With an albeit tenuous connection to yesterday's post, news is emerging of a major development in the world of Hi-Def media: Blockbuster today announced it will rent only Blu Ray-format disks in its 1,450 stores when it expands its high-def catalog over the next few weeks, which could be a crushing if not even fatal blow to Toshiba / Microsoft's rival HD DVD format.
The decision could finally kill the petty bickering and name-calling in which the two camps have indulged to try and woo consumers to their ideology. The entire debacle smacks of those far-off days when VHS and Sony's 'Betamax' format used largely the same self-serving propaganda to achieve profitable dominance. Ah, videotape. Gone, but not forgotten...Unfortunately.
Blockbuster has offered both formats in selected stores for almost a year and consumers have been voting with their wallets from day one. It's not exactly a hard choice - Every major studio except one produces their HD range in Blu-Ray. Disney use it exclusively. Only Universal Studios produces titles solely on HD-DVD.
Of course, a major weapon in this battle for dominance has been price: Toshiba sold the first stocks of HD-DVD players for $499+. Now you can buy one for half that. Likewise, Sony's first-born fetched $1,000+. Today, you can snag one for under $500. But cost to the consumer is not the only consideration: HD-DVD's can be made on existing DVD presses with very little modification. Blu-Ray requires entirely new equipment. And that matters. Dollars make decisions, and there's a ton of them helping make this one!
Blu-Ray's success has also been greatly helped by the [wholly unsurprising] inclusion of a player in Sony's PS3 console. Microsoft are a leading partner in the HD-DVD camp yet there's no HD player in the X-Box. You have to buy it as an add-on. An expensive add-on. You'd think Uncle Bill would have more foresight?
The task facing the HD-DVD faithful is daunting; Disney, Sony. Fox, Lionsgate, Starz Home Entertainment [plus all their subsidiaries: Buena Vista, MGM, Sony-BMG, Pixar...] are all Blu-ray studios. Against them stands one single HD-DVD studio: Universal. Only Warner and Paramount offer movies in both formats, and only the Weinsteins make them specially for HD.
This is not good news. Were I an Executive at HD HQ, I'd be checking Craigslist. Quick.
Blockbuster's decision is just that - A blockbuster that could put HD-DVD on life-support just before the electronics-buying orgy of the Holidays that could so easily become its wake. But the bottom line is still price and content. Sell the hardware at reasonable prices, with a wide range of good movies readily available and you will win. All that remains is to see which camp is nimble enough to do it in time to ride the wave of those savvy Christmas shoppers...
The decision could finally kill the petty bickering and name-calling in which the two camps have indulged to try and woo consumers to their ideology. The entire debacle smacks of those far-off days when VHS and Sony's 'Betamax' format used largely the same self-serving propaganda to achieve profitable dominance. Ah, videotape. Gone, but not forgotten...Unfortunately.
Blockbuster has offered both formats in selected stores for almost a year and consumers have been voting with their wallets from day one. It's not exactly a hard choice - Every major studio except one produces their HD range in Blu-Ray. Disney use it exclusively. Only Universal Studios produces titles solely on HD-DVD.
Of course, a major weapon in this battle for dominance has been price: Toshiba sold the first stocks of HD-DVD players for $499+. Now you can buy one for half that. Likewise, Sony's first-born fetched $1,000+. Today, you can snag one for under $500. But cost to the consumer is not the only consideration: HD-DVD's can be made on existing DVD presses with very little modification. Blu-Ray requires entirely new equipment. And that matters. Dollars make decisions, and there's a ton of them helping make this one!
Blu-Ray's success has also been greatly helped by the [wholly unsurprising] inclusion of a player in Sony's PS3 console. Microsoft are a leading partner in the HD-DVD camp yet there's no HD player in the X-Box. You have to buy it as an add-on. An expensive add-on. You'd think Uncle Bill would have more foresight?
The task facing the HD-DVD faithful is daunting; Disney, Sony. Fox, Lionsgate, Starz Home Entertainment [plus all their subsidiaries: Buena Vista, MGM, Sony-BMG, Pixar...] are all Blu-ray studios. Against them stands one single HD-DVD studio: Universal. Only Warner and Paramount offer movies in both formats, and only the Weinsteins make them specially for HD.
This is not good news. Were I an Executive at HD HQ, I'd be checking Craigslist. Quick.
Blockbuster's decision is just that - A blockbuster that could put HD-DVD on life-support just before the electronics-buying orgy of the Holidays that could so easily become its wake. But the bottom line is still price and content. Sell the hardware at reasonable prices, with a wide range of good movies readily available and you will win. All that remains is to see which camp is nimble enough to do it in time to ride the wave of those savvy Christmas shoppers...
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