[icruise]

Originally Posted by mrtew 

This thread has just become an excuse for the HDDVD and Blu-ray people to keep bickering over nothing now that the war is over. I motion that it be closed.

While you may have a point about the bickering, I'd say it's a little premature to declare the war completely over. Even if the writing is on the wall, there's still going to be many developments in the coming months.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by mrtew 

This thread has just become an excuse for the HDDVD and Blu-ray people to keep bickering over nothing now that the war is over. I motion that it be closed.

Is there something wrong with having an open digital media bickering topic?

[ort888]

This is the most popular thread on the whole forum.

If you close it, you'll just start seeing format war threads three times a day.

[brassplayersrock²]

yeah, with 5 pages in 2 days, i'd say keep this thread open

[mrtew]

It was an eventful 5 days with the end of the war and the reaction! Now it's degenerated into nerds arguing about why Apple eliminated floppys ten years ago. I'm still trying to get over the loss of the cassette tape drives in the Commodore PET. I can't get RatRun onto my MacBook thanks to the takeover by the evil floppys.

[icruise]

Pretty much everything that goes on here is nerds arguing about one thing or another.

[Helmling]

Originally Posted by goMac 

I think people think they need optical discs, but I don't think they actually do. A lot of people in this thread would insist that people also need 1080p content on discs with 7.1 (uncompressed of course) surround sound, and I don't buy that either.
.

Need? We don't *need* any of this crap. We *want* it. And if folks want their discs, then it would be a bad business move for Apple to take them away, and that's the way it'll be for a few years more. I think you're overestimating the average person's upgrade cycle. Most people don't buy a stack of hard drives to back up their TV shows.

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by Chongo 

Seagates take on the whole mess
Seagate CEO: Blu-ray won the battle but lost the war - CES 2008 - Consumer Electronics Show - CNET.com

That was great. Thanks for the laugh. What this clueless CEO seems to forget is that people either have no internet access at all, low end broadband or monthly caps on bandwidth use.

Physical media is here to stay. How do you loan a DRM'ed multi-GB file to a friend for the weekend? Please. I see all of the HD DVD fanboys jumping on the download bandwagon even though they have not thought things through. Download might be a reality 10 years from now but it's not going to happen unless internet access becomes cheap, unlimited and ubiquitous.

His terabyte drives are useless without fat pipes and uncapped bandwidth to feel them.

BTW. I have to say that I find GoMac to be the most entertaining. I bet that if HD DVD was winning, GoMac would be touting HD DVD physical media to the heavens and would say that HD downloads are not practical right now. How about a little less fanboyism and a little more intellectual honesty? I understand that you hate Sony for some reason but let's get real here.

[Helmling]

Originally Posted by goMac 

To clarify this, I just saw a TV commercial for Walgreen's online photo submission/printing service. So yes, you can do this online.

ARGHHH!!!! YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!

Of course I CAN do this, but the point is that people DON'T all do this--HENCE THEY WANT THEIR FLIPPIN' DISCS!!!

(pants heavily...wipes sweat from brow...relishes Blu-Ray version of Sunshine...regains calm)

Now answer my question about X-box Live! Can I get my Firefly in true HD or what?

[Helmling]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Pretty much everything that goes on here is nerds arguing about one thing or another.

I would argue that these discussions are more "geeky" than "nerdy."

[goMac]

Originally Posted by Helmling 

Need? We don't *need* any of this crap. We *want* it. And if folks want their discs, then it would be a bad business move for Apple to take them away, and that's the way it'll be for a few years more. I think you're overestimating the average person's upgrade cycle. Most people don't buy a stack of hard drives to back up their TV shows.

Are you saying you're the average consumer? Look, I'm sure every consumer would love to have a 1080p TV with a 7.1 surround system. But for most consumers, 720p with 5.1 or even stereo audio is more than adequate. And for the sizes of most tv's that is the most they will ever see.

Originally Posted by aristotles 

That was great. Thanks for the laugh. What this clueless CEO seems to forget is that people either have no internet access at all, low end broadband or monthly caps on bandwidth use.

Seriously. I wish you guys would stop throwing that FUD around. This is not 1995.



People who don't have high speed broadband aren't even a target market for Bluray anyway. I find it hard to believe that people who don't have an internet connection have an HDTV and are buying Bluray discs.

[icruise]

Originally Posted by goMac 

People who don't have high speed broadband aren't even a target market for Bluray anyway. I find it hard to believe that people who don't have an internet connection have an HDTV and are buying Bluray discs.

Right now they're not, but I'll bet you anything they're buying DVDs. Blu-ray (and HD-DVD) are niche products right now, but the idea is that Blu-ray will replace DVD and will eventually have the same sort of market penetration. Whether downloadable video will take off before that happens is open to debate, but I personally doubt it.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Sony to distribute content in DivX format

[Brien]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Are you saying you're the average consumer? Look, I'm sure every consumer would love to have a 1080p TV with a 7.1 surround system. But for most consumers, 720p with 5.1 or even stereo audio is more than adequate. And for the sizes of most tv's that is the most they will ever see.

Uh, do most people even have that?

[PaperNotes]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Mr goMac, since you're the all round genius who knows everything will you please explain to us noobs what happens to ISPs when consumers have to give up on physical media and start downloading 20GB movies (and games if you want)?

I'll answer it since you're plain thick anyway (please mods, don't waste time explaining to me how rude that is). ISPs pass the cost of all that bandwidth usage on to subscribers. They're already having a problem with it and putting in all sorts of download caps.

Now what happens when movie files get larger, as they inevitably do, and reach 50GB for a HD4K movie? Or games get so big that they become a 50-100GB download?

Costs for ISPs just keep going up.

Now you can argue for another 14 months about how that's wrong and that you're right because you're a master server technician, or is it an software developer, or is it a pro gamer who knows everything about PC gaming hardware, or was it a master Open GL programmer, or was it a senior politician who can talk endlessly about politics, history and religion. With you, it's a new credential every day depending on what debate you get yourself in to.

[Chongo]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Are you saying you're the average consumer? Look, I'm sure every consumer would love to have a 1080p TV with a 7.1 surround system. But for most consumers, 720p with 5.1 or even stereo audio is more than adequate. And for the sizes of most tv's that is the most they will ever see.



Seriously. I wish you guys would stop throwing that FUD around. This is not 1995.



People who don't have high speed broadband aren't even a target market for Bluray anyway. I find it hard to believe that people who don't have an internet connection have an HDTV and are buying Bluray discs.

Originally Posted by Brien 

Uh, do most people even have that?

This has brought up before
99.99 of sets that are not a CRT/CRT-RPTV are "720p", and they are 1080i(allegedly there were a few 1080i plasma sets). It has been in the last 2 years or so that the 1080p sets have been on the market. The vast majority are plasma/LCD/LCOS/DiLA scaled to 768p, DLP sets are the exception and have true 1280x720p. Samsung still sells 42", 46" and 50" 720p sets. Their 1080p line are sets 50" and larger.


Cable on demand services don't use the broadband part of cable to deliver content, If you downloading to your computer then yes. DirecTV's on demand service, on the other hand, does require a BB connection for 90% of it's content.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Ces08: Microsoft Will Consider Going Blu-Ray, If Consumers Demand

Like I said, the momentum shift has been ludicrous.