[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by aristotles 

Are there mac compatible HD-DVD burners and software?

Lots of BR ones and Toast also supports BR. Not HD-DVD.

[hmurchison2001]

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm what Planet are you guys from?

Apple has been shipping HD DVD authoring support in DVD Studio Pro 4 for over a year. You don't need a HD DVD burner for HD DVD content as you can burn HD content to standard DVD-R

Apple - Final Cut Studio - DVD Studio Pro

Author in HD or SD

Showcase your SD or HD content with greater speed, efficiency, and flexibility than ever before. Integrated, scalable H.264 encoding allows you to fit HD content on DVDs using existing drives and media. Go from native HDV to HD on DVD with no recompression from Final Cut Pro. Even create HD DVD versions from existing SD DVD projects.

Macworld: Review: DVD Studio Pro 4

There’s just one problem: no current consumer DVD player can play back HD-DVDs. Manufacturers have shown prototypes at conventions, but you won’t find any players at your local Circuit City. If you burn an HD-DVD, there’s just one place you can play it: on a Power Mac G5 (not on a Power Mac G4 or any PowerBook) running OS X 10.4 and Apple’s DVD Player 4.6.

Not to bash Blu-ray as I hope Apple adds Blu-ray authoring support to DVD Studio Pro 5 at NAB this year but people are comfortably playing back their HD homegrown content on Toshiba HD DVD players after authoring them in DVD SP 4. In fact the most recent 4.1.2 update fixed muxing problems an allowed the use of h.264 at higher bitrates.

It should be trivial to add support for the actual HD DVD burners and hopefully Apple will support the HDi interactive layer.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by hmurchison2001 

It should be trivial to add support for the actual HD DVD burners and hopefully Apple will support the HDi interactive layer.

Exactly. DVD Studio Pro has supported burning HD DVD's long before HD DVD burners were available. All this Apple hates HD DVD stuff is nonsense.

[Eug]

According to Sony itself (actually Nielsen), up to the week ended March 18, 2007:

2007 year to date Blu-ray disc sales are 549730 units.
2007 year to date HD DVD disc sales are 249452 units.

As expected, the #1 performing hi-def disc ever released was Casino Royale. OTOH:

Cumulative Blu-ray disc sales are 844000 units.
Cumulative HD DVD disc sales are 708600 units.

So, as of mid-March, Blu-ray is "winning" by a ratio of 6:5. Anyone dreaming of a quick end to this war is fooling themselves.

P.S. The single studio with the most planned releases for 2007 is Universal (according to page 12 of that Sony document), with 31 titles. Sony is only planning 19, and the very vocal Fox has all of 4.

[icruise]

Originally Posted by Eug 

According to Sony itself (actually Nielsen), up to the week ended March 18, 2007:

2007 year to date Blu-ray disc sales are 549730 units.
2007 year to date HD DVD disc sales are 249452 units.

As expected, the #1 performing hi-def disc ever released was Casino Royale. OTOH:

Cumulative Blu-ray disc sales are 844000 units.
Cumulative HD DVD disc sales are 708600 units.

So, as of mid-March, Blu-ray is "winning" by a ratio of 6:5. Anyone dreaming of a quick end to this war is fooling themselves.

I hate to play the PS3 card again, but just look at those numbers. Before the PS3 came out, there were no reasonably priced Blu-ray players, so it's hardly surprising that HD-DVD was ahead. So of course the cumulative numbers are going to be close. But now the PS3 is out and Blu-ray stand alones are starting to come down in price a little bit, and you have Blu-ray outselling HD-DVD more than 2 to 1.

If you'll look back at the beginning of this thread, you'll recall that much was made of the fact that HD-DVD was ahead in sales. I remember clicking on the DVD Wars link and seeing that HD-DVD was ahead in almost every category. Now it's Blu-ray that's ahead in every case. I do agree that it's too early to declare a winner, but if Blu-ray is doing this well now, how well do you think it'll do once the standalone players get to a reasonable price point?

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Now it's Blu-ray that's ahead in every case. I do agree that it's too early to declare a winner, but if Blu-ray is doing this well now, how well do you think it'll do once the standalone players get to a reasonable price point?

Sony said they will have a $600 Stand along player by October. Keep in mind that sony stuff is usually priced a bit higher so other manufacturers might have cheaper ones.

Also Apple will probably have them as BTO by July for the MacPros.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Sony said they will have a $600 Stand along player by October. Keep in mind that sony stuff is usually priced a bit higher so other manufacturers might have cheaper ones.

Also Apple will probably have them as BTO by July for the MacPros.

Why not just add them with the last update a few days ago? Since Apple is supporting HD-DVD as well it's just as likely they'll add both as a BTO option.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Also Apple will probably have them as BTO by July for the MacPros.

I seriously doubt we'll see HD-DVD or Bluray players on the consumer machines for a long time. In fact, I think we'll see burners only, and only on the Mac Pros. The only reason Apple is going to add support for HD-DVD and Bluray right now is for professionals who have to create content in one format or the other. They're going to stay away from putting Bluray or HD-DVD on the consumer machines until there is a clear winner. And there is no reason to put HD-DVD or Bluray players on the Mac Pros at this point, given that the drives will be added for content creation, not content playback.

