HD DVD promo body dissolves itself

High Definition DVD is officially dead. The HD DVD Promotion Group this week formally dissolved itself, marking the termination of the format. Toshiba's decision to end HD DVD hardware production, announced last month, put the format on life-support. The signals began to slow and fade as the likes of Microsoft, Universal …

[Mark]

Blu is the only way forward

Anyone that predicts that downloads are going to take off, or that we will have movies in temporary form on memory cards is living in cuckoo land, Sony hate land, or denial.

People like disc formats, they like something to hold, they like to show their movie collection to friends, they like their shelves full of movies they own, movies they can pickup and feel, movies they can browse.

Most people don't like the idea of digitally renting a movie, let alone digitally buying a movie, with it's DRM restrictions, and locked to an account, and stored on someone else's server.

Downloads will be a niche for the forseeable future for the reasons above (and not even talking about the lack of infractructure to support HD downloads). Flash cards will never take off, and is just a lame idea from the outset.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Mark

FFS, don't you have anything better to do?

Or are you being paid by Sony to post comments under EVERY SINGLE F***ING ARTICLE that even mentions BluRay / PS3?

[amanfromMars]

Knock, knock, Nippon San ....... Is there anybody in there, out there?

Others may feel that Branded USB Flash Drive Created Memory, with its Shows of the IT Future being Built, will be a Safer Future Bet, Mark.

And probably Japan will Lead in that DirectAXXXXIOn too, such is their dDeep Savvy/Enlightened Spirit/Passionate Concern. Although of course that is just an Opinion as valid as any other.

AI Global EduTainment FAB Lab for the East to Excel in, Mark? Now that would be a Breath of Fresh AIResearch and dDevelopment.

[Alex]

@AC

LOL!! Sounds like you are READING every single article ;o)

Welcome back A MAN FROM MARS!!!!

Woot Woot!! Now where is your icon..?

[Alex]

...Actually

You have actually made a bit of sense therei AManFromMars..

Top dog!

[Sean Aaron]

DVD is the only disc-based format with a mass-market future

Sorry, but Blu-Ray is going to be the Laserdisc of this generation and, I predict, the last optical media format of any significance, unless the hardware and software suppliers do as they did with Vinyl and force the obsolescence by ceasing manufacture of media in DVD format and go Blu-Ray only. Maybe that would finally be the push needed to wean people off of packaged media altogether?

[Dave]

@Mark

I used to want a film collection I could browse, A collection I could show to my friends, a collection I could hold.

I had shelves and shelves of films. Regular Editions, Box Sets, Dodgy pirated tosh. Complete runs of series. Humphrey Bogart films taped off the telly and loving preserved.

Then came laserdisc. 1 Needed 2 types of shelves. It was worth it, because the laserdiscs often had all the special features that are now common on DVDs.

Then came DVD. And a house move. Now I have a collection (easily a dozen) of big cardboard boxes full of videos that will never be watched again. I have laserdiscs that are kept for novelty.

I'm loathed to part with my collections of X-files, Star Trek and Babylon 5 that I lovingly collected, but I'll never watch them again.

I came so close to buying either BR or HDDVD this Christmas. Luckily I chose not to choose, preferring to ignore all the modern toah, but wait until something I wanted to see came out.

Now, I want to have access to everything that I already have AND my spare room full of videos back. I've been burnt twice in the Format Wars, and I'm not going to do it again unless I can everything running over the house network. The cases and original media are just something that can occupies space and can be destroyed.

Downloads and Files for me please. I like the box sets, but ultimately they just take up space. As mainstream cinema becomes more of a disposable product to hang merchandising on to, I'd prefer to treat it as something disposable. I'll pay for what I can get on screen, and all the special features, but if you want me to go and buy more shelves, you're out of luck.

[Neil]

Bluray vs everything else, round 1 - fight!

Disclaimer - i have a PS3, so I might be slightly biased.

For the forseeable future I cant see flash based storage really holding up against optical media. I have Over 1TB of storage on my main PC and still cant fit all my SD quality DVD collection on it, so the chances of my storing as many HD films on in the near future is about nil. The music industry has tried selling us flash drives with songs on, and AFAIK its only been a gimmicky promo, with limited scope for real success.

