[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

"The next generation DVD format seems to get finalized.
by Anoop Gantayat

May 9, 2005 - Following recent announcements of a move towards compromise in the heated battle to become the next generation home video standard, the Tuesday morning Nihon Keizai Shimbun contains a first report on the shape that such a compromise will take. According to the paper, Sony and Toshiba have entered into final preparations for a format which combines disk technology from Sony with software technology from Toshiba. The two companies plan to offer an unified format to members of their respective high definition video forums as early as next week.

Toshiba's decision to give way on the disk format was apparently made after examining cost issues related to the Sony technology. The merged format will make use of Sony's 0.1 millimeter Blu-ray disk technology with Toshiba's software in place for reading and writing from the disk and handling copyright protection. Toshiba's 0.6 millimeter HD-DVD disk technology will be dropped. The resulting technology will be offered as a new format. It's unclear at this point if the new format will adopt the Blu-ray or the HD-DVD name, or if something completely new will be used.

Sony announced late last year that the next generation PlayStation would make use of the Blu-ray format. The Nihon Keizai article reveals that, as part of the compromise, Blu-ray supporters Sony and Matsushita were demanding the highest possible storage space for future IT and game applications. This would suggest that, even though Blu-ray as it was known is gone, the new merged standard will end up serving as the format for PS3.

Expect further announcements later this week or at E3."

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/611/611379p1.html

My question is if it is still using the same video codec?

[Millennium]

Wonderful. Corporate lock-in wins.

[olePigeon]

Great. Now I have to buy a new DVD player for $600.

I was really rooting for HD-DVD. Sigh.

[residentEvil]

Not so fast. Toshiba released a statement flat out denying that, from May 10th:

It seems Toshiba's gotten a little cantankerous in the last few hours or so. Conflicting reports about the status of the HD-DVD/Blu-ray Disc negotiations have continued to be issued this morning. The EETimes and The Register have both picked up Toshiba's denial of a deal based on Blu-ray's disc structure and Toshiba's software for data transfer and copyright protection.

Meanwhile, at the Media-Tech Expo in Las Vegas, Toshiba has defiantly announced a triple-layer, 45 GB HD-DVD disc that's clearly designed to compete with Blu-ray's 50 GB discs (see story here at MacWorld). How practical this would be to mass market, given all the current dual-layered DVD discs that seem to ship these days with bonding problems that interrupt playback, remains to be seen. The company also announced a double-sided HD-DVD/DVD hybrid disc it claims could be used as a "transition" format between DVD and HD-DVD (although since the bonding would reduce the data storage capacity of both the DVD and HD-DVD sides, the value of this to consumers seems somewhat dubious). Once again, our guess is that this public posturing by Toshiba is an effort to give the company a boost in its format unification talks with Sony.

As always, keep those fingers crossed out there. If someone wants to chant or do a little rain dance or something to invoke a measure of humility and common sense (on BOTH sides) in these talks, that probably couldn't hurt either at this point.

from thedigitalbits

[wdlove]

I don't like the idea of buying a new DVD player either. Also is it ends up that older CD's and DVD's will no longer work, corporate greed.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Great. Now I have to buy a new DVD player for $600.

I was really rooting for HD-DVD. Sigh.

You HAVE to buy a new one?

If HD-DVD won how would you have saved $600?

[Hawkeye_a]

Yeah..... thats somethig to cheer about. lol. whats next ? the only codec that will be used for content is WMP9...... woopie. So much for the DVD forum.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a

Yeah..... thats somethig to cheer about. lol. whats next ? the only codec that will be used for content is WMP9...... woopie. So much for the DVD forum.

And we all know how happy and excited you would be if HD-DVD was the winner.

[willed]

I would prefer agreement on this issue rather than another VHS/Beetamax shootout. I think it's good that for once they've decided to get together on this one rather than wait for the market to decide and therefore leave millions of people with practically useless equipment when their format loses.

[Weyland-Yutani]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a

Yeah..... thats somethig to cheer about. lol. whats next ? the only codec that will be used for content is WMP9...... woopie. So much for the DVD forum.

Nah, WIMP9 codec is in mpeg4 quality.

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by willed

I would prefer agreement on this issue rather than another VHS/Beetamax shootout. I think it's good that for once they've decided to get together on this one rather than wait for the market to decide and therefore leave millions of people with practically useless equipment when their format loses.

Yeah that is a good thing in general.

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

You HAVE to buy a new one?

If HD-DVD won how would you have saved $600?

