Sony and Toshiba Give Up On Unified DVD Format 339
HoTiCE_ is one of several to let us know, Reuters is reporting Sony and Toshiba have apparently given up efforts to develop a unified format for next-generation DVDs. The two companies had opened up negotiations but they fell through due to time constraints on new products from both groups.
My Prediction (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:My Prediction (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah.. and DVD-Rs and DVD+Rs and DVD-RWs and DVD+RWs.
You're right.. two competing formats out there at the same time will never work.
Re:My Prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
apples to oranges.
Re:My Prediction (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly my point. What's to stop manufacturers from including support for both standards?
Re:My Prediction (Score:2)
Re:My Prediction (Score:2)
I'm sure it will be possible. You could even have two lasers, if necessary. I guess it will pan out to whether or not it's worth it. If Blu-ray just slaughters HD-DVD, then manufacturers won't bother supporting HD-DVD. On the other hand, what are the odds that one will slaughter the other? Blu-ray is going to be in PS3 and HD-DVD is apparently in Xbox 360. I wonder if it will get to the point that publishers have to sell both Bluray and HD-DVD version of movies because both formats are so popular.
Like you
Re:My Prediction (Score:5, Informative)
Considerable technical differences. DVD-R and DVD+R are almost identical, as you can see by their identical capacity. While both Blue-Ray and HD-DVD work with blue lasers, they use different platters, different focus and so on. Personally I wish they could agree on a media-independent content structure (i.e. you can make a CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blue-Ray and the only difference was capacity), but no such luck.
Kjella
Re:My Prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
A lot of retailers have dropped VHS, but Wal-Mart still caries them and they are the biggest retailer around. I even know a well-off kid with HDTV and all of the latest computer "toys" who still buys VHS movies for some stupid reason. Besides price I see no difference.
Think about how long you (the collective you) were still buying tapes after CD's were released. Being that DVD players are being factory installed in some cars and are everywhere it will be a while before people get rid of DVD. Shit, DVD players are the fastest (or highest?) selling consumer device category of all time (For trivia purposes, I believe the original GameBoy still holds the record for highest selling electronic consumer product of all time).
Re:My Prediction (Score:2, Interesting)
Then wouldn't the stupid reason be the price? I still buy VHS because the movies are always cheaper, and with a good VCR there is little difference in quality.
Re:My Prediction (Score:2)
What? Maybe the first 2 times you play the tape on a super-expensive VCR. Most people would rather just do it the easy way and pay $3 more for the DVD. Kind of like LPs vs. music CDs. Sure a record CAN sound better, but CDs are so much easier which is why they caught on.
Re:My Prediction (Score:5, Funny)
Re:My Prediction (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:My Prediction (Score:4, Informative)
Even today, almost all major motion pictures are shot on film. Film is higher resolution than DVD. They just need to reconvert the film into HD.
Re:My Prediction (Score:2, Interesting)
film itself has a very high resolution. but most of the post-production work done on film is done at a specific resolution (2k). so it woud be more than trivial to convert a lot of these movies into high def. a lot of effects work is done by hand and rendered out to the highest resolution needed at the time. for instance, nearly all title sequences would have to
Re:My Prediction (Score:5, Informative)
Um, 'hi def' isn't even 2k. It's 1920. Even if they produce a standard that's higher than that, they'll just upsample it. It'll be a little soft, but they won't re-do the effects or avoid it altogether.
Re:My Prediction (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My Prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
The questions consumers will ask is "What is the benefit over the old system and is it worth the $X00 to buy a new player for it?"
DVDs had significant benefits - but the kicker probably was in the end the CD-like ability. No more long stretches of minutes spent fastforwarding nor rewinding - you can go to the scene you want as fast as you can access the menus. That and the space savings.
But what is the obvious benefit of these new discs? Crippling DRM? High Definition when HDTVs are still the exception not the norm? Multiple movies on one disc for a lower price? (YEAH RIGHT!) What exactly?
My prediction is that DVDs will probably be uncontested king till 2015 due to entrenchment and that the cool new next generation devices are struggling to hard to pander to the movie studios with absurd DRM schemes.
My other prediction is that "next" medium will be delivered not by need for HD movies but by the demands of computer consumers needing a storage devices that saves more gigabytes than DVDs can possibly hope for.