I'd definitely buy flash-storage based HD content, so long as I "own" it. I cant see a day when I'm happy with downloading (and paying) everytime i want to watch a film - even as Broadband speeds ramp up (and my pay (effectively) goes down as inflation goes up). Provided I can replace my DVD/BluRay collection with dinky cards where I only pay once for them - I frankly dont care what format I use (and hopefully the PS3 could use those USB ports for playing back off these other media types?).

Seriously - WHO CARES if the movie is on DVD/Bluray/USB Storage so long as our rightgs arent compromised to the point where life becomes MORE difficult by the adoption of new technology? Anyone who nails themselves to the "Bluray or die" camp is probably shortsighted. Anyone who says "Never Bluray or evil Sony" will probably be happy when we can get Films on our flash media. But only in 10 years..........

[JeffyPooh]

@Mark

By a trivial extension to your logic, DVD Rentals will never take off. Also, Pay-Per-View will also not exist.

Fact is that MANY (perhaps most?) people do not build up huge collections of DVDs, they simply rent the DVD for a couple of days and then take them back. Being able to do exactly the same thing less the 3-mile drive may be quite appealing.

I do see your point. I've got hundreds and hundreds of DVDs. But most of my coworkers are renters, not buyers.

[Mark]

@Anonymous Coward

First time I have posted here. Is there another Mark, that uses the same icon, and brave enough to use his own christian name?

[Neil Robertson]

Out with the discs, in with the downloads

Mark: The only barrier to downloads taking off big time has been the accessibility. Personally I have no interest in filling my shelves with discs, VHS tapes or any other physical media.

About 30% of my viewing is now BBC IPlayer which is perfectly watchable (although I'd love it to be better), 65% is DVD rentals by post, and I can only see the balance shifting further to streaming media.

I also have no interest in filling my hard drives with movies etc, DRM encumbered or not. I want it on demand straight off the WWW at my convenience.

[Anonymous Coward]

128gb flash is just around the corner

Blu-ray is offering far too little far too late.

They simply will not get to a mass-market friendly final spec (yeah right) product at the right price (sub $150-$100), in time.

Meanwhile HD TV services with DVR are filling the HD gap in homes & they are more than happy (at the price) to stick with upscaled DVD.

Blu-ray is a 'dead' format too, they just refuse to admit it or haven't realised it yet.

[Danny]

optical media for me

Personally, I don't want to have to be reliant on my ISP working as it should, every route between me and hollywoods servers being super efficient and not being cut off should a ship accidentally cut the transatlantic cable so I will never go download only. I would take a flash based system for rental only, but I like having a disk that will still be the same in 10 years time without worrying about having to back it up, transfer it to a new faster memory type as my old one gets made obsolete, doesn't require me to delete things from it because it ran out of space, will never suddenly die on me with no warning, does not have a limited lifespan of read/writes as it will never be written to, I can drop it in a big pool of water without damaging it, will still play with some scratches even though it may stutter in places. Try dropping flash memory in water and see how robust it is or put a big scratch on the contact pins and watch as it is never recognised as a device again. If I buy a film it is because I want a physical product, mine to keep and watch whenever I like, take to a friends, give to someone else if I choose, not to restrict the number of times I can watch it, how long I can keep it, what brand device I can watch it on. Somebody above said about HMV allowing you to put the film back on if you lose it, what if they go out of business, who do I get my legitmately purchased film from then? What if I cannot prove I bought it unless you are happy with retailers keeping your personal shopping list for your entire life. Flash takes away far more than it gives.

[PIB]

@Dave

You said: "Downloads and Files for me please. I like the box sets, but ultimately they just take up space."

But won't your shelves eventually stack up with rows of hard drives? Each one filled with not only your movies but also precious data.

Just waiting to crash one day losing not just one movie, but loads of them.

The point I'm making is that even downloads need to be stored somewhere.

You haven't really thought this one through, have you.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Danny

Danny, the only way a 'ship' is going to cut the transatlantic is if it's either a submarine or a sinking surface ship.