[icruise]

Is there any real proof the Walmart actually has an active interest in wanting HD-DVD to win? Just because they want to sell cheap HD-DVD players doesn't necessarily mean that they have chosen sides per se.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Is there any real proof the Walmart actually has an active interest in wanting HD-DVD to win? Just because they want to sell cheap HD-DVD players doesn't necessarily mean that they have chosen sides per se.

Wal*Mart wants HD DVD to win because they make more money selling a million HD DVD players at $300-350 than selling a thousand BluRay players at $700-800. When the prices switch so will their "preference."

[Eug]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Is there any real proof the Walmart actually has an active interest in wanting HD-DVD to win? Just because they want to sell cheap HD-DVD players doesn't necessarily mean that they have chosen sides per se.

I agree completely.

Nonetheless, the news is interesting. It does give credence to all the reports that HD DVD's game plan was fundamentally different from Blu-ray's. HD DVD has gone for price, and that's the stuff that makes Wal-Mart (which has 40% of the DVD market in the US) very, very happy.

BTW, I saw this posted elsewhere:

CED Industry Newsletter

Blu-ray stalwart Panasonic brutalized LG for its combo at the latest DVD Forum Steering Committee meeting, we're told. From transcripts we've seen, Panasonic accused LG of breach of contract for offering a combo player, and said it should be censured for doing so. LG blithely thanked Panasonic for bringing publicity to its combo -- and said its lawyers would respond. In what seemed an exchange of spite, LG split ranks with its Blu-ray compatriots by voting in favor of all HD DVD measures before the SC -- rather than abstaining, as the pragmatic Korean companies usually had.

Wowsers!

EDIT:

Onkyo "on track" for releasing HD DVD player

Onkyo USA unveiled one new Onkyo-brand DVD player and three Onkyo-brand HTiBs, said it is reevaluating its Onkyo-brand DVD strategy, and is on track to offer its first HD DVD player later this year. It will carry the Onkyo brand name.

We knew something was coming already, since MS mentioned Onkyo was working on one, but we hadn't heard much on this since January.

[icruise]

Remember how The Planet Earth on HD-DVD was #4 on Amazon's DVD ranking a little bit ago? It turns out that was the result of a campaign by regulars on AVSForums, who decided that they would all purchase stuff on the same day "to show support for HD DVD." Sounds more like they were trying to make it look more popular than it actually was (easy to do on Amazon, because they only show rankings and not actual sales numbers).

Format War Soldiers: Sync'd HD-DVD Purchase by Fanboys Spike Amazon Rank, Blu-Rayers Set To Retaliate - Gizmodo

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Remember how The Planet Earth on HD-DVD was #4 on Amazon's DVD ranking a little bit ago? It turns out that was the result of a campaign by regulars on AVSForums, who decided that they would all purchase stuff on the same day "to show support for HD DVD." Sounds more like they were trying to make it look more popular than it actually was (easy to do on Amazon, because they only show rankings and not actual sales numbers).

Format War Soldiers: Sync'd HD-DVD Purchase by Fanboys Spike Amazon Rank, Blu-Rayers Set To Retaliate - Gizmodo

Yeah, I saw that. Pretty sad.

Ok, people, buy movies because you want them, not to prop up a particular company.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Remember how The Planet Earth on HD-DVD was #4 on Amazon's DVD ranking a little bit ago? It turns out that was the result of a campaign by regulars on AVSForums, who decided that they would all purchase stuff on the same day "to show support for HD DVD." Sounds more like they were trying to make it look more popular than it actually was (easy to do on Amazon, because they only show rankings and not actual sales numbers).

Format War Soldiers: Sync'd HD-DVD Purchase by Fanboys Spike Amazon Rank, Blu-Rayers Set To Retaliate - Gizmodo

Actually, that's not correct.

The overall HD DVD spike was partially a stupid coordinated buy, that's true, but not for Planet Earth.

Planet Earth on HD DVD has been consistently outperforming Planet Earth on Blu-ray for weeks now, and had been in the top ten for most of that time.

It does show you just how miniscule sales are on both formats are though.

[icruise]

Well, the guys on the AVSForums certainly seem to think they were responsible for it. Just read the last few pages of this thread. You'll see that Planet Earth went from at least #16 (I think it was actually lower, but I can't be bothered to search the whole thread) to #4 in a single day just based on their group buy.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Remember how The Planet Earth on HD-DVD was #4 on Amazon's DVD ranking a little bit ago? It turns out that was the result of a campaign by regulars on AVSForums, who decided that they would all purchase stuff on the same day "to show support for HD DVD." Sounds more like they were trying to make it look more popular than it actually was (easy to do on Amazon, because they only show rankings and not actual sales numbers).