Because SD content can still be placed on HD-DVD in the first layer, with HD on the other 3. That way I can still buy HD-DVD movies and play the SD version on my existing DVD player until HD-DVD become affordable.

Now all the movies will come out on Blu-Ray and I can't play them period.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Because SD content can still be placed on HD-DVD in the first layer, with HD on the other 3. That way I can still buy HD-DVD movies and play the SD version on my existing DVD player until HD-DVD become affordable.

Now all the movies will come out on Blu-Ray and I can't play them period.

Well, they will probably still release Blu-Ray HD titles alongside SD regular DVD titles for awhile just like they are doing with VHS and SD DVD titles. I don't think movie distributors would EVER combine HD and SD content on a dual-format disc, because they stand to make so much more money from "forcing" people to buy their libraries again if they want them in HD format.

Of course, I expect the new players will be able to play back the older discs just fine (two lasers, one for the old and one for the new)...

[Ω]

Originally Posted by wdlove

I don't like the idea of buying a new DVD player either. Also is it ends up that older CD's and DVD's will no longer work, corporate greed.

I think you need a hug!

:hug:

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Person Man

Well, they will probably still release Blu-Ray HD titles alongside SD regular DVD titles for awhile just like they are doing with VHS and SD DVD titles. I don't think movie distributors would EVER combine HD and SD content on a dual-format disc, because they stand to make so much more money from "forcing" people to buy their libraries again if they want them in HD format.

Of course, I expect the new players will be able to play back the older discs just fine (two lasers, one for the old and one for the new)...

But then I'll have to buy the movies twice.

Sigh. At least it gives Lucas another reason to release Star Wars.

[DeathMan]

Hopefully he'll have the Luke Skywalker Jedi Kitty done by then.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

But then I'll have to buy the movies twice.

Sigh. At least it gives Lucas another reason to release Star Wars.

Yes, but only if you want HD quality. (and also only if you can't wait until the HD release to buy the movie).

Even if they chose HD-DVD, I still think that the studios would still release separate SD and HD versions. Combining the two would mean the loss of an additional revenue stream associated with the changeover.

You have to think like them to understand this.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Because SD content can still be placed on HD-DVD in the first layer, with HD on the other 3. That way I can still buy HD-DVD movies and play the SD version on my existing DVD player until HD-DVD become affordable.

re-tarded

[Big Mac]

It would be nice for studios to provide an upgrade path by offering SD and HD on one disc, but I too agree that it's unlikely that they would be so generous.

[Eriamjh]

http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showA...leID=163100509

I haven't seen anything confirming the format war is over. I honestly could NOT care less which one wins, as long as there is only one format on store shelves.

More than likely, whatever format is released in whatever form, it will be called HD-DVD. Blu-ray would just confuse consumers. They are pretty stupid.

[dlefebvre]

Originally Posted by Eriamjh

http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showA...leID=163100509More than likely, whatever format is released in whatever form, it will be called HD-DVD. Blu-ray would just confuse consumers. They are pretty stupid.

What is Blu-Ray?

[olePigeon]

Originally Posted by Person Man

Yes, but only if you want HD quality. (and also only if you can't wait until the HD release to buy the movie).

Even if they chose HD-DVD, I still think that the studios would still release separate SD and HD versions. Combining the two would mean the loss of an additional revenue stream associated with the changeover.

You have to think like them to understand this.

I don't think so. If they bundled the SD version on the HD disk, then SD consumers would have to pay the premium no matter what. That makes for more money.

But it doesn't matter anymore cuz they went with Blu-Ray.

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by Big Mac

It would be nice for studios to provide an upgrade path by offering SD and HD on one disc, but I too agree that it's unlikely that they would be so generous.

The MPAA will have t fess upto piracy. the more greedy they get, the more ppl will turn to piracy. it happened to the music industry...the only difference now is that a heck of a lot more people are aware of the potential of getting pirated movies off the net.

Having a gajillion bytes of storage is not going to mean anything if they dont match it with a reasonable economic and marketable strategy. greed for the entertainment industry will result in alienated customers, who will find alternate means of enjoying art.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Looks like the talks failed:
http://www.firingsquad.com/news/news...?searchid=8097

Well if the PS3 sells 80 million systems like the PS2 did blu-ray could easily become the standard.

[OwlBoy]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

re-tarded

I agree with you (!)

-Owl

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Blu-ray Wins!

No, it doesn't. It's a tie again...

-t

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by turtle777

No, it doesn't. It's a tie again...

-t

I guess you missed my post last night