This device will be free of or have relatively easy DRM and HD movies will eventually be delivered in this format because the other formats companies try to make will be recieved like betamax/laserdisc.
Movies will also start being offered officially over the internet way before then.
Re:My Prediction (Score:2)
Is there anything besides Blu Ray and HD-DVD on the horizon? I don't want to wait 5 years for something bigger than DVD.
I can't figure out why dual-layer writable DVD media have been SO slow to come about. All the drives already support DL, yet no media. I don't know whether it's lack of dem
Re:My Prediction (Score:5, Informative)
Dual layer (re)writeable media is a proper bitch to manufacture with (currently) a high failure rate, that's why. All the current manufacturers of DL media have struggled to get consistent batches.
This is why they still cost a packet. If they can iron out the kinks and go to full mass production they'd be nearly as cheap as normal DVDs.
No problem (Score:4, Funny)
Trade me your very large hard drive for my 2.5 GB drive, backup on DVD, and there you have it.
(I have to warn you that my drive is 5.25" quarter-height.)
Re:My Prediction (Score:2)
Not if content owners like Sony stop selling them... but I just said 8 years because DVD-Video was introduced in 1997.
DVDs had significant benefits - but the kicker probably was in the end the CD-like ability. No more long stretches of minutes spent fastforwarding nor rewinding - you can go to the scene you want as fast as you can access the menus. That and the space savings.
I've got to admit though that I am started to get tired of
Re:My Prediction (Score:3, Insightful)
Not if content owners like Sony stop selling them... but I just said 8 years because DVD-Video was introduced in 1997.
Hmmm.... Sony would be missing out on an awfully big market if they just stop. More than one Wolf in the chicken coop^_^
Also, it's not like a Video Game system - movies are easily sellable on the next-generation and current generation system.
I imagine they stopped selling cassettes mainly because people stopped buy
Even worse... (Score:2)
What in the world could that mean? Does the 35mm master-print lose its soul during an HD transfer?
Good (Score:5, Insightful)
Wishfull thinking, I know...
Re:Good (Score:2, Informative)
DRM will kill them (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:DRM will kill them (Score:2, Interesting)
The common they're/their/there, its/it's, should have/should of spring to mind...
Yet it doesn't prevent them from having a job that pays nicely. I find it looks highly unprofessional, most of them don't seem to know about spell checkers either.
Plus, I've people that weren't rich that had expensiv
Re:DRM will kill them (Score:2, Informative)
And, I completely agree with you that grammar (or, even, English) is not tested for nearly as much as coding ability. After all, the company isn't selling documents to their clients!
Re:DRM will kill them (Score:2)
I'm sure most people understood my point, no need to nitpick.
Re:DRM will kill them (Score:2)
A multi-format player would sure help (Score:2)
If someone came out with a reasonably priced player that played both HD-DVD and BluRay, that would let people choose their favorite format (if there was a choice from the studios) or play content no matter what format the studio decided to go with. I wonder how likely that will be to happen? (Especially the "reasonably priced" part.)
Whatever (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Whatever (Score:4, Interesting)
And what are you going to display them on?
You'll have one dual-format HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player. It'll have two outputs. One will pipe HDMI video to your Toshiba HDTV. The other will pipe HDMI video to your Sony HDTV.
Why the second HDTV? Well, how else did you think you were going to watch any movies made by Sony Pictures? :)
And why does Sony Pictures have the right to make sure that Sony's movies are only released on Sony-formatted DVDs that will decode correctly only on Sony HDMI screens? Well, they asked for the Betamax precedent to be overtu~`~~~
Petard-hoisting error -- industry dumped
Re:Whatever (Score:3, Interesting)
I say earlier than that! Given how fast optical drive technology has advanced in the last few years a combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray reader drive that uses either ATA-100 or Serial ATA interfaces could be out as early as late 2006, with recorder drives coming out soon afterwards.
Why so early? Mostly because both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs can use the same drive tray system used by CD recorders and DVD+R/DVD-R recorders. It's only
Bad news for us (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Bad news for us (Score:4, Insightful)
So... content *will* be available in both formats, and it will make little difference what kind of device customers buy. However, the format war will slow the overall adoption of *both* formats. DVDs and CDs will still be around for a long while to come, and I wouldn't be surprised if, eventually, there'll be devices that simply handle both formats and thus avoid the incompatibility issues altogether (just like there's combined CD/DVD±R/W/RW readers/writers now, for example).
