Report says Blu-ray/HD DVD war to run another 18 months

Reuters, New York: Sales of next-generation DVD players are not seen as likely to take off for another 18 months as consumers are still waiting for prices to fall and for the battle over two competing technologies to be resolved.

Referring to the high-definition DVD format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray, Forrester Research said in a report on Monday that while the two camps have "been fighting what seems to be a war of attrition for consumers' hearts and minds", few consumers are warming to either type of device.

[MK_Red]

"another 18 months": Thanks to Paramount's stupid move. God I hate this war. At first it was helpfull with prices falling so fast but now I actually want Casino Royale, Transformers, Bourne Ultimatum and Pirates of Caribbean 3 on HD and they are divided between two expensive formats.

[cuco33]

cuz HD DVD is ready NOW for the market unlike BD

If there is anyone one to blame it is Sony and the BDA. They NEED the 18 months to finish and finalize their spec as well as to eliminate manufacturing issues with BD50 replication, releasing the 1.1. profile as well as the 2.0 profile, get BD-Java to work as good as HDi without any major issues, etc etc etc

Think about this, all BD players released in Q4 use the 1.0 profile and most are said to be non upgradeable. 18 months is about the time it should take BD to be where HD DVD is now (sans the higher costs)

In terms of players BD is expensive, HD DVD is not.

[ta1snake]

Blu FTW.

[Capt CHAOS]

That's the jist of it..

[archpsyker]

everytime I see an article about this I'm reminded of what an employee at a local Suncoast said. The war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD will be decided by the side the porn industry sides with. From what he said this is how the previous formats of VHS and DVD have been decided over their competing formats.

Whether this is true or not hasn't been confirmed by myself.

Both formats look good and I think will be good for people who want high-definition movies when a winner is declared, if one is at all. In the end though, my money is on Blu-ray.

[Kholinar]

The porn industry is largely online now. I doubt they're going to have much to do with it.

*edit* also, dvd really didn't have comparable competition. Look at how long it took them to overcome a visually inferior product. Physical storage space (dvd case size) was probably one of the biggest reasons for adoption. To be fair, vhs did have one advantage: Recording. Something that consumers still desire and something this gen (like dvd's) fights against viciously. Which is part of why adoption will be slow.

[BIadestarX]

This should teach Sony a lesson or two about forcing new formats on people. Sony really though that blu-ray adoption was going to be smooth when they added it into the PS3 and is turning to be a 3-4 war if not a never ending war. If sony wouldn't add blu-ray into the PS3 then they wouldnt have so many enemies such as Microsoft which by the way have pretty big pockets. This reminds me of Hitler... Why did he lose the war? simply becase he declared the war against the world. Why not fight one battle at a time? Why risk everything by trying to fight the console war and the format war at the same time?
By the look of it, Sony's plan back fired... Blu-ray is hurting the PS3 and the PS3 is hurting blu-ray... good job Sony... let's see how long it takes for digital distribution to pick up and all the money and resources you are spending goes down on history as the what not to do in business 101.

[Douchebaggery]

yawn

[archpsyker]

Sony didn't force a format on anyone. People have a choice from Blu-ray or HD-DVD. Blu-ray players can play dvds also, so it's not like they are losing anything. By adding Blu-ray to the PS3 I think Sony was looking at two things: 1) amount of data that can be stored on Blu-ray and 2) adding a high-definition format to the console. Either way, this can possible be a win/win for Sony.

If Microsoft would of put an HD-DVD drive in the Xbox 360 would people feel the same way about the Xbox 360 as they would the PS3? Business is business. Companies take risks, they have to look to the future not just the present.

[RealityCheck]

To be fair, a format is created by hardware manufacturer. In this case Blu-ray is supported by Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, Philips, Denon, JVC, Marantz and some obscure chinese vendors whereas HD-DVD is Toshiba and some obscure chinese vendors. So in this case, it is Toshiba who is going against the industry and by your analogy Toshiba is Hitler.

