only sales will tell...... (or doggy backdoor Sony deals).

[Greg]

Re: It has a cooler name

Interestingly enough, right at the beginning of this format war, a mate and I reckoned that HD-DVD would win the format war because people knew what the hell it was. Joe Public knows what HD is because everyone's ranting about it, and he knows what DVD is because he's got hundreds of the buggers, so putting the two together isn't a problem. Blu-Ray? What the chuff is that?

Me, I hope Blu-Ray wins conclusively soon so we can get over this and I can get my fave new films in HD format. I'll have an American PS3 soon, so importing BD discs will suit me right down to the ground. Microsoft are too late to introduce a 360 with an integrated HD DVD player - their external add-on will have to do for now (even though it generally pushes the 360's price above that of the already superior PS3 - nice little retort I use with anti-PS3 gunslingers there).

Small point - note that I said "new films" in that previous paragraph. As far as I can see, the vast majority of my collection would not benefit one iota from HD, or "upscaling." I'd be quite happy to buy new films on BD - might as well get the best quality there is - but I can't see the point of buying Outland again in HD.

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone wake me up when the war is over

I'm not buying either until the format war is settled.

I also won't be buying BluRay anytime soon unless I can get a multiregion player.

It's time both sides realised that the way to win over the market is to give customers what they want, not what they want them to have.

If they aren't going to give customers what they want, neither format is going to go anywhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Someone wake me up when the war is over

Well, even though the war is lost... I know won't be buying a blu-ray drive unless someone comes up with region-free firmwares for the drives and region-free blu-ray players (why buy a two thousand dollar Sony player when you could get a "no-brand" one for way less and with the fact that it's region free thrown in, and it has mics sockets for Karaoke, too).

[Mectron]

Who say crime does not pay?

Sony is one of the most dangerous company in the world today (along side with MPAA/RIAA etc...) and them winning the Hi Def war is a very bad thing for the whole planet. HD DVD might have lower spec but was way better then having crooked Sony control the next High Def format. Lets hope the war will drag a while longer and that the winner will be the good one~, the one what will be fully cracked 1st. As any kind of DRM on movie/music is illegal by definition and there is no point into buying a player that will illegally dictate what i can watch or not. Since the paying owner of a High Def Player have no control over the product it own, i wonder if they still come with a remote? (Own it today on Blue Ray Today as the ad says... yah right)

Sony is no longer a legitimate company and no one in its right mind will buy any product from a openly criminal business such as Sony.

Beside the only format that should be accepted is: MP4 with no DRM of any kind and the format should be public domain so no crook like sony could try to control it.... how much money Sony illegally get for every NON SONY blue ray player sold?

[Andy Worth]

Every time.....

Every time there's a story about Blu-ray/HD-DVD there are scores of comments from people crowing about how HD-DVD is region free, and every time they are just as pointless. HD-DVD is not region free, it has region encoding built into the spec.

From memory, DVD players used to be able to be sold without being region locked, but then eventually legislation was passed to say that every player sold had to be region locked. Of course, you could still "hack" a large number of them, but that meant playing with firmware or somehow invalidating your warranty in a lot of cases. If HD-DVD won the format "war", very soon you'd find that the region encoding would be forced on, and it would be naive to believe otherwise.

As for not counting PS3's in Blu-Ray player stats, well that's ridiculous really. Granted, some people may never use their PS3 to play Blu-Ray films, but I think as the media prices drop a little, more will be tempted away from SD DVD's.

Either way, HD formats will never be the "runaway success" that DVD's were.

[Lickass McClippers]

Feeling smugger by the day...

...and not because I chose to buy a PS3, but because of all the Xbollox fanbois who bang on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and fucking on about what a superiour platform the Xbollox is. Bunch of twats…

[Jason Aspinall]

PS3 sales *have* to be included in the figures!

Well, I specifically bought a PS3 to play BLURAY movies on! I've gone out and spent my hard earned moolah on BR discs, not had them given to me bundled with the PS3. Ok, so I scrimpped a bit and bought the 40gig model, easily swap the drive out for a much larger one when the time comes...and I couldn't give a tuppenny fcuk it doesn't have the emotion engine (still have my PS2 for playing ye olde standard def games, which will almost certainly now end up on ebay). Playing games like Uncharted makes you wonder why we put up with crappola from the PS2 anyways!

The fact BR discs hold more data means they'll hold more extras from movies (Pirate of the Carribean extras are amazing!) and as for DRM on bluray, I couldn't care less. I buy discs to watch them on my telly (via component), not rip them into a million different formats to play elsewhere. Ripping DVD's and the filesizes involved was too much like fannying around for me not to bother - bluray filesizes are gonna be bigger still, even more of a chore. No thanks!

[steve]

I'm still waiting......

The winner has been declared every week for the past 2 months, i'm still waiting to see who the winner is. I don't have a hd-dvd player or a blueray. If BluR wins, i'll buy a ps3. Hopefully by then they'll have a few decent games. If hd-dvd wins, i'll probably buy a stand alone player, rather than the extra drive for my 360. It's still going to be at least 12 months before this is over and done. Don't care about drm. Don't care about regionless. Just sort it out.