That's all assuming that there'll be no major DRM goof-ups, of course. If either format makes it too difficult for people to access their legitimately-bought content, then it'll lose out big time, and the manufacturers know this. Considering that there's also pressure from the other side (the "content industry") to include as much DRM as possible, though, it's gonna be interesting to see how things turn out.
Re:Bad news for us (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, as a self-professed media junkie, I could care less at this point whether or not there's a next-generation-DVD war. A DVD played on a pr
Re:Bad news for us (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bad news for us (Score:2)
2 competing and non compatible formats (unlike DVD + and - R which work in *most* stuff regardless). Perhaps some studios will release exclusively on one format, which means less titles to watch overall, no matter which you buy.
Heavy DRM (since CSS has been broken on DVDs they've became extremely popular, well, that and cheap burners). That won't exactly lure people into buying either systems either. Even if it's not for pirating, the DRM will ensure you have basically no way of making us
No way (Score:2)
ps3 (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:ps3 (Score:4, Insightful)
In any case, even with a hard drive, the BOM cost should easily be under $500. If they are trying to compete aggressively with Microsoft, they'll set the wholesale price near or even below the manufacturing cost, and plan to make their money on game sales and licensing.
That business model is nothing new to the game console industry; in fact, it's one of the big reasons that they try to lock up the console to prevent unauthorized (i.e., unlicensed) games from being developed and sold by other parties.
Re:ps3 (Score:2)
That's one million more BluRay DVD readers being produced to the two hundered thousand HD-DVD players being produced for the XBox 360. In manufacturing, those numbers make BluRay decoding chips and other required componentry commodity items, compared to the almost-commodity HD-DVD components.
So I expect that after ps3 sales slow down, fab plants will be able to supply every BluRay drive system with cheaper parts. That could generate a hu
Re:ps3 (Score:3, Insightful)
Just flip a coin! (Score:5, Insightful)
If they had just done some kind of binding arbitration or even picked one format randomly, they'd be rolling in dough. Consumers would be "forced" to upgrade (yet again) to a new standard format.
Instead, no one upgrades, and the companies miss out on potential profit.
Re:Just flip a coin! (Score:2)
You see, even in this case, when it comes to not taking the standard (like in the DVD case), us consumers will have to pay for drives which reads both kinds of disks. Which means we have to fork out more money for those drives, and those companies manufacturing those drives lose profits, which make them raise prices even more.
Competition is great, but in the media world, standar
Re:Just flip a coin! (Score:4, Insightful)
You see, even in this case, when it comes to not taking the standard (like in the DVD case), us consumers will have to pay for drives which reads both kinds of disks. Which means we have to fork out more money for those drives, and those companies manufacturing those drives lose profits, which make them raise prices even more.
Yeah, because I know my DVD burner I just bought that can burn DVD+-RW/DVD+-R/DVD-RAM/CD-RW (that's 6 formats BTW, not just two) was way over priced.
I mean 40 dollars??? HELL it cost at least as much as an evenings dinner. How can anyone expect to pay that???
</sarcasm>
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's Like a Presidential Election... (Score:5, Insightful)
Consumers can simply keep buying DVDs and ignore the new formats, thus sending a no-confidence vote. Now we have some time, because most people can't watch HD-DVDs or Blu-Ray discs because of their analog TVs. The picture looks exactly like that of a DVD (or maybe a Superbit DVD). So most people have no reason to buy one of those formats yet. This is the time to get the message out there about how crippled they are (remind people about the no fast-forwarding on DVDs as an example, no one likes that and EVERYONE has seen it).
One the formats start to get real sales from normal people, the battle will be lost (except through the courts, which will probably be a no starter thanks to congress's "Lifetime + 30,000 years" copyright policy).
For all the geek interest we have in the new formats, as a DVD replacement they are as significant as DVDs were in 1997/8: none.
Re:It's Like a Presidential Election... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:It's Like a Presidential Election... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not only that, we have a 3-1/2th choice: DVD+divx/mp4
Next gen mp4 players will certainly be able to render in pseudo hi-def, which will be "good enough" for the large percentage of people who don't have HD sets compatible with the latest DRM. And since they'll be mass-produced in China for a fraction of the cost of Blu-Ray/HD-DVD, there's a chance those latter two formats will go the way of SACD/DVDA.
