Blu-Ray & HD-DVD Format War: Both Will Lose Out In The End

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Stand-alone HD-DVD players have outsold Blu-Ray for months, and this holiday season was no different. Factoring in the PS3, however, Blu-Ray takes the lead. So what does this mean when trying to predict the winner? Absolutely nothing.

Services like TiVo and Xbox Live Marketplace make it incredibly easy to watch what you want, when you want. Even the video on demand services from your cable provider are making actual discs obsolete.

Hard drives keep getting larger, and Internet connections keep getting faster. It’s only a matter of time before you can download or stream movies directly to a set-top box in seconds, and only pay a minimal fee to do so.

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The GejBox features live DivX Stage 6 high-def internet video streaming, as well as a “hip” emote right in its logo, making it the coolest kid in town

Apple TV is gearing up again, Netflix offers streaming movies, and even the PS3 and Xbox 360 can stream movies from your PC. When talking about storage capacity, Blu-Ray’s much touted 50GB dual-layer is nothing compared to the terabyte (1,000GB) hard drives that are becoming available.

Couple all of this with the fact that most people (and by that I mean everyone I talk to) can’t see that big of a difference between an up-converted DVD and an actual hi-def media disc. Those same “most people” don’t see a point in upgrading. There is, of course, more of a visual difference the larger your television is, but most people don’t have humongous enough TVs to notice.

Then you also factor in the price of a player with the cost of discs being significantly higher. People just don’t care enough to make that commitment.

Downloading stuff from the comfort of their homes while sitting naked on the couch is what people want, because, let’s face it, people are lazy.

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Better than the Blu-VD I got in Korea.

So while I don’t necessarily think Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are going to just disappear, I don’t think either one is going to ever replace the DVD. Maybe we’ll end up with a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray-type high-capacity disc that can play on a standard DVD player and costs the same as a DVD… but you didn’t hear that from me.

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  • http://www.thegamersthought.com Tone Capone

    I agree Digital download will be the winner at the end and both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be a thing of the past.

  • Krispy Demon

    That’s already the case with music. They had a “better” format than CDs in the minidisc that never caught on because of MP3s. It seems to me that it would be pretty easy for Apple and Amazon to start selling digital rights to movies as well as music since they already have systems for that sort of thing in place.

  • macksteez

    You might be right but digital distribution is a LONG way off IMHO. Say 10 years. The current infrastructure in Europe and the US suggest this.
    Also ISP won’t welcome millions of people using their bandwidth.

    Although I agree DD will be the future, it will be a long time off before the mainstream will accept/use it.

    The analogy with music escapes me.. If I have a 1080p HDTV set at home. and I would only get upscaled (480P) content I would agree. but If I would have seen HD content(in 1080p) why would I take the lesser format?

  • Dennis

    ooooohhhhhhh!

  • Krispy Demon

    It’s an entertainment media that has gone from primarily being listened to and purchased on disks to being distributed and utilized more and more in a pure digital format. You can buy downloads of individual songs and whole albums from places like Amazon.com, ITunes and wherever people go for Zune stuff. It’s not 100% everywhere yet, but I bet a fat wad of cash that there are still people using cassette tapes, vinyl record players, and even eight track tapes somewhere. Not saying that CDs are dead like the eight track, but these things don’t happen overnight. Some people, myself included, still stand by the superior sound of vinyl even though it’s been dead for decades.

    As far as movie downloads being ten years off, you could be right, but there are already things in place that are doing it, like Netflix, XBL marketplace and PSN. So I don’t think it’s as far off as people think.

  • Format war ended?

    Actually now with warner on blu, HD dvd is going to suffer. I think downloads will become big but not this nor next year, not till internet speeds become amazing.