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Adam Betts · Jun 21, 2007, 07:25 PM

Nice but I'm surprised they would do this as they have greater hatred for subtitle/closed captioning than any other movie companies. I know this well as it's well known issue among deaf community that they refused to allow any subtitled Sony movie at theater, for DVD's features/extras or anything related to subtitles.

Also I wouldn't exactly call this feature innovative. VLC have this feature for ages

icruise · Jun 21, 2007, 07:34 PM

It might be mostly a concession to the Japanese market, since all foreign films are going to be subtitled for use in Japan.

jokell82 · Jun 21, 2007, 10:33 PM

Originally Posted by marzetta7

Blu-ray.com is a great website to follow the format wars. Some would point you to AVS forums, but that area has been overrun with Microsoft employees working hard to push HD DVD.

HAHA! So AVS is biased, but Blu-Ray.com is a bastion of unbiased information???

A *real* website that is probably best for updates is the High-Def Digest:
High-Def Digest | HD DVD & Blu-ray News and Reviews in High Definition

goMac · Jun 21, 2007, 11:18 PM

Originally Posted by icruise

Cue post from goMac about how those numbers actually show that HD-DVD is on the rebound.

Why? The numbers don't really show any trend. You can't use those numbers to really argue that HD-DVD is dying either...

marzetta7 · Jun 21, 2007, 11:51 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

HAHA! So AVS is biased, but Blu-Ray.com is a bastion of unbiased information???

A *real* website that is probably best for updates is the High-Def Digest:
High-Def Digest | HD DVD & Blu-ray News and Reviews in High Definition

Actually, I agree with you with the HighDefDigest website as well, a forum I'm also a member of. So no disagreeing with you there.

As for Blu-ray.com, yes, I consider it a well balanced forum, that doesn't attack and shut down posts that talk about the competition such as AVS. Nor is rampant with fanboys with no logic or facts to back up their claims,...too bad the same can't be said for AVS.

icruise · Jun 22, 2007, 04:20 AM

Originally Posted by goMac

Why? The numbers don't really show any trend. You can't use those numbers to really argue that HD-DVD is dying either...

Back on May 25th you were ready to claim that one week's numbers indicated that HD-DVD was in "an upswing." But you see no trend in six weeks of dismal HD-DVD performance? Interesting. What would a format that was dying look like?

jokell82 · Jun 22, 2007, 06:30 AM

Originally Posted by marzetta7

Actually, I agree with you with the HighDefDigest website as well, a forum I'm also a member of. So no disagreeing with you there.

As for Blu-ray.com, yes, I consider it a well balanced forum, that doesn't attack and shut down posts that talk about the competition such as AVS. Nor is rampant with fanboys with no logic or facts to back up their claims,...too bad the same can't be said for AVS.

You may like the Blu-ray.com forum, but that doesn't make it unbiased. It's a site dedicated to being biased.

At least AVS has sections for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Hawkeye_a · Jun 22, 2007, 09:46 AM

Hello folks.

Well.... i think BR-DVD has taken the early lead (and very possibly the format war alltogether).
-The fact that all but 1 studio is releasing movies in the BR-DVD format
-The fact that blockbuster (which is not just a U.S. rental outlet) has moved behind BR
...is enough in my opinion to tip the scale firmly in blu-ray's favor.

I have to admit i was wrong about HD-DVD.....it had all the right ingredients to win, based on previous format wars, but it's execution/release was absolutely horrible.... the fact that Sony was bundling the BR-DVD into PS3 should have raised quite a few eyebrows in the HD-DVD camp and prompted them to release their players and movies well in advance.....they didnt.

Moving beyond the HD format war...... despite whats happening on the gamng front, Sony might actually see sales of it's PS3 pick up thanks to the Blu-Ray capabiity now that the format is probably going to snowball.

I'm not sure how fast the adoption of HD is... im willing to wager that DVD players are still outselling them on a global scale. So yeah..... i hope Sony wont be all weird in terms of licensing stuff to the folks at Apple for use in future software/hardware.