Who needs discs? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It's Like a Presidential Election... (Score:2)
DVD-Rs were pretty damn expensive when they first came out. Now they're almost as cheap as CD-Rs; you can get a pack of 100 4.7GB DVD-Rs for $25. You can get a do-everything burner (CD-R/RW, DVD+-R/RW) for $50. The new high-capacity media will probably follow a similar path.
Re:It's Like a Presidential Election... (Score:2)
I think I'm going to vote for a third party!
Obligatory Simpsons quote (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's Like a Presidential Election... (Score:2, Insightful)
What do you expect from a Digital Restrictions Management system?
Well that certainly makes the decision easier. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Well that certainly makes the decision easier. (Score:5, Insightful)
I should probably clarify that statement before I get branded as a troll: I will pick whichever format will not automatically assume that I'm a criminal and therefore prevent me from watching a true HD picture on my 3 year old $3500 HD television set which, of course, does not have an HDMI interface.
Hence the original comment.
Re:Well that certainly makes the decision easier. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, but Confucious he say: (Score:3, Insightful)
"Screw early adopters, and late adopters will not come."
Dual format? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Dual format? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder actually what is so different between the two formats.. the way it's
encoded on the disk, right? Isn't this a SOFTWARE issue (drive firmware) more
than anything, or is there really some strangeness involved that I am missing.
Maybe the dual-layer (and triple-layer) technologies use incompatible ways of
focussing the laser; but isn't that also down to software and the use of another
lens (like CDRW/DVD drives have already..)
I dunno, really.. I don't have access to the specs. Who does? Who can make a
really informed statement that dual-format drives will be possible?
The trouble then is which format will the industry pick?
I would say HD-DVD - because it's inherent cheapness (same disc layout as DVD,
same manufacturing facilities and little changes to machinery will make it as cheap
if not cheaper than DVD). Blu-Ray requires people to retool.
Blu-Ray may end up being the custom format that runs the Playstation 3, like UMD
is the custom format that runs the PSP, Matsushita's discs were the custom format that ran the Gamecube, and GD-ROM was the custom format that ran the Dreamcast.
Besides Sony releasing their own movies in Blu-Ray format for the PS3 and a clutch of Sony & Samsung players, why would any cheap-ass (and we're all cheapasses at heart) bother with it? Remember in the VHS/Betamax war, Sony lost at the end of the day. They are not infallible and we shouldn't just think that because they have the Playstation that they will not lose again.
Neko
Re:Dual format? (Score:3, Insightful)
This article will probably enlighten you (Score:5, Informative)
Same as SACD/DVD-Audio (Score:5, Insightful)
Everyone loses, esp. the consumers who backed either format. For everyone else, CD's are still good enough and market penetration for either of the new audio standards is VERY low. Same exact thing will happen here, DVD will be good enough for just about everyone, and only the Videophiles will be jumping on HD-DVD or Blu-ray.
How sad when companies fail to understand history will repeat itself with the HD video market.
Not too sure about that.... (Score:2)
Re:Same as SACD/DVD-Audio (Score:2)
Actually, I am very gratified to see this development ... Now we have draconian DRM *AND* a format war. Nobody is going to buy these things.
I was also thinking yesterday ... all the early adopter HDTV owners got BURNED, now they're supposed to early addopt an HDTV *AND* a expensive blueray player?
Re:Same as SACD/DVD-Audio (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, on the similarity, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD both use the sam
Except we have universal players (Score:2)
Re:Same as SACD/DVD-Audio (Score:4, Interesting)
The fact that even $50 DVD players have digital 5.1 audio out, yet can't play a bloody DVD Audio disc. It's only a matter of piping the bloody digital data from the disc to the outputs.
Why? I bet it is licensing. DVD Audio would have been the outright winner by now if it had been included in standard DVD players. But no, I'm sure the audio market got all scared and said 'No' to that, so they could continue to sell their expensive dedicated players. Sadly, because of the format war, like someone else pointed out above, 90% of the market disappeared, so they made less money in the end. I also expect there is some DRM reason, if the audio was available in DRM-removed format on a 5.1 digital output, then it can easily be stolen!