As far as the PS3, Sony just followed a normal progression PS1->PS2->PS3 with CD->DVD->BD. The biggest issue with the PS3 right now is that it is still < 1 year old and doesn't have enough games for it yet. Anyone who has a PS3 and has seen a Blu-ray movie on it will not count Blu-ray as a bad thing to have.

[Kyur4ThePain]

Keep it up, Blade.
Soon we'll see 3 bubbles, then 2....keep it up.

[cuco33]

You forgot that HD DVD not only has Toshiba but also Venturer, Alpine, Onkyo, Integra, and other China manufacturers just to name a few...

Denon stated they are not exclusive to BD. They are especially not happy about the lack of 1.1 profile and don't want to be the guinea pig for it (hence their delayed BD standalone, their first HDM player and BD's first 1.1 profile player).

and if you're so confident in the BD list than I ask why is LG and Samsung (amongst others as well as rumored which I won't even get into) making a dual format player that plays both HD DVD and BD? Looking at the laptop realm adds others like HP, ACER and LG that offer HD DVD drives as well as BD drives. Seems like your own board of BD manufacturers aren't so confident in BD afterall.

Now watch all the disagrees since this is all truth I speak ;).

[RealityCheck]

Digressions aside, the main point of my reply to post #5 is that the analogy used to try to portray Sony as the sole supporter of Blu-ray was quite unfounded when in fact they had more support.

[damnwrx]

Anyways, PS3 owners are smart coz they know it's got a game console and a high definition (BD) player a DVD player in one system. And updateable............

IS ANYONE READY FOR "FANTASTIC 4" NEXT WEEK ON BLU-RAY TO PURCHASE....

[scriptkiddie]

PS3 owners are smart? as you say.

why because they bought a game console that plays movies and has no games?

Isn't it ironic that you are excited about purchasing "Fantastic 4" blu-ray movie for your game console, at the same time that xbox 360 fans are excited about purchasing a Game such as halo 3.

[cr33ping_death]

hhhmmmm let me see im excited for HALO for my 360 as i am as excited for MGS 4 for my PS3....and look at this i dont have to buy an add on to watch movies i got a blue ray player as well. so lets see here i can play games and movies on my PS3 and i can play all the games you are boasting on about on my 360 but i cant play hd movies without buying the add on.... so i saved me some money there didnt I. im sure anyone that is into GAMES and not just game consoles can agree that each system has its selling point. if not.....enjoy a life of an ignorant fanboy.

[damnwrx]

Isn't that ironic that the subject clearly says Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war and your off topic you Ignoramus.

[eagle21]

I have, and Blu Ray has the best movies...PERIOD. "it's all about the games", well, "it's all about the movies"...Fall 2007 through 2008 Sony is "all about the games and the movies". You bet.

[cuco33]

Gaming: PC / Wii / PS2 / PSP / XBOX1 / XBOX360 (no PS3 yet)
Movies: HD-A2 (HD DVD) which replaced my crappy SD DVD

Due to buy: PS3 for gaming and movies

All my gaming needs are on everything but the PS3 (not appealing to me yet)
All my movie needs for DVD and HD DVD I play on my HD-A2, BD will come when I get a PS3

Current state of BD -> not so good

[TechWiz]

A year and half more for the rest of the consumers to find out what format wins. This is why the sales are so slow in the first place. In the end I think it's going to be a draw, just like the DVD Format with +/-R.

[blackmagic]

I agree 100%. 18 months from now dual-format players will likely be $200 or less. The war will officially be meaningless.

[darthv72]

They are starting to be talked about more often than individual players. This leads to hardware manufacturers to add the little part to the laser that changes the pitch so it plays both formats. It may be expensive at first but within this 18 month time there will be more announcements of dual format players.

You have to think that a company that supports one side and is then shown that a compromise can be made will want to capitalize on that. Sony was a avid supporter of the + media format but even they knew when to embrace the competition and see it for what it was. A win for them because they could now appeal to both sides and a win to the consumers because they had a brand name like sony basically saying it was ok to have both.

Wasn't toshiba and sony partners in this new hd format before they had different agendas on the interactive layer? Yet they make the cell together.