Sony's Blu-ray Beats Toshiba's HD DVD

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Who Cares

I cannot see replacing my DVD library with Blu Ray DVDs let alone HD DVDs.

Sony learned its marketing lesson after losing the VHS war with Panasonic over 30 years ago and you have to give them credit for that. However, only the newer movies made recently can take advantage of the "clearer" picture Blu Ray disc offer. Frankly, Hollywood has been cranking out a lot of crappy movies over the past decade...when was the last time you were at a movie theater??? Older movies and the classics will just be transfered to a Blu Rad DVD without any enhancement other than taking out the white specks and scratches and bundling it with a bunch of special features and my favorite "art work" or inserts. They cannot make the movie any better than the original format they were filmed. Remember the James Bond Ultimate Edition??? I'm waiting to see when MGM will port that over to Blu Ray for more $$$.

It seems that teens and grownups who haven't grown up yet will fall for this hype. It seems as time goes on, we pay more and more for smaller and smaller incremental improvements in technology. VHS to DVD was worth the improvement, but DVD to Blu Ray is just another way to get people to buy a $30 DVD movie that only costs Sony about $1 to make. The quality isn't that big of an improved in my opinion to justify a 33% markup in price over regular DVDs. But it's what people are willing to pay is what determines the cost. Specially if they need to impress their friends or acquaintances.

I have a feeling that everything in the near future will go to a pay-per-view system and you'll pay a monthly fee and you'll end up owning nothing in the end. Sony and the cable companies will just charge you for sending data packets to your house, reducing their overhead immensely and keep everyone hooked on a $200/month cable bill. Brilliant!!!

Jim of OH @ Mar 22, 2008 02:18:16 AM

The consumer loses again

As in oil, this is fantastic news for North American's, another monoply.

$ony after over a year of shoving down the consumer's throat, that They know what's good for them, will recoup their billions, by artificially maintaining overpriced & overrated machines. It's amazing how naive the consumer is on this subject, guess they can't read anymore. Toshiba in the techs dept. beats $ony hands down.

The greed & bullying tactics $ony has employed to become a cartel, would land a citizen in prison.

$ony defenders write like this muti-national is their " friend," that $ony cares about your family, your job, your insurance.

Well I hope the people who who feed the gluttonous sheiks & orientals will find some solace in the future, with a world filled with $ony women who drink only Pepsi.

Barry Grant @ Feb 21, 2008 13:17:10 PM

A Blu Decade

It's kind of like how music is completely digital for me, but for some reason people are still buying and selling CDs. So, I'm assuming the market for high definition movies (MUCH harder to download 50GBs than 2MBs) will have a good ten year run at least.

Nic @ Feb 21, 2008 02:41:53 AM

There's no doubt that Sony's PS3 player promote the Bule Ray.

Don't forget when PS2 was put on market, DVD hadn't been popular yet.

Bill of IL @ Feb 20, 2008 05:07:05 AM

I Think you need to do some research on how much the DVD/Blu Ray market is currently worth.

Also I don't think much time was lose when you take into consideration of the fact of competing formats naturally drives down the price more rapidly.

Now consider mainstream will adopt when price to DVD players and value becomes more comparable.

And Don't forget every PS3 sold is Blu Ray Player (and a good one at that!) and forecast sales for PS3 for 2008 is estimated at 20 million Worldwide.

Jeff Thompson of FL @ Feb 19, 2008 19:20:52 PM

fwd:

I Was Planing On Buying A TOSHIBA HD DVD By Next Month As A Birthday Gift.

Kevin Scott of FL @ Feb 19, 2008 15:28:54 PM

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Our in-house gadget guru, Senior Writer David LaGesse, checks out the latest technologies and gizmos, from computer software to GPS systems -- and reports back to you in plain English.


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