HD DVD returns and kicks Blu-ray to the gutter

yes and both those were competing with technolgies on roughly the same tier. Dvd and blu ray aren't on the same tier. also your entire argument is moronic. HDDVD and blu-ray competed against each other in the prime markets( north america, europe, and japan) and blu-ray won hands down.

 

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why cant SD cards be developed on par with blu-ray cds? cds always get scratched, sd cards are less vulnerable.

 

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Not true, Laserdisc was much better quality than the VHS tapes it competed with. MiniDisc was a portable format, and much smaller and lighter than items it competed with. Both failed despite these advantages.

Seems you don't grasp what my arguments is.

Actually it didn't. HD-DVD sold better initially, and even after Toshiba bailed, people grabbed bargains and still bought players, as many of them upscaled regular DVD, and sales of HD DVDs were strong until the end of 2008, accounting for nearly 20% of high def sales that year.

Also, it wasn't the markets that sealed the fate the HD DVD was it? For one, Warner Home Video adopted a single format policy and said they would only license their products on Blu Ray. That was market strangulation, not market forces. One format was always going to win out, I guess nobody wanted to fight another VHS/Betamax fight and the decision was made for us, rather than by us.

 

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Dual layer Blu Ray can hold 50Gb of data, single layer 25Gb. A 32Gb SD card retails for about £30, making the media far too expensive, and lower capacity.

A 64 Gb usb flash drive can be had for similar money, but it's still too expensive.

 

You're right that it was decided for us. But don't forget the Bluray Trojan Horse - PS3. The overwhelming majority of consumers who bought the PS3 did not have a HD TV and never bought any BD media.

 

So, how much of that public is still buying HDDVD?

Again, I'm not disputing any other fact (which facts I've already stated) only this: HDDVD is dead. Gone. Forever. Every other fact mentioned, I pretty much agree with.

This is why you keep trying to widen the discussion, it distracts away from the one overriding fact, HDDVD is dead, BluRay won the format war between the two of them.

You do recall trying to state otherwise, don't you?

~String

 

Which is what? HDDVD didn't lose, outright, and can make a comeback?

And when cornered as to this fact you resort to an argument that amounts to little more than, ". . .Well, yeah, but DVD's are still really big and BluRay is still too new and will one day fail." Yeah. Tell us something we don't know.

~String

 

Actually, this is a perfect example of the market at work. It's always how it has worked. No corporation has the ability to let democracy totally decide what succeeds and fails. Each corporation has a set amount of capital within a typical investment cycle to venture into various new technologies. There just isn't enough around to do all of it. So, individual corporations usually take a guess into which will work best for them and which consumers will gobble up. Some times they succeed big time. Just as often, they fail.

Historically this tends to work seamlessly, with few issues. Sometimes, however, it sparks debates and "format wars" because various corporations have differing ideas as to what "best" is best. Sony lost once (Betamax) and was eying not to loose again. It made a lot of deals with a lot of big people (Walmart, fellow technology corporations, various entertainment concerns, etc.) in order to ensure its success.

The corporation I work for was the largest seller of Braun razors in the USA. They were profitable, but were still phased out because, market wise, they weren't as big a seller as the other two electric razor brands (Phillips/Norelco & Remington) and by removing the shelf space that they took up and re-allocating it** to the other two brands; sales of razors, overall, went up. It wasn't that people didn't want the Brauns, it's just that market-wise, investing in the other two high-sellers was a much wiser and more profitable decision. The market almost always works like this: people in high positions make an attempt to decide what's best. Believe it or not, they actually do care about quality and price for the consumer, which though not totally altruistic, is not totally motivated by immediate greed.

The consumer--in the case of HDDVD & BluRay--has one product that is nearly identical to the other. Aside from some nerdy statistics, the two deliver the same HD quality data. In the end, it was marketing and market horse-trading that sealed the death of HDDVD and it's not like the consumer is suffering in quality because of one over the other. As I pointed out before, in the world of marketing, the name matters, and retailers like mine want a name that sound cool. Stupid or not. Tacky or not. The marketing "Three F's" have to be met: Flashy, Functional, Financially Sound. HDDVD had "functional" but it's marketing name wasn't "flashy enough" (new name, cool name being powerful sales tools) and "financially sound" (Sony's wielding and dealing made BluRay more desirable; how? I don't know).

Now does this mean that nothing else matter? Shit. No. BluRay may not last 5 years due to competing forces, but HDDVD is dead, forever.

~String
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**Shelf space in retail being at a premium.

 

Indeed, the Blu Ray player in the PS3 seemed to tip the market in favour of Blu Ray (HD DVD players were initially outselling Blu Ray by a factor of 3:1), but the actual sales of media were pretty flaccid for Blu Ray even after all those consoles were added to the potential market. Comparing the sales of DVD to Blu Ray after equal time in the market, Blu Ray sales of media are about 10% of that of DVD. Small beans, and still not improving the market share.

 

Lose, well, when it was a competition, HD DVD players initially outsold Blu Ray by a factor of 3:1. Market FACT.

The OP discusses a potential comeback of HD DVD, did you bother to read that?

 

Seems there's still quite a market;

http://www.rdvd.co.uk/index.php?c=2

Did you bother to read the OP?

Odd you see it that way, when it's you that's been caught trying to ringfence the debate by throwing such caltrops as 'sold in the free world' in, isn't it?

 

HDDVD is a better name.

 

Blu-ray is just a stop on the way of progress. It will soon go the way of the 8 track. About a year ago I read that there had been big strides in information cubes.