Sony: Target says yes to Blu-ray, no to HD DVD

Iria

Source: TG Daily
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Culver City (CA) - Following in the footsteps of video rental chain Blockbuster, Target has decided to only stock Blu-ray Disc players, passing on rival format HD DVD.

Necrosis

Wonder how much that cost Sony?

mike2h

probably nothing. an out fit like target cant carrry both formats & since they sell ps3 the choice is a no brainer if you factor in the amount of movie sales involved.
not saying sony wouldnt/didnt reimburse them somehow just that it probably wasnt needed.

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interspaced

Could be adding woolworths to that list in the UK http://www.n4g.com/industrynews/News....aspx#Comments

just a rumour but that's how this target rumour started.

Necrosis

No HD DVD say hello to $40.00 - $50.00 a movie, gotta love those laserdisc prices.

Wow look at the FUD comments on that site.

interspaced

lol i doubt that would happen imagine the uproar it wouldn't exactly go unnoticed but yeah the war's been good for prices on both sides with the recent ps3 price cut and now the hd-dvd addon price cut and 5 free movies for xbox owners in the US (pity it's not in the UK).

Master Shake

Target says no to choice.

Necrosis

See that is the thing, and why I'm weary of Sony. Sony loves to overcharge for their products. Heck just look at the deals you get w/ other manufactures for BR players. There is no reason for even the cheapest Sony BR to cost $500.00, it should be $300.00. Honestly what would stop them from charging more if HD DVD dies? The only reason for the price reduction on the PS3 is the Wii is kicking the crap out of it. If there were no X360 or Wii it would be $799.00 probably more.

calidan

They won't charge more when HD-DVD loses. It's not a Sony product. Sony is not the only company that developed Blu-ray. There are well over a hundred companies behind it so that means there is a choice on which player or burner you can buy. If you need more proof look on http://www.blu-raydisc.com/general_i...009/Index.html Sony's name is not even listed first.

Tipstaff

That's because it's alphabetical.


Edit: Blu-Ray is, and has always been a Sony product. They created it, they own the patents on it. In fact, it's actually based on another product of theirs called ProData. Actually, the two formats are so similar that it's believed that Blu-Ray is in fact PDD in a new wrapping.

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Necrosis

First off it's HD DVD not HD-DVD.

Sony is the main curator of the technology, and has "licensed" the technology to other manufactures. Why do you think there is no Sony player that will play HD DVD's? Haven't you ever wondered why Universal is against Blu-Ray??? If Blu-Ray does win I'm going to laugh my ass off when the movies double in price. I can't believe you think prices will stay the same. If HD DVD were not around you wouldn't see a single Blu-Ray movie below $30.00.

OOAgent

I think this format war is ridiculous. all fanboyism aside, i believe HD-DVD should be the universal format. but i have nothing against Blu-Ray even though i dispise sony a bit at the moment (mostly PS3). But this is turning into the "console wars" of movies. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray getting exclusive movies to the format. the only difference is that stores stock games from all different consoles even if they are multiplatform games...and now we're having exclusive movies that provide basically the same thing.

I think if anything, they will eventually make a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive for a couple thousand dollars that will end the "which format to buy" war. i remember reading Samsung came up with a way to do it, if i remember correctly, it was awhile ago...

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Necrosis

Yes Samsung did, and it sells for around $1,200.00. That is the thing is those other companies supporting Blu-Ray is "really" what is pushing Blu-Ray forward. What the HD DVD & Blu-Ray camps can do is work together to make this "war" oblivious to the consumer. Just make one economical player that will do both formats. I just can't stand Sony's draconian PR tactics. The funny thing is we may be doing this all over again in 4-5 years when they double the HD resolutions. I doubt either format would have enough bandwidth to keep up.

Update: It's LG not Samsung.

calidan

Actually Samsung just came out w/ a combo drive.

Both groups were going to work together at one time but that fell through. I believe that was before either format hit the market. I think I remember reading that somewhere at one time. I could be wrong though.

You say that Blu-ray is licensed to the other manufacturers. How about a link to back the claim? Everywhere I've read says nothing of the sort. If it was licensed by Sony then it would have been solely developed by them as well.

Dyre Straits

I believe he's mistaken on that:

http://www.blu-ray.com/info/


"Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson)......"

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Necrosis

Yeah about that....

