Warner Goes Blu-Ray exclusive

[el jopez]

Different set of rules indeed!

But not because of the assumed reasons!

Agreed, tech specs tend to be ammo for fanboys to fire at each other all day
long. Seen it now for over two years and its quite old.

So, why are the rules different?

<snip>…

Well Sony has continued the tradition and they have brought the entire issue
upon themselves. They could have made the format widely available to all and
simply assessed a fee on the media. But no! The same marketing wizards
who brought you Beta, also brought you Blu-Ray. And that is why a consortium of
manufacturers formed the HD Forum a full 2 years after Sony announced Blu-Ray
in reaction to Sony's behavior.

So what are the rules this time?

A bit more convoluted then we think. Lest we forget, regardless of the
"HD" format war that has been going on, another just as relevant war has been
fought in the hearts and minds of consumers: gaming. But even then, as part of the equation, the
whole issue is still “unresoleved”.

As I posted another forum, lets backup a quite few years down memory road?

Remember way back when Hollywood and the A/V industry was discussing how
piracy was ruining the entire industry (as if us, the consumers cared), and
they agreed something had to be done. At the same time the blue laser tech was
being pioneered which had the ability to press more data on to a single disc
than a red laser despite the fact that Japanese university professors were able
to expand the ability of data red lasers could encode with no added costs. The
tech was there, it was nothing more than tweaking what we had. However this wasn’t enough to satisfy the
Hollywood who was clamoring about the higher resolution audio and video the new
formats would usher in. It became clear
that the newer format wasn't so much about space and signal bandwidth as it was
about security.



Piracy remained a big problem. With the current method of component + optical
cables as the defacto standard in HT's worldwide, there was no way to lock down
(read: restrict consumers flexibility with) the HD content. The studios at the
time insisted that newer methods of copyright protection had to be implace as
DVD Joh was running circles around them. A stronger pathway in guaranteeing the
integrity of the new DRM algorithms was necessary and a new cable tech was
born. HDMI had the promise of being the only conduit that a person would be
allowed to view full 1080p content and HD audio streams. If a person watched an
HD disc over component and optical connections in their HT, the players would
automatically downscale the content to standard DVD audio and video resolutions
in the hopes of thwarting people from sharing movies and enjoying them in HD.
Hollywood definitely wanted a bigger say in how we as the consumer used its
content.



As I recall, people in many HT enthusiasts circles cried bloody murder at the
prospect of upgrading all of their components.
In addition to a brand new player
and TV, imagine dropping thousands on a great pre/pro/receiver of the day only
to be forced to upgrade to newer products that had HDMI built in only to watch
these HD streams when originally everyone had imagined they were set with the
"elite" equipment of the day which by today's standards is still rock
solid. I know I initially panicked. All of a sudden, my B&K Ref 50 wasn’t
looking so elite anymore. As we all know
the worst case scenario didn't pan out with flagging of HD content being held
back until a later date, or until Sony decides to implement it with Blu Ray
(profile v2 anybody?). This can still happen, though highly unlikely until mass
wide adoption has taken place.

In the end was there cash involved? Most certainly, however do not forget
that much of what was supposed to occur was from a security perspective in
thwarting people from sharing HD movies. With all of this having played out
years ago, where would you draw the line where consumers would have had a
choice in this entire debacle?

Taking care of one aspect of the equation, lest not forget the small point
about gaming .

Problem. Now that there is no competition by another format, if they
wanted to, Blu Ray could jack up the royalty fees on these players though
nothing is for sure. However, since Sony is still tied up in a console war with
MS, and their console happens to be one of the most, "economical"
(blu-ray) players on the market, Sony has already shot itself in the foot with
any other CE company wishing to sell a player in the same ballpark cost

And to the degree that the HD folks (and that means BOTH formats)
have missed this point, they are a failure.

Agreed.

Anyone who considers this a cut and dry scenario is a fool, ignorant or a combination of both. All that can be said it to sit
back and watch the show:

New Line Shifts to Blu-ray Exclusivity

[falcon20x]

I know what you mean, but regarless of how many hours you work every week, you need something to keep your sanity.

It nice to be able to go the HT room, close the door and watch a good movie when I have the time.

The price of DVD's does not impact me much since I might be buying 1 or 2 dvd a year,if that many. I don't think that there are many movies worth spending the money for, even less of them worth spending $35.00.