Format War Soldiers: Sync'd HD-DVD Purchase by Fanboys Spike Amazon Rank, Blu-Rayers Set To Retaliate - Gizmodo

Of course, in the end, what does it matter? The units were sold and profit was made from them. That's all the movie companies care about.

[icruise]

It only matters insofar as people like us were using the Amazon rankings as a way to see how popular one format was in relation to the other. I for one won't be doing that any longer, now that I know how easily it is manipulated.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by icruise 

It only matters insofar as people like us were using the Amazon rankings as a way to see how popular one format was in relation to the other. I for one won't be doing that any longer, now that I know how easily it is manipulated.

Again, how does this invalidate HD-DVD's popularity? Obviously HD-DVD is popular enough that a bunch of people bought Planet Earth.

[aristotles]

I'd recommend staying away from Warnerbros movies on Blu-ray.

I bought Swordfish on BD and it looks like it was a quick port from their HD-DVD version as it lacked a main menu and the main feature was in VC-1 instead of AVC (H264) or MPEG2. The format has enough capacity to just go with MPEG2 for the main feature. They also did not offer uncompressed PCM IIRC.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by aristotles 

I bought Swordfish on BD and it looks like it was a quick port from their HD-DVD version as it lacked a main menu and the main feature was in VC-1 instead of AVC (H264) or MPEG2.

Doubt it. Menus on HD-DVD are a big feature. They probably didn't add a menu because Bluray can't support HD-DVD style menus.

Originally Posted by aristotles 

The format has enough capacity to just go with MPEG2 for the main feature. They also did not offer uncompressed PCM IIRC.

MPEG2 is not superior. In fact, it's inferior. MPEG4 does the exact same quality at a lower bitrate.

[aristotles]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Doubt it. Menus on HD-DVD are a big feature. They probably didn't add a menu because Bluray can't support HD-DVD style menus.

More FUD. Swordfish did have the in-line menus that appears over the video like every other BD title has but it went straight to the main feature when you popped it in and was lacking the intro and main menu found in every other BD title I own. Nice try.

MPEG2 is not superior. In fact, it's inferior. MPEG4 does the exact same quality at a lower bitrate.

AVC is superior in terms of compression but it requires more processing to create a good quality encode. I would have been happy with either one as I pointed out that BD can accommodate a feature in bloated but high bitrate MPEG2, AVC or VC-1 but for regular length feature film, BD has more than enough room for using MPEG2 unlike HD-DVD.

[icruise]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Again, how does this invalidate HD-DVD's popularity? Obviously HD-DVD is popular enough that a bunch of people bought Planet Earth.

If the users of a single internet forum (numbering in the low hundreds) can have such a major effect on these rankings, then it just goes to show that neither HD-DVD or Blu-ray are "popular" in any commonly accepted sense of the word. And it makes using these rankings as some kind of "proof" that one format is winning totally ridiculous. Do I really need to explain this further?

[Eug]

Originally Posted by icruise 

Well, the guys on the AVSForums certainly seem to think they were responsible for it. Just read the last few pages of this thread. You'll see that Planet Earth went from at least #16 (I think it was actually lower, but I can't be bothered to search the whole thread) to #4 in a single day just based on their group buy.

It was top 6-8 for quite some time after that, and then went back to #4 yesterday. And, in the entire time, it's been ahead of the Blu-ray version.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by aristotles 

More FUD. Swordfish did have the in-line menus that appears over the video like every other BD title has but it went straight to the main feature when you popped it in and was lacking the intro and main menu found in every other BD title I own. Nice try.

Ok. What does this have to do with what I said?

Originally Posted by aristotles 

AVC is superior in terms of compression but it requires more processing to create a good quality encode.

Are you seriously suggesting the movie companies are short on processing power?

Originally Posted by aristotles 

I would have been happy with either one as I pointed out that BD can accommodate a feature in bloated but high bitrate MPEG2

Why would you want to use MPEG2?

Originally Posted by aristotles 

...AVC or VC-1 but for regular length feature film, BD has more than enough room for using MPEG2 unlike HD-DVD.

That's like saying the iPod has enough room to store AIFF files, therefore iPod owners should use AIFF files.