Posts by Chris 8 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Oct 2007
Global warming is inevitable, whether or not we are speeding it up, it will happen, maybe just sooner than later.
Every one always talks about there having been multiple ice ages, but at the same time seem to forget that it is global warming that brings the planet out of its ice age!!!! WE ARE COMING OUT OF AN ICE AGE.
Great to see a bit of sense written about this topic for a change.
and anyone else who labels Blu-Ray as Sony, it's not! Sony is only one player in a list of 18 consumer electronics who all own Blu-Ray, no one company has ultimate say in Blu-Ray, it is a conglomerate! Just because Sony have released the most successful blu-ray player in the PS3 does not make blu-ray Sony's.
On the other hand, you can easily say that HD-DVD is toshiba, as there is only one other consumer electronics company behind it, which is so small no one can remember its name.
@ ian, shame you xbox fanboys can't see past the end of your noses! I did own an xbox and due to it failing on me multiple times and the awful service i got from MS, i got rid of it, and now have a PS3, and to be honest with you i have never looked back. The library of games is great these days, and to top it all off, it has got me into HD movies, owning more blu-ray movies now than i do games for the console. Also, it was only last week that quite a few independant reviews have stated that the ps3 will take over from the xbox360 at least here in europe by the end of the year, although it will be a while before either consoles can get anywhere close to the Wii.
As for anyone claiming downloaded hd movies are the way forward ROFL..... To get a HD movie and a decent PCM soundtrack to the movie you will need to download at least 30GB of data! fine we can all go out and get a 20Meg pipe if we want, but the backbone of the internet also has to be capable of downloading such vast quantities across the globe, which unfortunately, it isn't capable of yet, maybe another ten years.....
Was out shopping the other day and popped into my local currys. Whilst browsing i noticed they had two different blu-ray players on their shelves, but not a single hd-dvd player was on display, not even an empty space where one may have previously sat. So i thought i would check out the other stores in the area, and low and behold, it looks like they have all decided blu-ray will win, as none of them now appear to stock hd-dvd players.
On a further note of blu-ray supremacy, HD-DVD do not have any uncompressed audio tracks available, they do claim to hold lossless compressed audio tracks on some, but few of the big studios ever used these formats. However, now pretty much all blu-ray discs hold PCM tracks, which are basically uncompressed audio tracks. If you have ever heard one whilst watching a movie, it is stunning. OK most home cinema kits won't be able to play them, but trust me, High Def is not only about the picture, but also the sound and PCM is where the sound is at. Try it and nothing else will ever do again, PCM makes you a part of the film. PCM remember is ONLY available on blu-ray.
So it's a war.....
Interesting.
Maybe we should really be asking how we define a winner, before even considering who will win. What does make a console a winner? Is it the number of units shifted off the shelves? Is it the profit from hardware made? is it profit from software made? Is it overall profit?
If you consider any of these factors then the current leader is the Wii (well possibly except on software profit which may well come to be the 360). Which is very good going considering the Wii was released a year later than the 360. Even the ps3 is doing pretty well taking into account it's US release was a year later than the 360, and europe has only had it 9 months now.
Really, naming a winner can only be done once we have ratified what makes a winner.
well, this is my honest opinion as the title states.
I believe that yes the PS3 could well outsell the Wii in four years time, i would not be at all surprised. Only because i believe that the Wii does not have a life span of a further four years, maybe four years at most, where as the PS3 has a lifespan to go on for a further ten years according to sony. I believe that nintendo have probably already designed the majority of their replacement, and are hopefully planning well ahead to ensure complete backwards compatibility of games and controllers etc. Their next console i feel will hit a very similar demographic as the Wii but will be more powerful, and capable of handling high def games and will hit the market at a very reasonable price at a time that the vast majority of third world persons have high def capability in their living rooms.
@ Kevin, how many ps3 owners have been through multiple ps3s? I know about 200 ps3 owners through an online community and have only ever come across one of them stating it has died and sony got a replacement out to him in two days flat after calling them. He did not have to buy a new one. Sure you haven't got it mixed up with the xbox 360? even i have been through three of them in my time, after a year of going through that i went to the ps3 which suits my needs much better. Most people who i know who have a 360 actually own two ready for when one dies on them and has to go back to MS for repair for two weeks +. My ps3 is switched on all the time either gaming, watching movies or folding and has been on since March, sat in an enclosed TV cabinet and hasn't failed on me once!
@ Iain, over hyped trash? care to clarify? either make constructive comments or don't bother at all. The console either meets your needs or it doesn't. The PS3 obviously doesn't meet your requirements, but how can that make it trash? It's trash because you wouldn't buy one? hmm, well i wouldn't buy a rolls royce, does that make a roller trash? i don't think so, there are plenty of people if they could afford one who would purchase one. The xbox 360 doesn't meet my requirements, but i would never call that trash, as there are plenty of people out there who's requirements it does meet.
Ultimately, each console has been made to suit varying people. Maybe not intentionally, but they do. Nintendo has always been more children oriented. The xbox 360 seems to be more hardcore gamer. The PS3 for those like me who enjoy playing games but also want more than just that, something that can happily sit in my living room as a media centre device.
@Chris Beach, if capacity on 1 disc is too low, then yes it does matter as compression has to be higher, and quality then becomes affected.
@Chris Cook, i got my ps3 for games, not movies. When i discovered just how good the movies are, i purchased some movies (about 20 titles in all currently). In 10 years time the ps3 will still be about to play my movies on. In 20 years time you probably won't be able to buy a HD player of any type as some other format will be taking hold, let's face it DVD hasn't even been about that long yet. It's only 30 odd years since the betamax/vhs fiasco and we are now three generations on (betamax/vhs, dvd, Blu-Ray/HD-DVD just for clarification for those who wish to be picky).
