Quoting Unicus69:

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Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

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Then, there are issues with Children of Men playback...one of Universal's biggest titles this year.

To be fair, the writers could only duplicate the issue on their Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-on.  There are rumors saying that the same issue happens on the the Toshiba XA2 player but High-Def Digest, the people who wrote the original article, did not have any issues with their XA2 player.

Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

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In light of what I just posted, who wants the Toshiba HD-A20!  They are now shipping for $500!  More info available here.  Step right up and get 5 free movies per purchase!

Are you saying that Blu-ray never had any of these deals? 

This is a format war isn't it?  How do you win a format war?  You get people to buy your product.  What are two of the best ways to get people to buy your product?  Price and free stuff.

BTW, you can get the HD-A20 for $309.99+ free shipping at Amazon.com

I heard a radio ad this afternoon on the way home advertising the latest Toshiba machine for $299.00!  For the very first time, I thought briefly about actually buying one.  But only for an instant.  I'm still going to wait until the price is below $200.

Quoting Unicus69:

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Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

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Then, there are issues with Children of Men playback...one of Universal's biggest titles this year.

To be fair, the writers could only duplicate the issue on their Xbox 360 HD DVD Add-on.  There are rumors saying that the same issue happens on the the Toshiba XA2 player but High-Def Digest, the people who wrote the original article, did not have any issues with their XA2 player.

Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

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In light of what I just posted, who wants the Toshiba HD-A20!  They are now shipping for $500!  More info available here.  Step right up and get 5 free movies per purchase!

Are you saying that Blu-ray never had any of these deals? 

This is a format war isn't it?  How do you win a format war?  You get people to buy your product.  What are two of the best ways to get people to buy your product?  Price and free stuff.

BTW, you can get the HD-A20 for $309.99+ free shipping at Amazon.com

Do you remember when I said I will only response to your posts if it carries incorrect information (in the other thread)?  Well, you just listed the price for the HD-A2...not the HD-A20.

And, no, Blu-ray never offered 5 free movies with a player.  IMO, when you keep offering more free movies with a player, that tells me that what you offered the first time isn't working (3 free movies with every player).  That's just usually how things go in the business world, so I don't expect it to be any different this time.

If I say PO TA TOE

Would you say PO TAY TOE

The format war is a matter of choice and paitence... they who win are the ones left standing after all the battles.

It is unfortunate for the consumer, in that "we" do not "know" for sure who is going to win.

I recall the great BetaMax vs VHS battle (One that Sony admitted losing only a few years back...)
I also recall the MS-X (Microsoft making computers, how dare they?!)
I even remember the Phillips VS2000 (I think) the video tape recorder that you could "turn the tape over"
Then, there is DAT, DCC and MD.... hummm, seems CD won that one, and it wasn't really in that fight.
CD-Video? LaserDisc? CDi? I could go on... DVD took off, who knows what will be the next winner!

I will be honest, I have a XBox360 - cause it was cheap, and I could get it now, and I could connect it to my PC and use it as a media extender.. I hardly play games on it. I got the HD-DVD drive, cause it was cheap (Compared with standalone) and I already had the XBox 360

I will however, get a BluRay player of some sort, when the prices drop (and the Region Free brigade has done their work) It may even be a PS3. I was a PS2 owner till I got the XBox360

I admit, BluRay has, at the moment, the greater capacity, and hopefully will be easy to burn to, if/when I go that route. But seeing as LG are releasing Combi-Drives now, it will pay me to wait

The truth of the matter will come when the major studios declare "We will not release any more HD-DVD/BluRay [Delete where appropriate] discs" - Then "we" the end users will have no choice, and my HD-DVD's I have got now, if BluRay does win.... well, I guess that means a Triple Dip
Seeing as Sony are a "Major Studio" as well, it may well be them that win [Edit = Note, the James Bond series, was not originally "owned" by Sony Pictures... but they own the distributation rights now, and that is a major money maker for them - after all, the Box Set gets re-released every other year - Edit ends]... but don't go counting the chickens just yet....

As to next gen? Ummm, I think we will be getting a 1TB flash drive (or bigger) and the films will come out on those as read-only.. or maybe I bottle of "liquid" storage? A wired input directly into the brain?? Who knows....

So, to sum up - HD-DVD is out, BluRay is out... both have good points, both have bad. Time will show us the winner, and those of us backing the loser will have their bank accounts hurt... but that is the price we pay to be "first" - I mean, how many people really thought that DVD's would be as popular as they are now.

When I bought my first DVD, we had just ordered a new Mcintosh, with a DVD player. After watching my 2-3 DVDs on the 17" monitor, we opted to buy a stand-alone DVD player for the 27" TV. After a little research, we bought a $250 Toshiba DVD player, which came with a coupon for 5 free DVDs (their choice). They included Analyze This, The Jackal, and three others. None were on my wish list, but the DVD player was priced fairly and the DVDs were free. I watched them all.