Maybe Sony or Toshiba should look at that and think how bad this is for their business. But no, they won't, it doesn't apply to them, they're too big for that, they're too proud to admit it. I'm hoping that because it happened once already, it will happen again. DVDs are good enough, except for the minor percentage of people that have 60"+ HDTVs that will notice the encoding blockiness.
In the meantime, my local superstore is selling new DVDs from 97p each. Sure, the 97p DVDs aren't blockbuster films, but you can't go wrong with over an hour of classic cartoons and so on for that price.
George Lucas announcement (Score:4, Funny)
Other technology (Score:2, Offtopic)
Seems like there's news but no product to ship .
http://news.google.com/news?q=holographic+storage
Lemmings... (Score:2, Interesting)
Setback for DRM. Good indeed ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Giant Screwup (Score:4, Insightful)
But what did we get? A mess. Many consumers will take one look at this and throw up their hands. The smarter consumers will even take it a step further and back off from buying regular format DVDs because they would rather wait for that new title in the higher definition format.
This is a total foot-shot.
My guess (Score:2)
However, if I had to choose, blu-ray will slowly pick up steam as people who get the PS3 decide to toy with it.
HD is doomed (Score:3, Interesting)
Very few consumers are clamoring for it - there's low demand. Early adopters are already gonna be shafted because both new formats will require HDMI - and the HD sets sold before this summer didn't have that - and A/V receivers still don't have that. (yes except for 3 $3K and up models I'm aware of)
HDCP and it's variants (and competitors) still aren't final, there's no guarantee anything HD purchased this year will interoperate, or play media from next year.
The great American consumer is going to have major issues with their very expensive new toys not working - even if us geeks are OK with a couple of firmware upgrades on our consumer electronics per year, there's gonna be a lot of helpdesk calls...
I've finally decided on a format. (Score:5, Insightful)
While both have their pros and cons, ultimately we the consumer are going to be the ones shafted until they get their shit together. (I don't even need to go into why we'll be shafted if there's 2 formats, readers of this comment will know already)
Problem is, even when they DO get their shit together and decide on a single format, we will STILL get shafted!
If it's not DRM for the files on the disc itself, it's these new rumours of no component HD support, since it can't effectively enforce DRM.
In other words go and replace your "old" HDTV which is missing those plugs. (sorry guys buy my Toshiba 36" is 6 months old and I'm not upgrading)
While you're at it, go replace that component receiver too, it doesn't have HDMI or DVI inputs....
The manufactuers also seem to be thinking the uptake on blu-ray and HD-DVD is going to be quick, they are very very wrong.
DVD took off well because it did SO MANY things better than VHS - on a huge huge level.
The disc is (theoretically) stronger.
You can fast fwd through 60 minutes instantly - no need to re-wind.
They put cute little menu's and extra's on the disc.
You can drop a second audio or third or fourth audio channel - giving you commentary or language options (easier for manufacturers convienience then too)
Quality improvements in audio and video.
Overall DVD, besides the convienience of easy recording is better than VHS in many many ways.
The new HD formats however, they are not so simple, these suckers might have a better picture but the disc size / shape convienience is the same, the fast forward / rewind is the same, menu's will likely be similar or the same.
Ultimately all they will do is either offer MORE content or better quality, which isn't a bad thing but it's no gargantuan leap like DVD to VHS
So I've thought a lot about this and I've come to the decision of being a bit of a neathanderal and sticking with the "old" format so I'm sticking with DVD.
DVD still offers a picture we've all been completely happy with for the past what 5? 8 years and a high definition, fine pitch set isn't going to do bad things for your DVD's.
DVD still offers DDigital audio and DTS audio, both of which are quite damn good with decent quality speakers and HT gear.
DVD is easily backed up, my neighbours have kids and trust me those disney dvd's DO get used a heck of a lot, sure you should teach your kids to look after stuff but saving your ass 20 or 30$ on a disney DVD from scratches = smart (and fair use as far as I'm concerned)
DVD is fairly easy to author your own discs.
DVD is small enough to backup a couple of movies on the laptop for that holiday, so you don't lose the discs AND save battery power only having the HDD working while playing them
Infact the list goes on and on, but ultimately - I'm pretty darn happy with the quality of my movies on my TV from DVD's - and the majority of the ones I watch are DVD-shrunk'd so to speak, let alone originals making use of the full 8.5gb for better quality.