@Scott McKenzie, well, yes of course they would say that wouldn't they. Nah, i didn't need to be payed $150m to back this product exclusively for the next 18 months. That money was purely paid by Toshiba so they could use Shrek in advertising, nothing to do with us backing HD-DVD. The whole story was made up by some internet blogger, honest. Hold on, so were they paid $150m or not? did they just give the rights for the use of shrek in advertising away for free? did those rights being passed over lie in a similar time line to them announcing exclusive hd-dvd content for the next 18 months? You can happily believe what you wish to, i will personally believe that money did exchange hands, after all it is a free world, well unless you want to give me loads of cash to change my mind LOL
1/ blu-ray is only outselling hd-dvd 2:1 in the USA, in europe it's 3:1 in asia/pacific it's closer to 10:1.
2/ dito
3/....
well you get my drift don't yah?
as for nt300 who obviously doesn't know what he is talking about...
1/ consumer friendly, so no drm? right, no drm means easily pirated sold and movie ompanies have to bump up prices to cover this cost, hmm, consumer friendly???? maybe you could explain that one.
2/ hd-dvd has finished specs.... well, what about the triple layer discs which are required to hold the films properly, instead of the current disc which have to use extra compression at the cost of fim quality? oh, didn't they tell you all those old hd-dvd players won't be able to play triple layer discs, all those $99 dollar ones which were sold... and many more. i suppose at least any final specs of the blu-ray standard will need a software update to all players won't it, but at least it's not a completely new player LOL.
3/ yep, hd-dvd has sold more stand alone players, because we can't count the ps3 (i have one of those ps3 thingys and i have over 20 blu-ray movies!). but then why not reference my figures above, 2:1 in the us, 3:1 in europe/africa and nearly 10:1 in asia/pacific, that's blu-ray discs outselling hd-dvd figures that is. oh did i hear somehwre that blockbusters in the us dropped hd-dvd due to lack of interest, did you also hear the same happened in Australia and Ireland, and probably even more countries than that? so what is everyone who has a hd-dvd player doing with it? we can't count the ps3 as a blu-ray player so we are told by the hd-dvd camp, so surely that actaully means that per player blu-ray buyers must be purchasing an awful lot of movies in comparison to hd-dvd buyers. Is there something wrong with HD-dvd which has stopped people from buying the movies LOL?
4/ think my comments in 3 cover this one, if we can't count the ps3 which you keep telling us we can't, then the attach rate is actually outstandingly big in favour of the blu-ray players. oh wait, for this figure we can count the ps3 can we? well make your mind up will you please.
5/ hd-dvd is at a price point for the masses or whatever it is you said. hmmm, maybe you actually have a valid point here, well 1 out of 5 isn't too bad is it? but hold on... if everything we have covered is true then how come, if the price point is so much better for hd-dvd, do we have a situation where blu-ray disc are outselling hd-dvd by such a vast figure? could it be.... mmmmm, well maybe.... nah, surely it couldn't be that poeple actually find it cheaper to buy blu-ray movies than hd-dvd? surely not. Maybe the fact is that at this early stage, many of the people who have jumped into the hd movie era have looked into the facts and not just the price and realised which format is the better? Maybe the price doesn't really become an issue to many of us early adopters, why should it when three years down the line high def movies will cost the same as dvds do currently. if cost was an issue we would hold back until the cost drops. as cost is not an issue the vast majority of people are choosing the better format. stands to reason in my mind.
Please note that except for the facts and figures, the rest is my opinion. Yes i believe blu-ray is the better format, i'm sure there are plenty out there who don't agree. I wonder which paramount would have prefered if money did not come into the equasion? still if hd-dvd payed me $150m i think my previous comments would be vastly different. (for a small sum i can retract all comments previously made, other wise you know where to stick your hd-dvd don't you)!
Figures can always be twisted to suit ones needs. And that of course is all the HD-DVD camp is doing.
Blu-Ray discs are blantantly outselling HD-DVD discs across the world (300 sold 2 to 1, blockbusters US don't hold HD-DVD discs due to low demand, if you want more stats it's all there on the net). If HD-DVD players are outselling Blu-Ray players, then obviously those HD-DVD investments are sitting with not much to play on them, as the owners are not buying many films. Or of course, the alternative.... shock horror, PS3 owners are buying films to watch on their PS3s.
Funny thought that one, but then i own a PS3, i do not own any stand alone HD disc player, and yet i have replaced every DVD in my library i can with a Blu-Ray disc, and there are plenty of movies coming out on the run up to Xmas which i am really looking forward to obtaining. OK my Blu-Ray movie list extends to maybe 10 movies so far, but by xmas that will probably be doubled, and you'll never believe it, i watch them all through my PS3.
Will i care much if Blu-Ray dies, no, not really as i have not forked out for a stand alone player, my PS3 will have many years use for gaming, and playing movies, probably will last until the next movie format arrives. Alternatively, had i purchased a standalone player and had it's format die, yep i would care. I recall the days when my dad purchased a BetaMax video player (the superior format), and going to the film rental store, and always seeing that list of films available deminish, until one day there were no films available at all. Just goes to show, which format is superior is not the issue, it is all about marketing and getting those players out there and ensuring there are plenty of films available. Sony are getting the players out there, and marketing very well at the moment, the films are coming.
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