Apple's not going to be pushing the format war one way or another.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by goMac 

They're going to stay away from putting Bluray or HD-DVD on the consumer machines until there is a clear winner.

Unless they decide to pick a side and try to end the format "war" altogether.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

Unless they decide to pick a side and try to end the format "war" altogether.

Doubtful. A lot of smaller studios use HD-DVD, and Final Cut is popular in smaller studios. They wouldn't cut HD-DVD. And they've already said they'll support Bluray too. I don't think Apple would want to lose business by choosing a side. (Not to mention Apple already supports HD-DVD).

From what I've heard actually, Apple won't support either format until there is a clear winner, but I still think they're likely to put burners on the Mac pros for content creation.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by icruise 

I hate to play the PS3 card again, but just look at those numbers. Before the PS3 came out, there were no reasonably priced Blu-ray players, so it's hardly surprising that HD-DVD was ahead. So of course the cumulative numbers are going to be close. But now the PS3 is out and Blu-ray stand alones are starting to come down in price a little bit, and you have Blu-ray outselling HD-DVD more than 2 to 1.

If you'll look back at the beginning of this thread, you'll recall that much was made of the fact that HD-DVD was ahead in sales. I remember clicking on the DVD Wars link and seeing that HD-DVD was ahead in almost every category. Now it's Blu-ray that's ahead in every case. I do agree that it's too early to declare a winner, but if Blu-ray is doing this well now, how well do you think it'll do once the standalone players get to a reasonable price point?

I think the point of all of this is that it confirms that PS3 buyers just aren't the same as standalone buyers.

In a period of relatively few HD DVD releases, Blu-ray discs outsold HD DVD 2 to 1, despite having what, a 10:1 install base of Blu-ray players compared to HD DVD players.

Yes, gamers buy movies, but it's clear that they don't buy very many of them in comparison.

That's why I've said all along... that unless Sony were to have a quick, smooth, and well-priced PS3 launch right from the get go, the PS3 isn't going to win the hi-def movie format war for them.

And indeed, after the botched PS3 launch, just as we predicted it's heading for a stalemate. It's no surprise that Samsung is releasing a hybrid player this year.

[goMac]

Right. As the numbers show, either a) PS3 owners simply aren't buying Bluray discs except in small pockets or b) Bluray owners in general do not buy nearly as many titles as HD-DVD owners.

[Eug]

Well, that was quick... The $299 price point has been achieved.

The Toshiba HD-A2 second generation HD DVD player is now $299 including 5 free HD DVDs (and one vendor is even including a free HDMI cable too). (The list price is $399, but street prices range from about $299-349 right now.)

Now the next target is a $299 hybrid player, or else a $199 HD DVD player.

In the meantime, the $499 20 GB PS3 has disappeared from both SonyStyle.com and BestBuy. Only the 60 GB is available, for $599.

[goMac]

Also of note, the $500 PS3 seems to have been canned. It's gone from the Sony store also. Retailers are reporting shortages of the unit.

This raises the price of entry for Bluray to $600.

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by hmurchison2001 

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm what Planet are you guys from?

Apple has been shipping HD DVD authoring support in DVD Studio Pro 4 for over a year. You don't need a HD DVD burner for HD DVD content as you can burn HD content to standard DVD-R

Apple - Final Cut Studio - DVD Studio Pro


Macworld: Review: DVD Studio Pro 4



Not to bash Blu-ray as I hope Apple adds Blu-ray authoring support to DVD Studio Pro 5 at NAB this year but people are comfortably playing back their HD homegrown content on Toshiba HD DVD players after authoring them in DVD SP 4. In fact the most recent 4.1.2 update fixed muxing problems an allowed the use of h.264 at higher bitrates.

It should be trivial to add support for the actual HD DVD burners and hopefully Apple will support the HDi interactive layer.

I was talking about consumer level support. I'm not shelling out $1,499.00 CAD (1,299.00 USD) to author my home movies. I fully expect to see blu-ray authoring in iLife within a year. For now, you can use Toast Titanium.

[exca1ibur]

PS3 20GB model

"Overwhelmingly, retailers have been requesting the 60GB model, the mix has been about 80 percent 60GB, 20 percent 20GB retailer orders."

The reason for the 20GB model phasing out over time.

[icruise]

So they say. And it may be true. The Xbox Core system is so incredibly gimped that most people rightly think that it's a bad deal, and I think a lot of people mistakenly think the same thing about the "low-end" PS3. And a lot of people just like to get the top of the line, even if they don't really need its features. I'd be shocked if very many PS3 owners are going to use anywhere near 60GB of space (at least until Sony starts renting/selling video) so the only meaningful difference is the built-in wifi.

In any case, I think it's a mistake to phase out the 20GB model, since it made the PS3 seem more competitive with the Xbox 360. Of course Sony would prefer that people buy the 60GB model since it has higher margins (or should I say smaller negative margins?) but they seem to be ignoring the psychological aspect. Having your product be so much more expensive than the competition automatically puts you on the defensive.