Blu-Ray FTW

[Premonition]

Looks like the battle lines are drawn!

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-13855_1-984...g=2547-1_3-0-5

Despite the apparent coup for Blu-ray in convincing Warner Bros. to join their side shortly before this year's CES conference, Seagate Technology CEO Bill Watkins is confident it won't have any impact on the on-going format war for HD dominance. That's not because he believes HD DVD will take the crown, but rather because he's convinced that the real winner will be electronic distribution rather than physical discs.

"People are saying Blu-ray won the war but who cares? The war is over physical distribution versus electrical distribution, and Blu-ray and HD lost that," he said during a breakfast meeting at the Consumer Electronics Show here this week. "In this, flash memory and hard drives are on the same side. The war is over and the physical guys lost."

In addition to talk of devices for storing video from different sources, which of course is a job for either flash memory or hard drives, he also mentioned that electronic distribution also creates the need for backups of all the data to be broadcast.

So what if the studios simply decide not to embrace the new distribution model? According to Watkins it will be their loss. He says that if no official Channel exists to get video to homes people will take whatever they can find on the internet. "They will watch lousy content if it is easy to do," he said.

and now the games begin

VideoGiants to offer HD video downloads from Paramount

13 January 2008 1:24 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 2 comments
VideoGiants to offer HD video downloads from Paramount MusicGiants, whose online music store already offers audio downloads in much higher quality than the typical web retailer has made a deal with Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment to deliver HD video. The video oriented service, not surprisingly called VideoGiants, can deliver HD movies either one at a time by download or as entire collections on a hard drive that would be installed into a home theater server.

?Over the past several years, high-end audio consumers have come to rely on MusicGiants as the source for all of their favorite music, and we are now pleased to announce that we are going to do the same thing for films and TV shows through our VideoGiants service,? said MusicGiants CEO Scott Bahneman. ?Our company is uniquely positioned to sell the highest quality content onto premium connected homes because the MG MediaStore software is being built into so many home theater devices.?

He was referring to the fact that VideoGiants isn't intended purely for PC playback, but rather can (and will) be supported by a number of home theater media servers, including such brands as Creston, Imerge, Niveus, Russound, ReQuest, Xperinet, Cutting Edge and Inteset.

?This is the first time we have licensed our films for sale and delivery on a hard drive,? said Derek Broes, senior VP of worldwide business development at Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment. ?What appeals to us about MusicGiants and their VideoGiants movie delivery service is that their target demographic is focused on high-end consumers with home theaters and this audience consists typically of early adopters of new technology. Therefore, we want to ensure that our films are easy to legally purchase, store and enjoy.?

http://www.videobusiness.com/article....html?nid=3514


A few months back micheal bay said that microsoft wanted both hd-dvd and blu-ray to fail as the worked the kinks out of DD. Buts it clear that digital distribution looks to be joining the war late. But just when you think the movie wars are getting clear, they just get more cluttered.
One thing DD has over both other formats is ease of getting. Just click dl and watch. Pretty simple. But isp speeds do play a factor in that.

[Devilguns]

I'm not to keen on DD, I'd rather have the hard copy.

[Premonition]

I think many people will be like that. But also there is a market for lazy people (like me ) and a market for renters who do not buy dvd movies. I think DD appeals to those 2 markets.

In any case i dug up what micheal bay had said and microsofts response to his comments for those who might not have seen it.

Micheal Bay (director of transformers)
Posted December 4, 2007

What you don't understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about. That is why Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=722

Microsoft's response to those comments.

There were some comments made recently by Michael Bay, who felt that Microsoft might be opting for a different strategy, bypassing the next-generation of DVDs altogether and opting for a download-only service in the long term. What would you say to that?

SM: I didn't read his comments, although I heard about them, but hey, he's allowed his personal thoughts ? I think he clarified some of those thoughts about 24 hours later ? but for us we're focused on HD-DVD movies working with great partners, and we wouldn't have that offer for five free movies if we didn't believe in that format.

But we also believe in downloadable content, whether it's music, or movies ? it's not about one solution, because one solution isn't going to work for everybody.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=31400



Whats funny is now he looks to be telling the truth and was right all along. But with 10 million live users, thats a big hefty market to sell to right out the gates. I would like to see how DD sales do vs blu-ray sales or hd-dvd sales though. get a better idea of what kinda money its generating.
But its gonna take alot of work to kill dvd`s in any case. They by far own the market and cheap to rent, cheap to buy, cheap to buy players, every movie that gets made comes to dvd will be hard for another contender to duplicate.

[juneau]

DD will fail in the UK almost certainly. There isn't one ISP that doesn't have some form of a cap. Luckily mine appears to be the best. I only get capped between 4pm and 9pm. Anytime outside of that is free reign.

