This is not good news for the HD DVD camp if it turns out to be true. According to The Digital Bits, Paramount and Universal will be following the footsteps of Warner Brothers and making the big switch to Blu-ray. That means that HD DVD is seriously wounded in this battle and they’re about to lose big-time to Blu-ray. Whose behind HD DVD you’re wondering? Well, it’s mainly Toshiba and Microsoft and I’m sure they’re not too happy at the moment.
While none of this has been confirmed, “second to none sources” are saying that this is true and both Universal and Paramount have made the decision to make the switch. Paramount is expected to make their announcement soon while Universal will be waiting until sometime in February after their contract with HD DVD is up to make the announcement. One Engadget commenter summed up what many of you may be thinking, “Looks like Sony is finally going to win sweet revenge after losing out to VHS back in the day.”
To make matters worse, the L.A. Times is reporting that Paramount’s decision was in fact triggered by Warner’s move. Here’s part of what they say: “Warner Bros.’ decision last week to start making movies exclusively for Blu-ray players, rather than HD DVD, triggered an “out” clause in Paramount Pictures’ contract with the HD DVD camp. An industry source said there was a significant possibility that Paramount would exercise that clause. It plans to decide within a month.”
Over at Digg, there were a few interesting comments as well:
- SupaDawg says: “I’m no fan of Sony whatsoever, but this is a very good thing. One of the formats needed to die. The format war has been a mess for consumers, hardware companies and the studios alike. Lets get this over with so we can finally progress into the era of HD.”
- Floejoe says: “At last. I couldn’t care less who wins the ‘war.’ I just want to buy my favorite shows in high definition. I’m a bit tired of being an early adopter with a house full of crap that will never be used.”
Thanks for the tip Google!
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Tags: Hardware, Blu Ray, HD DVD
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http://arstechnica.com/news.ar.....u-ray.html
We should all care which format wins. The difference between the image and audio quality isn’t noticeable but the prices is. Blu-ray players cost more, mostly because of licensing fees paid to Sony.
But the thing is, if Blu-ray does in fact beat out HD DVD (if these rumors about Paramount/Dreamworks and Universal switching are true that is) then companies like Toshiba will have no choice but to start making Blu-ray players. So Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Pioneer, Panasonic will be just some of the companies producing Blu-ray players. Who will sell the most? The one who sells it cheapest. If Blu-ray does win, expect Blu-ray player prices to go down fast because of the competition. One format = consumer wins.
Actually customers were winning with both sides fighting because that gave us the BOGO sales. Once Blu-ray wins then you can kiss the BOGO sales goodbye…..
I’m not worried about the price of the players because they will drop drastically once they start to get mass produced by dozens of different companies.
That is definitely true. It seems as though everywhere you turn you can get free movies with the purchase of players.
Oh, the power of competition. Yes prices will go down but it will have little to do with competition. Why? Because Sony is charging a fairly hefty licensing fee which is in effect a price floor.
Most electronics are sold with very little margin (profit per product) and money is made through economies-of-scale. That is even though a manufacture makes little profit per product they will sell LOTS of them and thus earn a reasonable profit overall.
Generally competition will drive prices lower but the license fee (price floor) will make that very tough unless a manufacture want to take a lose in order to gain market penetration. Initially, manufactures will find it tough to make any money on quality players. Price drops will come when enough of the units are being sold so the whole economies-of-scale thing can come into play. So how will manufactures get people to buy more players? Drop the price of course. How will they drop the price? Cut quality and features.
Bottom line is that initial price drops will came as a result of lowers quality/low features units being shipped, not more competition.