HD-DVD and Blu-ray Could Both Lose
There has been a lot of time, money and energy put into the HDM war and it doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. Whenever one side releases some good news, the other side is quick to follow with their own positive spin on things. Going into this holiday season, it seemed that Blu-ray was the one to beat and that the format was nearing the finish line with a gold medal. However, with an influx of “marketing” money from Microsoft (which ended in the Paramount/Dreamworks exclusivity) and a recent, bold drop in price (which ended up selling around 90,000 players), it appears that the HD-DVD camp is making some very good decisions… at least on the surface. The big challenge that they still have to overcome, though, is the almost 2:1 disc sales advantage that Blu-ray currently has. The studios follow sales and unless HD-DVD can shift that pendulum in the other direction, a lot more attention is going to be focused on the blue side of the HD spectrum.
The main problem, though, is that the longer this war goes on, the less likely that either format will succeed. We are on the verge of downloadable media becoming a very viable option and Microsoft knows this. They have heavily invested in infrastructure for delivering HD media directly to the end user. The Xbox 360 is a very good example of this, with tons of shows and movies available instantly and at very fair prices. It’s going to reach a point where people would rather just download a movie rather than get in the car, drive to the store and buy one. It’s all about convenience, folks, and what’s more convenient than doing something from your couch? With that in mind, I totally agree with the opinion that Microsoft is deliberately lengthening the HD war by pumping money into HD-DVD. The company is attempting to cause consumer confusion about disc media in the hopes that downloadable media comes out on top.
I can see Microsoft’s point a little bit, though. If you think about it, downloads is a very powerful option. The distribution costs are less, there is no retailer overhead and no manufacturing involved. From a consumer perspective, it is also quite good as you have nearly instant access to a large library of available content. The only negative side is if you have an attachment to physical media and prefer to have something solid and real in your hands. I’m actually that sort of person. I like knowing that 10 years from now I can still pop in a disc and watch a movie, as long as I have the player. Hell, I still even pop in laserdiscs from time to time. If we totally switched to a digital medium, who knows how long you’ll be able to keep those movies and have them available to watch. That’s a little scary for me.
All that aside, something needs to happen in this current HD battlezone. There are so many people on the fence who are waiting for a winner to emerge. If they end up waiting a long time, that could spell doom for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. We need to have a real winner by next Christmas or we could be looking at another DVD-A versus SACD battle where neither side won and MP3s became the defacto winner. I’m sure Microsoft is hoping for exactly that.
The main problem, though, is that the longer this war goes on, the less likely that either format will succeed. We are on the verge of downloadable media becoming a very viable option and Microsoft knows this. They have heavily invested in infrastructure for delivering HD media directly to the end user. The Xbox 360 is a very good example of this, with tons of shows and movies available instantly and at very fair prices. It’s going to reach a point where people would rather just download a movie rather than get in the car, drive to the store and buy one. It’s all about convenience, folks, and what’s more convenient than doing something from your couch? With that in mind, I totally agree with the opinion that Microsoft is deliberately lengthening the HD war by pumping money into HD-DVD. The company is attempting to cause consumer confusion about disc media in the hopes that downloadable media comes out on top.
I can see Microsoft’s point a little bit, though. If you think about it, downloads is a very powerful option. The distribution costs are less, there is no retailer overhead and no manufacturing involved. From a consumer perspective, it is also quite good as you have nearly instant access to a large library of available content. The only negative side is if you have an attachment to physical media and prefer to have something solid and real in your hands. I’m actually that sort of person. I like knowing that 10 years from now I can still pop in a disc and watch a movie, as long as I have the player. Hell, I still even pop in laserdiscs from time to time. If we totally switched to a digital medium, who knows how long you’ll be able to keep those movies and have them available to watch. That’s a little scary for me.
All that aside, something needs to happen in this current HD battlezone. There are so many people on the fence who are waiting for a winner to emerge. If they end up waiting a long time, that could spell doom for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. We need to have a real winner by next Christmas or we could be looking at another DVD-A versus SACD battle where neither side won and MP3s became the defacto winner. I’m sure Microsoft is hoping for exactly that.
posted by Frosty @ 11:07 AM
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