They didn't motivate me to buy the player, but they started the collection, giving me a few more films to watch as I slowly began acquiring the discs I wanted.

Quoting VibroCount:

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When I bought my first DVD, we had just ordered a new Mcintosh, with a DVD player. After watching my 2-3 DVDs on the 17" monitor, we opted to buy a stand-alone DVD player for the 27" TV. After a little research, we bought a $250 Toshiba DVD player, which came with a coupon for 5 free DVDs (their choice). They included Analyze This, The Jackal, and three others. None were on my wish list, but the DVD player was priced fairly and the DVDs were free. I watched them all.

They didn't motivate me to buy the player, but they started the collection, giving me a few more films to watch as I slowly began acquiring the discs I wanted.

When was this?  It doesn't sound like it was during the early adoption phase.

The DVD format was my first early adoption product.  I bought my DVD player in '97 for $500 (retail $800).  A friend was the owner of a retail store.  He let me have it at cost.  My parents still have that DVD player and it works too (no DTS).  There were no free movie offers at the time and only 3 titles available (Liar, Liar; The Shadow; and The Last Emperor).  The Last Emperor was a documentary and not the movie (they got me on that one).  They all came in CD cases (I still have them).  That started my collection.  Titles were $28 and higher at the time (I think $37 was the highest for foreign titles).

I watched what was happening and how people responded during that start-up period.  I'm using part of that experience to make my predictions.  So far, it seems to be pretty accurate.  I will see if it continues.

I notice that cautious money savvy people don't want to spend money on a product that looks like it's going to fail no matter how cheap it is.  That is why standalone Blu-ray player sales were about even through December despite it being twice the price of a HD DVD standalone player.  Why would LESS of a price gap change anything?  And, stores don't like carrying two fighting formats.  They will start to make the choice for people.  This is why.  A consumer walks into Best Buy and wants to buy a HD player.  He/she sees two formats on the shelf and says I'll wait 'til there is one format.  Best Buy just lost a potential sale.

Or, the consumer asks which one is the best.  Now, at the end of the day, the salesperson's job is to move product.  The salesperson says the HD DVD player is the best.  The consumer buys the product and after the return deadline finds out HD DVD doesn't have most of the titles he/she wants to see or the format is dying/dead.  The customer is pissed because Best Buy sold them a dying or dead format.

In the end, retailers usually end up picking the format that stays on top and begin to phase out the other one.  Soon, the only place to find that format will be online.  Then, new titles stop coming. Then, it will become harder and harder to find titles online.  People flood auction sites with their players to get some money back to off-set the cost of their new Blu-ray (whoops) player for around $200 to $300.  Someone mark this post to come back to later and see how close or far off this will be from what really happens.

Quoting JP_S:

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Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

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Blu-ray offers 3 free movies with a standalone player.  IMO, they didn't increase from 3 to 5 cause their sales numbers are going up already from the 3 free titles.

Is that what you meant?
That HD DVD is trying to increase sales numbers by giving free DVD's?

Still I'd like to get 5 Blu-ray's with a player

I'm saying I think Toshiba is trying to increase their standalone player sales numbers by giving more free titles with each purchase.

What was that goal Toshiba has for the amount of players they said they are going to sell by the end of the year?  Wasn't it 1.8 million?  That's 150,000 plyaers a month or 128,000/month for 10 months and over 256,000/month for the last 2 months.  That's A LOT of selling.  I knew this when I heard this, but does anyone else now think that goal was a tad bit lofty?   They may need $50 standalone players for that.

I'd like to get 5 free BD's too!   But, there's not that many left that I want.  I'm up to 153 now.  I need to add the last 2 titles to my profile (Payback and A Scanner Darkly).

Quoting Ascended_Saiyan:

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Quoting VibroCount:

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When I bought my first DVD, we had just ordered a new Mcintosh, with a DVD player. After watching my 2-3 DVDs on the 17" monitor, we opted to buy a stand-alone DVD player for the 27" TV. After a little research, we bought a $250 Toshiba DVD player, which came with a coupon for 5 free DVDs (their choice). They included Analyze This, The Jackal, and three others. None were on my wish list, but the DVD player was priced fairly and the DVDs were free. I watched them all.

They didn't motivate me to buy the player, but they started the collection, giving me a few more films to watch as I slowly began acquiring the discs I wanted.

When was this?  It doesn't sound like it was during the early adoption phase.

May 24, 2000.

Quoting FunkyLA:

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Following from LG and their stand alone HD DVD and BluRay player
Comes the news that, Samsung are also going to go the dual format route, see here
and also here

So, I guess by the end of this year, I will be buying a Region Free modded version of something like this!


Edit to correct links

Pure speculation and rumor.  Notice that neither quote a source, anonymous or otherwise,  at Samsung .
Maybe