Finally, although it might be just a placebo effect but running my DVD's through my modified Xbox in 1280x720 it kind of upsamples them and makes the old content look even better.
Why on earth would I buy in to this DRM rubbish - I look forward to it sinking, I hope Sony, MS, Toshiba and the whole damn industry end up learning an expensive lesson.
Re:I've finally decided on a format. (Score:2)
DRM isn't going to sink this format. The vast majority of people buying DVDs have no clue how to author or copy them.
Re:I've finally decided on a format. (Score:2)
Mixed feelings on that. They *are* going to be overpriced to start. That always happens this is nothing new. However, early adopters will eat it up. Consider how affordable it's becoming to have a 'theater' at home. Extra pixels means better movie!
"Then add the frustration of DRM, lack of component output etc,...."
You're right, that sucks. However, HDTVs are still in th
How can I profit from Toshiba's insolence? (Score:2)
If you don't already know that BluRay will win, go on not knowing it, please. I will need some suckers out there.
However.
For those of us who DO already know, such as myself, what can I do to make money off the coming media-format apocalypse? I'd think it's less simple than investing in Sony, as Sony is already worth quite a bit due to other reasons -
Simple rule of thumb... (Score:2, Funny)
We also all know that BluRay will win.
You may be right that BluRay will win. I certainly can't predict the future. However, history seems to have taught us one thing:
When it comes to format wars, always bet against Sony.
What I will buy... not that it matters (Score:2)
Someday, when I have stuff that will let my non-tech wife play HD, and see HD on whatever random Costco TV I have at the time, that is what I'll buy.
If the packaging is honest, and if it says you need equipment, then I'll say, you know what? I don't need to own that, besides, Fred, down the street, seems to have LOTS of media, of questionable origin, that plays just fine on my regular equipmment (PC, TV, etc.)
Yay for consumers! (Score:2)
Seriously though, blue-ray wins all the way unless the price it wrong (er..high), it just sounds cooler. We've had these other ray hunks of stuff for way to long already.
How many frappichino's is too many?
if your working tv... (Score:3, Interesting)
Now picture this: "if your working HD-DVD player sits on top of your other working, but less used, Blue-Ray DVD player which sits on top of your other working standard DVD player you might be a pissed off consumer."
Having too many formats is just going to result in unhappy consumers and I'm going to get calls from the people who know I make things work because they bought a HD-DVD player but a movie on a BlueRay disk and BestBuy won't take it back because it's opened and since it's a DVD it can only be exchanged to exactly the same thing, not a different disk format.
True nature of this fight. . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Blu-ray is an effort to get around the 6C patents and Toshiba owned patents. When Sony and co. approached Toshiba/NEC/Warner in forming a unified format, one of the conditions that was put in place was to keep the 6C patents in place, and merely keep the software aspect of Blu-ray. This of course is why an agreement cannot be reached. Neither side has any reverance for the consumer.
Re:True nature of this fight. . . (Score:2)
cough ***minidisk*** cough.
Re:True nature of this fight. . . (Score:4, Interesting)
Really, I just don't get it. Is everyone (except Sony) playing both sides of the fence?
No problem! (Score:3, Funny)
\ havn't seen the unix backspace thing in a while
\\ slashies are fun on Fark, doing them here
\\\ this thread is useless without pics
The winner will be... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:One word: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One word: (Score:3, Insightful)
Two is better than one (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:GOOD! (Score:2)
Re:Superiority Complex. (Score:2)
And if it had worked that way with videotape, Beta would have won.
Beta had the better tech. VHS had the big prerecorded film library - and also reved sooner to add speeds with even lower quality in a tradeoff for longer play time.
Beta lost.
Do they really think that because we're all going to buy next summers blockbuster hit that we'll willing purchase it on an inferiour product?
Why not? That's how it worke
Re:Why Blu-Ray? (Score:2)
Do modern programs really take up more than 3000 operations in a second?
Re:Heh (Score:2)
Re:Then we as consumers need to band together (Score:2)
You say that is if any of all of those media have anything in common besides the fact that they hold data.
VHS is an analog format that sucks for anything digital.
Digital tape is great for many things, but has horrible latency.
Optical disks are great for random access, but have terrible capacities.
CD-Rs were popularized before DVD players were even considered and before the technology that ma
Four or Five are practical (Score:3, Interesting)