Scroll to the bottom

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/Corpora...history-l.html

Wow sure doesn't look like Sony isn't giving credit where credit's due huh? Next time don't believe their hype.

Why were the players delayed...PS3. If it were really a joint venture you would of seen a "flood" of players from these "supporters".

mike2h

a flood of players? you wont see that until manafacturing price drops/players more common place. just like every format before.
dyre straits has it right on co-development, though obviously some companies are more invested than others.
blue-ray is going to win this battle largely due to sony. & im glad, not for sonys sake(i am underwhelmed by sonys pricing strategy) but for ours, having 2 formats like this does nobody anygood.
& all you bozos saying blue ray prices will stay the same, or even sillier, saying they will go up are . look at dvd & vhs, same thing will happen here. christ i got dvd's i paid over $30 for when they 1st came out, get a clue.
of course the flip side to that ridiculous argument is that if hd dvd wins... same thing applies .
also, take a look at that list of developers &check out how many of them are actually in the business of producing standalone players, let alone being at the cutting edge- wich blu-ray/hd dvd is. hell the majority of peeps are only just getting into buying dvd players over the last 6 months. there is absolutely no need for a mass amount of players from either camp & any company that pulled such a bonehead move would have its board of directors fired at next stockholders meeting.
i will guarentee you that within the next year there will be sub $250 blue ray decks & movies under $20.

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Tipstaff

Develop and create are 2 different things. It goes like this:

Sony created Blu-Ray.. or at least the idea, and some, if not most of the principle technology for it. Instead of presenting this new technology to the DVD association they decided to go it on their own. On their site you can see some of the technology that they created, including the laser assemby, and such.

Instead of doing this all on their own, though, Sony went to other manufacturers, specifically Matsushita and Phillips first, in order to get them to partner with Sony to develop Blu-Ray into what it is now (format, presentation, technology, and so fourth). That's when the Blu-Ray Disc Association was created, and it has since grown to include 9 companies including Pioneer, Samsung, and LG.

However, the technolgy is primarily owned by Sony. In fact, the lawsuit in regards to a patent infringment names Sony, and 2 of it's divisions specifically, and nobody else that is part of the BDA.

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Necrosis

Tell me again why you can't get Blu-Ray players that cost this much? I have one word for you PS3.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Toshi...oductDetail.do

The most players you have the lower the cost of admission for HD content. It's the reason why Blu-Ray is leading because there are more movies available. Plus some of the movies tend to be cheaper since they are Blu-Ray only and not HD DVD/DVD combos.


It's be due to Sony's PR clout, and not due to the technology itself. Okay, so lets look at your example why this little competition is doing us no good. You had to pay over $30.00 for a movie, why? I'll tell you why because of no competition, there was no other competing format. If you have no competition then the only way you can deflate prices is by waiting until the market is saturated w/ movies & hardware. Thus the reason it took as long for VHS, and DVD prices to come down. Plus I don't see HD DVD really winning since Blu-Ray has such a huge backing. It would be more of a niche market situation so Blu-Ray could not dominate. I just wonder what would happen if Microsoft decided anyone w/ a Xbox Live Gold account & a 360 receives the HD DVD add-on for free?

There are a lot of unanswered questions for me. Like why is Universal only supporting HD DVD? Has anyone really asked why this is? Is it studio politics between them, and Sony Pictures? Warner Brothers & Paramount are supporting both; great for us. However, it seems every studio, production house, etc that is tied in w/ Sony is Blu-Ray only. Hell Disney is supporting it just because Steve Jobs in on their board, and MS is supporting HD DVD.

I just want to have choice as a consumer, and not have some corporation tell me what to buy. If everyone decided on Blu-Ray to begin w/ fine okay but there is more going on this whole scenario than we know.

e-motion

There is no way in hell Sony isn't throwing money left and right at these retailers for taking sides, too many are taking the same decision just this week alone. When is the last time you've seen a concerted effort by retailers to end a format ?

As for prices, the main idea behind BR was to keep high margins for manufacturers and movie studios, as well as invest billions in new plants for manufacturing discs, and of course get patent and royalties kickbacks that they didn't have in the same amount for DVD. That is why they went against the DVD Forum, so they can "win" back royalties they didn't get last time.

