Are Blu-ray players better than there HD DVD players or did Sony just buy the Victory?

Question

After Blu-ray won the format war it seems that you hear more and more about things that the Blu-ray players cannot do. The first thing that comes to mind is the fact they cannot play decode the new audio formats such as the Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio your receiver has to do that which your old one can't do so you have to buy a new receiver. There player are a lot more money than there HD DVD opponents and Blu-ray discs are still very expensive, even though the HD DVD disc seems just as expensive because they have the regular dvd format combined with there HD DVD discs. I just have a weird feeling the better product lost and Sony just paid movie studios to go blu-ray exclusively.

Answer 1

Blu-ray memory capabilities are much more superior to HDDVD's. The best format won. With all this memory the consumer can really take advantage of many more features, alternate endings, extra director length movie cuts, long movies, extras and more extras.

Answer 2

In some ways HD DVD was more "consumer friendly" (no region coding, no BD+ DRM, cheaper to produce disks since they were closer to normal DVDs, etc) but Blu-ray has some advantages too (more space allowing greater bitrate).

Overall the technically superior format "won", but the maturity of the hardware and capacity to produce disks is still limited.

The biggest problem will be that because Blu-ray is more expensive to produce and hardware is more complex prices are going to be a bigger barrier to acceptance my the mainstream consumer than HD DVD would have been. In addition HD DVD hardware was more inclusive of the average consumer, since there was a broader range of player capability (and price) than Blu-ray. Realistically, both formats would have had a tough time against DVD since they don't provide much more than a bit better picture and sound ... and then only to those with equipement that allows them to shine. And they take away convenience in that you can't play either format (except combo HD DVDs which were a minority player) on a portable or car player or on the DVD player in the kitchen, cottage or kid's room.



While Blu-ray is technically superior, HD DVD fitted the capability of most consumer's equipment better. In other words much of the benefit is only useful to the small portion of consumers with high end equipment. To everyone else it is more expensive than it needed to be ... and they will have to pay for that.

So ... overall I agree with you. We would have been, overall, better off with HD DVD. The result will almost certainly be that Blu-ray will remain a premium priced niche format ... an alternative to DVD, rather than a replacement. HD DVD on the other hand might have been a replacement.

I think studios made an error choosing Blu-ray ... and they are beginning to realize it.

Answer 3

A few other notes:

- New blu-ray player prices are going UP, not down

- Sony is limiting sales of BluRay disks to NetFlix and BlockBuster to force consumers to purchase rather than rent.

- Sony put TV companies out of business by selling (for a while) televisions directly to stores like Sears below cost.

So yes, Sony did things to put HD-DVD out of business, and now the consumers are going to pay.