[RobotBanana]

I don't mind digital distribution in certain cases. For example, there have been a few times where I want a game, but I know I won't be able to get to the store for a few days, so I buy it online (e.g. CoD4). However it takes forever to download, and most of the time it would be much quicker to get a disc in stores. Plus you get the manual, a nice cover, etc.

With movies, I'd much rather have a physical copy, especially if it's HD. Downloads take forever, my hard drive quickly fills up, and it's not very easy to lend it to a friend, or watch it on another TV, etc.

Regarding ISPs, I think most Canadians are in trouble. Here in Toronto, our two main choices are Rogers (cable) or Bell Sympatico (DSL). Both of them are fairly slow, and Rogers has monthly bandwidth caps. I pay $50 a month plus tax, and my max download speed is 350kb/s.

[Premonition]

Well there is proof in concepts that DD can work.

utube and google video are proof of that. People dont mind low quality for fast access and easy searching with lots of content. I mean who doesnt like utube besides the riaa

check this out. 2 million views and its a old song from the 80s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdDxz2bkfhE&feature=user

But you have to love it and i bet every guy here who lived in the 80`s knows all the words as well common adit it you use to jam to this and it made you smile seeing it again

or 90`s female singer but i bet every guy here knows the chorus is you lived in the 90`s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jZrjsrxhGE


Im guessing thats the goal with DD is to be able to offer everything at a fair price and make it a 1 stop shop so you dont have to leave your house.
But utube and GC are proof that quality isnt the only thing.

But Microsoft with the xbox 360 is strong in America. Thats where it has the best chance to work. I agree it probably wont fair well in other countries. I have a live account for another region and it doesn't offer 1/3rd the content of my US account.

[CarbonFire]

Regarding ISPs, I think most Canadians are in trouble. Here in Toronto, our two main choices are Rogers (cable) or Bell Sympatico (DSL). Both of them are fairly slow, and Rogers has monthly bandwidth caps. I pay $50 a month plus tax, and my max download speed is 350kb/s.

And that's criminally stupid in this day and age of the internet, especially since other parts of the world totally kick our arse with regards to access.

This is of course the reason why Digital Distribution is still years away from supplanting any physical media. Access in NA is still far too limited/slow to be reasonable. Until the MAJORITY of people in North America have 10-50Mbps or better connection (again, we are years away from this), DD will be a novel alternative at best. It's not that people aren't willing to go that route to get their media fix, its that the infrastructure isn't there yet.

[Premonition]

well not to mention if dd cought on, isp`s would wanna get paid as well. I can see them suing who ever owned the dd to try and get their cut as well.

Where i live 5 megs dl 2 up is about standard. You get get upto 15 mps dl from my cable company for about 50 dollars a month. Vios is in spots here with like 30 mps dl but it cost even more.
But 5 mps is fin for movies on live. I watched on demand last night because it got late and the movie store was closed.

But i dont see dvd just fadeing away anytime soon. We are years at best before any alternative can even be considered a threat to dvd. All things that could have crutches that make it not as good or not as valid as dvd. It took a while for dvd to over take vhs, but now dvd pretty much owns the market.

[juneau]

Regarding ISPs, I think most Canadians are in trouble. Here in Toronto, our two main choices are Rogers (cable) or Bell Sympatico (DSL). Both of them are fairly slow, and Rogers has monthly bandwidth caps. I pay $50 a month plus tax, and my max download speed is 350kb/s.

And that's criminally stupid in this day and age of the internet, especially since other parts of the world totally kick our arse with regards to access.

This is of course the reason why Digital Distribution is still years away from supplanting any physical media. Access in NA is still far too limited/slow to be reasonable. Until the MAJORITY of people in North America have 10-50Mbps or better connection (again, we are years away from this), DD will be a novel alternative at best. It's not that people aren't willing to go that route to get their media fix, its that the infrastructure isn't there yet.

I remember a time a few years ago where i envied the US connections. The UK has come a long way in a very short amount of time. 3 years ago i was on a 700K connection. Now it's 20mb.

[Dead_And_Gone]

Slowly but slowly putting fiber out to suburbs.
Why slowly? Cost.. And weird rules about who can use what YOU
have put in. Doesn't make much sense to put in a big fiber to a
neighborhood, and then have to sell it all to one of your competitors
for 55% of YOUR COST to put it in.

Those rules, tariffs, regs, are being fought in court, and the stranglehold
is loosening. That is why we are just now ramping up.

The resellers, High speed internet companies, don't actually put down
fiber, they buy it from Williams, Sprint, AT&T, etc., but they buy or
lease the bandwidth at wholesale prices, resale it to consumers,
and still make a profit. 90% of their workforce is sales/marketing.

As laws are relaxed, you will see faster and faster offerings in the US.
Right now, AT&T is pushing a product called U-verse.
Up to 6Mbps downstream, 1Mbps upstream, and HD TV channels.
It is only in selected cities, but it is moving in quickly.

There are already more products being developed to go faster and
cheaper.