Blu Ray over/under $

Gotta look at all the past formats, and I must say that QUALITY has ALWAYS taken a back seat too convenience, cost, profit, etc!!!
Again, look at Betamax and look at CD(16bit/44 was a major step down in sonics, minus some backround noise here and there, and we're still using 16/44 standard for music at the local music stores, some 25 years later!!!!)
Heck, laser disc was an improvment over vhs easlily, and it never went beyond videophile niche market.
I think here, people will again go with whatever markets the convenience, or mass distribution, with the most titles and accessability, etc.
Really, we will NOT SEE a mass exodus to hd dvd like we did with original DVD a few years back! I garantee it! Why? Because with DVd you had the convenience, the improvment in audio/video quality, and we can already record on em now.
So just cause we got more dvd extras and some better vid or audio improvments, doesn't mean that much in tems of sales, profitability, marketability, consumer mass acceptance, IMO.
I mean, we had superior(by a mile!) SACD and DVDA audio discs out for years now, that have flopped and basically all but died a quick death mostly. We also had DVHS with superior HD definition video, and that died too.
We already got DVD now, that we can even record on. So what's some improvments in video/audio gunna do so much in terms of exciting the world?...I say not much.
Don't get me wrong, I am as thrilled as the next audiophile/video guy. But I think it will really come down to who can sell their product the most easily, and convince the public that theirs is the way to go, and that it's all going "their" way! Could be wrong. I just don't think product superiority has ever made a difference to the public at large when it came down to it. Heck, we got Bose outselling everyone by a ton! That should say something right there...

Well this time HD DVD is missing more than 50% of the studio backing with no support from Sony, Columbia Tri Star, MGM, Disney, Miramax or Fox.
Add this to the so called war and B/R is a sure winner.

I was at CES this past week and thoroughly attended all the demos and presentations on Blu ray and HD -DVD as well as the players. Thought I'd share the info I came across.

1. Blu Ray is using their extra disk space to introduce certain features. a. Educational- so ina ovie the dec of independence appears- you have the option of clicking a button on the declaration and getting history of the declaration of independence. ( this was in the demo). You can stop Sin City and join in in the killing spree as a game participant. ( an almost exact quote and was on the demo). You can have alive discourse with the director during the film ( also a direct example- the interpreation here is that the internet plays a role.) This for me is all a big waste. Obviously thats an opnion. Players- lots of blu ray players are being introduced by MANY manufacturers- all the players I saw started at 1800 but perhaps there is one at 1000. Blu Ray titles will be released starting in June or so. About 60 titles to be released. Price points for the disks are likely to be higher than current DVDs, but no one is going into specifics.

2. HD-DVD- Will release first with both players and titles in March. Two players will be 499 and 799. Two other manufacturers are releasing players as well. 30 titles to be released in March with 200 by JAnuary 1, 2007 was what I wastold. Cost of HD-DVD disk is one dollar over the current DVD price. The two sided disks with standard def DVD on one side and hd-dvd on the other will be about three dollars higher or so. That is an extrapolation of read betwwen the line info I got. NOT an exact quote.

3. PS3 is freaky. It is so unbeleivably real. Fraky to watch. Fortunately I am not into that stuff. But wow.

4. Problems- 1080P 1920 x 1080 displays are being released this year both in larger LCD sizes and Plasmas as well. These are new. However, current cable and satellite signal resolution is NOT true HD and is pegged by DISH at 1240 x 1080 to save bandwidth. Therefore the true value of a 1080P display goes unrealized for that type of viewing. Only hi def DVDs can truely make use of the displays fully. In fact, sub standard resolution HD signals may actually look worse on a 1080P display relative to a 720P display. There is hope in that some displays, and recently demoed cble type set top boxes will auto detect the resolution being fed to it from the source and auto adjust for best picture. This will likely be a key feature as we see divergence between hi def DVDs and lower def "HD" signals from Comcast and dish etc. Also, there are significant HDMI transmission/handshake issues related to the ability of the DVD player/receiever/ and display to accurately decode color etc. Early adoption of 1080P displays could be problematic. I also attended both DTS-HD demo as well as Dolby-HD demo. It is unclear to me that ANY receivers available at this time can fully decode the hi res audio codec as well. The feeds I saw at CES for the 1080P were mostly hard drive loops and an occasional blu ray feed.

The studio backing is about 50/50 movie titles and blu rays features as displayed to me arent important or desitable. Their pricing is higher than HD-DVDs options. The format war is a loser for the industry as a whole as it devalues the 1080 displays greatly.

When will you people just get a TT and avoid the misery while having the best sound?

OK fire away I got my flame suit on.

Rysa....this is incorrect with studio backing for B/R at 90% and less than 50% for HD.
Same goes for hardware...B/R has far more support....hands down.

The Washington Post reporter that pushed play on the Toshiba HD player at CES, only to find it to do nothing(broke)....along with the pictures of the Toshiba player with tape acrossed the back and one single cable coming out.....you actually beleive HD is going to be sold in March.
HD has been telling lies for two years now....with B/R always doing as they say.
This is pure desperation on the part of HD.....and those of us that have been following this, are not falling for HD's desperation.

Cnet voted the Pioneer Elite B/R player as best in show , and picked B/R to win with a lot more staying power.

And again Hd has zero studio support from..
Sony
MGM
Columbia Tri Star
Disney
Miramax
Fox.
Hardware support for HD at show...Toshibas sometimes broken player.

Hardware support for B/R
Mitsubishi
Panasonic
Philips
Pioneer
Samsung
Hitachi
JVC
LG
Sharp
Yamaha
Ben Q
Zenith

Some of these are players,recorders and drives....but HD support was very slim and a desperation move on there part imo.