One final comment:

@Lickass McClippers - Your a dick.

[Albert]

Blu-Ray and Downloadable content

It now looks like it is Blu-Ray for the discs and Divx for downloadable content. With the recent upgrade to the PS3 firmware it now does both.

As a device for the living room the PS3 is looking more and more appealing. I'm still waiting for the next price drop and also rumble to be included in the controller by default.

[Michael]

Consumer Choice?

I'll wait until blu-ray is natively supported in the linux kernel , with tested firmware and no contents restriction management , and not a day before!

[Anonymous Coward]

We are here today

To say goodbye to HD-DVD. Despite it's short lifespan, HD-DVD made a difference to a number of people lives, who are now finding it hard to let go. This is a time of mourning for those affected and our hearts go out to them, but we must remember the good times when HD-DVD was still with us. The reason for HD-DVDs existence was never fully realised, which was to give Microsoft a larger foothold in the entertainment technology field to enable it to exercise its monopoly further and its loss will be a sad blow to them. However, its short life was not completely in vain, as it showed it's cousin Blu-Ray the way forward in providing interactive features. The memory will live on, in budget baskets and clearance sales.

Dust to Dust, Ashes to Ashes

[michael]

@Failed and Successful Sony Formats

I have some isues with your logic

"Successful:

Video8 (beat VHS-C)" never heard of it

"HiVideo8 (beat SVHS-C)" ditto

"MemoryStick (is equal to CompactFlash, SD, miniSD, etc.)" only just equal all most all non sony devices I have seen use sd

"CD (with Phillips) (beat, uh everything)" allmost everyboady makes cd's even if sony started it it is now universal

"Blu-ray (with Phillips and Matsushita/Panasonic) (beat HD-DVD)" has yet to be deturmened the war is not over

a sucess is only a sucess if you win a war pepol care about

[Anonymous Coward]

Image quality jerk-offery

As if wine snots and audio snots weren't enough, we now have HD snots. I'm sure that if they accidentally played the SD side of one of their precious HD-DVDs, they would still go on and on about how you can "see every tiny detail" and how they could never live without HD. Reminds me of when I was watching a VHS a while ago and a friend came over and was blown away by the image quality.

[Jason Scrutton]

My ha'pennies...

We got a 1080p set a little while ago, and will sort out a PS3 in the not too distant future.

Reasons why:

- Xbox & HD DVD is technically v good indeed (esp, online) but it makes so much racket it sounds like an industrial dishwasher on acid, it also looks like a bunch of plastic boxes glued together at random...

- The PS3 can play SACDs as well. which for me is a major plus point, I can then 'cupboard' the current DVD player and move the standalone SACD player elsewhere.

As to those who believe that there is minimal quality difference between HD and SD, I would love to know what you drank for lunch before benchmarking them....

And that is before the HD audio options are considered (which are pretty good on BR as well as hd-dvd).

[Curtis W. Rendon]

DVDs abd gaming consoles

Gaming console were irrelevant to DVD sales. It's when the players got to be affordable (< $150) and titles became available that sales took off.

That and PRON dvds became cheaper.

[Anonymous Coward]

PS3 SACD???

@My ha'pennies

40Gb PS3 will not do SACD. That's one of the nice things that Sony had to cut out to get the price down. Suspect that its only a firmware addition to re-enable it though.

[Andy Worth]

Re: PS3 SACD???

Yet another thing they crippled the 40GB version of the console with? Makes me glad that I bought a 60GB version just before they started selling the 40GB's. But I suspect you're right - it is probably just a firmware fix as the actual drive is the same. Perhaps Sony will eventually re-enable it, once they've sold enough 80GB units.

[Anonymous Coward]

The fat lady is practising her scales

Aye, it all looks over now. Stories this morning of Paramount and Universal jumping ship. Thankfully I only own three HD-DVD discs but I still feel robbed having shelled out on the player. Anyone want to buy an HD-DVD copy of Bladerunner?

[Gabriel Sanchez]

How much for making a hd disk, either type?

for me (a sony stay away), the real problem with sony is that when u buy a sony product, u stick with the "standards" that sony wants to monopolize, once monopolized they can manage the standard the way tehy want to. And now with this "HD War" they just want to sell more players than their competitors, nothing more, nothing related to give freedom to consumer or give the "best Hd experience" they just want to sell more players and dictate the new standards on the area.

whe u buy a sony laptop, video camera or photo you should use Memory Stick, but if u buy the same from other companies u can chose from MMC, SD, MicroSD, MiniSD and maintain the same format for all your gadgets.

if sony and the film industry wants the consumer to chose on the standard they want, the should sell the movies in the two formats but not as 1 case for hd-dvd and 1 case for bluray, they should sell them together in a single case just as some movies come in "wide screen" and "standard screen" in the same case.

for the film companies that should not be a big problem because of the manufacturing costs of each disk is less than .50 cents...

this is not like VHS and Betamax, the cost of the tapes in that years where not as low as now are the discs...

i can not understand why there should be only one standard in HD, thats like having hundreds of car makers but only a car model to chose from.