What sickens me is that it's always the ones with the most money that win, never the best solution for the consumer. Not only that, but I despise Sony's and BDA's tactics. All I can say is this : if you invested $800 or more in a BR player, get ready to change it come october, it's already obsolete. As for me, I might get the new Samsung U5000 dual format full-featured player once it gets cheaper.

mike2h

lmao. you guys need to get a life. if it isnt sony(& again i am no fan of sony) it would be somebody else. there has to be a winner here folks or the consumer(thats us) lose. if it was the other way around you guys would bitch about that.
in another similar thread i predicted that within a year u will find cheap blue ray players for sub $250 & discs for sub $20. just like how vhs & dvd did. get a grip guys, its all new tech & the price will drop on everything- wether hd dvd survives or not- price drops will be slower as long as hd dvd is competing though, some of you really need to wake up to that one.
i do agree that anybody who purchased a mid to high end blue ray player before the end of this year hasnt done their home work/probably has to much $. course most peeps that did probably wont notice/care about what they might be missing.
the bottom line is that hd dvd has its upsides & downsides just like blue ray, it is not a superior tech just a differnt tech, we dont need 2 formats doing the same thing. & it looks like most of the companies involved agree & that for whatever reason(& it really doesnt matter once you get past the hate sony/paranoia conspiracy probs) they picked blu ray.THAT along with sonys marketing strategy is why blu ray will/is coming out on top.

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Necrosis

Not sure the comment about getting a life is called for just because I have a passing opinion on new technology. I don't sit around and read every little bit of information I can find on either format. Heck, I didn't know until recently Warner Brother is working on a disk that has both formats.

There is another competing format to both HD formats. DVD still crushes either one with ease, and it's not uncommon to find DVDs @ $20.00 or higher. The whole comparison w/ all three is another can of worms to discuss. So technically speaking there is three competing formats. My whole point was that Blu-Ray players & prices wouldn't be as low now if it were not for HD DVD being present. Heck you could almost say if it weren't for HD DVD or the PS3 Blu-Ray would be in trouble right now. I honestly think it would go the way of D-VHS. Still though if the Blu-Ray standard is so wonderful why isn't adopted as the official format after DVD?

The majority of people still have a SDTV. The number of HDTV owners that can do 1080P is minuscule. This is why besides price Nintendo is kicking the living crap out of Sony. I know Microsoft as well but it's great seeing Sony eat crow. For once we can decide what we want as consumers, and not just have one choice.

mike2h

you r rt about 'getting' a life, my apoligies. while your hd dvd/ pricing argument may be valid, i dont think so. the history of dvd doesnt dupport you. neither does good business.
im not sure what u mean by official format. unless you mean the point at wich dvd pretty much wiped out vhs- that only happened in the last few months a lot of peeps seem to 'forget' how long it took for dvd realed prices to really come down & for it to be mainstream.( i paid $1000 for my 1st dvd/ld combo player)
blue ray is competing to be a successor to dvd( & there is no comparison in pq or sound options/quality) just like dvd was competing with svhs & dvhs to succeed vhs. the same path is being followed now only the 2 competitors are much closer in quality. i personally didnt care wich one won, just as long as one did. imo that will be blue ray.
some of you guys really need to seperate your hatred of sony from what is happeing in the real world - becuase the bottom line is we are getting a new video format that kicks the crap out of anything before it. the difference is much bigger than the diff between svhs & dvd or even vhs for that matter. it is something that anybody who likes watching high quality movies should be completely jazzed about - regardlees of the format.

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e-motion

Good points, however why couldn't we have the same solution as with DVD-R and DVD+R ? If the norm becomes universal players, who cares that the box is blue or red ? Certainly not the consumer, and even in the studios' case, they could decide to release 1 movie in BR and release another in HD DVD, depending on extra features, for example. Retailers at that point shouldn't care either, since they could mix both blue and red cases on the same shelves...

And no, this is not "affordable" YET, but how long before it is ? The new Samsung universal player is reported to come out in november at a $1049 MSRP, you can bet the house it will be available close to $799 street by beginning of 2008, especially once the 2nd gen LG universal comes out...

mike2h

im all for that, except the companies involved wont coop
you think they want the expense of making 2 vers for one movie? especially when there is no real difference between the discs? pq & sound are the same. the rest of the special features are rarely used by most peeps.
personally i wouldnt touch one of those 'universal' players until they are into at least 3rd gen. i can almost guarentee you there are going to be issues.
the main thing i want is for the companies to concentrate ALL their resources into ONE format. that will get prices & down & quality up the quickest.

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