Cheers

jokell82 · Jun 22, 2007, 10:21 AM

Calling the "war" for either side is just stupid at this stage of the game. The sales numbers are minuscule compared to DVD. It's a niche market inside a niche market.

Blu-Ray has about a 3:2 lead right now, but that's not nearly as big of a deal as people are making it out to be, especially at this stage of the game.

analogue SPRINKLES · Jun 22, 2007, 10:32 AM

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a

Hello folks.

Well.... i think BR-DVD has taken the early lead (and very possibly the format war alltogether).
-The fact that all but 1 studio is releasing movies in the BR-DVD format
-The fact that blockbuster (which is not just a U.S. rental outlet) has moved behind BR
...is enough in my opinion to tip the scale firmly in blu-ray's favor.

Wow, someone's in check with reality for a change

goMac · Jun 22, 2007, 12:05 PM

Originally Posted by icruise

Back on May 25th you were ready to claim that one week's numbers indicated that HD-DVD was in "an upswing." But you see no trend in six weeks of dismal HD-DVD performance? Interesting. What would a format that was dying look like?

It still is. The weekly numbers are generally higher than the yearly numbers, which means HD-DVD's market share is growing.

icruise · Jun 22, 2007, 12:12 PM

There, I was waiting for that post.

marzetta7 · Jun 22, 2007, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

You may like the Blu-ray.com forum, but that doesn't make it unbiased. It's a site dedicated to being biased.

At least AVS has sections for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Actually, if you knew anything about Blu-ray.com, you'd know they have a sister site called hd-dvd.com. In other words, they--the site owners--have sites dedicated to both...just that no one really goes into the hd-dvd forum since most people saw the writing on the wall for HD DVD from the beginning.

Regardless, my intention here is not to get in a pissing contest with you as to who and what is a biased or unbiased source (as everyone has a bias) of the format wars. The intention is to answer the OP's original question on where to get information. I think we both have done so quite successfully, so why don't we leave it at that.

jokell82 · Jun 22, 2007, 02:01 PM

Originally Posted by marzetta7

Actually, if you knew anything about Blu-ray.com, you'd know they have a sister site called hd-dvd.com. In other words, they--the site owners--have sites dedicated to both...just that no one really goes into the hd-dvd forum since most people saw the writing on the wall for HD DVD from the beginning.

Regardless, my intention here is not to get in a pissing contest with you as to who and what is a biased or unbiased source (as everyone has a bias) of the format wars. The intention is to answer the OP's original question on where to get information. I think we both have done so quite successfully, so why don't we leave it at that.

Or maybe no one goes there because there is no website.

And what writing in the wall is that? The writing that has HD-DVD with 60% of player sales? Yeah they're really struggling right now.

olePigeon · Jun 22, 2007, 02:22 PM

I'm just going to wait it out. DVD's good enough for me right now. There're only a handfull of movie I enjoy that would be worth getting on HD.

goMac · Jun 22, 2007, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by jokell82

And what writing in the wall is that? The writing that has HD-DVD with 60% of player sales? Yeah they're really struggling right now.

Don't worry. By their market share standards, the PS3 is dead, the Macintosh was dead yesterday, and BMW is bankrupt.

If it doesn't have a majority market share it must be dead!

Kerrigan · Jun 22, 2007, 03:10 PM

So you're anticipating that HD-DVD will drop below 5% market share in the future?

icruise · Jun 22, 2007, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by goMac

Don't worry. By their market share standards, the PS3 is dead, the Macintosh was dead yesterday, and BMW is bankrupt.

If it doesn't have a majority market share it must be dead!

Well, it's a bit different in the case of Blu-ray and HD-DVD, isn't it? From the point of view of the consumer, they are offering an identical product (yes Eug, we know that HD-DVD has some superior features). And since most businesses and consumers can't or won't support both of them indefinitely, one or the other has to "win." (Unless of course dual-format players become the standard, making the format of movies essentially moot.)