PC's Role Key in New Format War

An anonymous reader writes "With the PlayStation 3's launch still a ways off, Toshiba and Sony are turning to the PC as the next battleground for the DVD format. News.com reports that some manufacturers are, at least for now, planning to offer both options on upcoming desktop and laptop PCs. Only a handful of films and software are to be available for the formats this year." From the article: "PCs equipped with HD DVD or Blu-ray will cost several hundred dollars more than comparably equipped models with DVD drives--a factor that should keep sales relatively low this year as consumers wait for applications and video titles that can take advantage of the higher capacity."

Difference?

[nickmue]

How much of a quality difference are people going to be able to notice over conventional DVD? I know I can't be the only one who doesn't have a HD monitor.

Why would I want this on my PC?

[Maxo-Texas]

It's heavily DRM encumbered.
They have a history of disabling previously working hardware without warning (HDCP, Cablecards).
The standards are not settled yet and very soon there will likely be a Dual drive.
The average human can't tell the difference on a 55" screen across a 20' living room from a 720p.

Games

[MrSquirrel]

I don't think this should have an impact on any games -- I don't know of any games that take more than 1 DVD (bonus discs aside)... There are games right now that take upwards of 5 cd's: when games take multiple DVD's I will consider it a good thing to have a next-gen drive in a gaming rig.

Re:Right Choice

[WinPimp2K]

Well, fence sitting is a nice approach when you don't want to commit. And, given the current legeslative climate it is probably the best approach.

If this foramt fracas were going to be resolved in the marketplace, the winner would be the player that got the most drives out there and in use. Don't try and even remotely recover costs on the first million units, but make darn sure you have a million units out there at 50-100 bucks a pop before the other camp ever knows what steamrollered them. Do what it takes, waive licemsing fees on the first million units and the first 50 million pieces of media, etc. For content, approach the studios about releasing 1 season per disc of old series.

But, if either camp tried that tactic, the other camp would just make darn sure that massively released format would wind up incompatible with some legeslated requirement that has not yet been written.

 

Heard that one before...

[tygerstripes]

"Oh, who can tell the difference between HD-TV and normal, eh?"

Look, we heard that one before with CDs replacing cassettes/vinyl, and look what happened. Yes, it was (more) expensive initially, but there were small but noticeable benefits and, lets face it, we in the 1st World are consumer whores. Given the amount of time we spend watching TV as a society nowadays, I really won't be surprised when nearly everyone has a HD-TV in 3 years' time just for that improved resolution or whatever.

Accept that it's going to happen. The only question left is which way the chips will fall. I would rather see Blu-Ray win out simply because it has a far better spec than HD-DVD, but unfortunately I think the gap between X-Box360 and PS3 release will push markets towards the latter. C'est la vie.

Don't shoot the messenger.

It seems to me that solidarity is what's needed.

[mmell]

From us

Collectively (as a nerd community) we should all refuse to purchase or recommend the purchase of either of these technologies until the DRM is either perfected or removed.

Since "bits never die", the likelihood of the DRM being made even remotely correct is somewhere between 'slim' and 'none'. So that leaves . . .

Not purchasing DRM-infested (crippled) hardware. Not recommending to our non-technical friends that they install such infested (crippled) hardware. Actively opposing the PHB's of the world who will start clamoring for a business use of such infested (crippled) hardware.

Work together people - let's vote with our wallets, the way free enterprise is supposed to work!

Re:Difference?

[LocoMan]

I have to agree there. I don't see PCs having as much of a pull on the HD-DVD Vs. Blue Ray war as consoles will (Xbox 360 Vs. PS3). In the movies section, anyone that will choose a format specifically to watch HD movies now won't want to see them on a relatively small 20" or less monitor, they'll want the whole home theater thing and will want to see them as big as they can. On the data side, I would definitively find an use for them (I work with video, which means VERY big files), but in the general audience most people I know are just now getting DVD drives for their computers, and most computers I see being sold come with a DVD/CD-RW drive, with a DVD-RW as an option, but one that few people take and even less use.

They will eventually be a big player in PCs, though, that I'm sure. I just don't see them being something important to the early adoption of either format.

No Value Add

[slashbob22]

The bottom line is that they will have to provide some sort of "value add" to the PC consumer. Last time I checked, only a very select number of PC games even came on DVD. With the amount of content available on the Internet, the next-gen DVD formats are going to be video exclusive - which provides very little value add to my 20" monitor. No to sell the new format your audience is not the PC users it's your Couchaplex(TM) Home Theatre owners who have $$ to spare. On top of that, the Couchaplex users won't see the heavy DRM applied to the media like your PC users will. Once the word gets out that your PC locks down while the disc is in the drive, I dont think there will be many takers.

Re:Minority Vote?

[level_headed_midwest]

Well, since there aren't even sanctioned ways to play *regular* DVDs on a Linux computer, expect the lack of support to continue. The *AAs want to be able to dictate what you can and cannot do with digital media down to the last inch with DRM, and most of the FS/OSS people are vehemently against these imposed restrictions (read: GPL v3.) Both the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are expected to be encumbered extremely heavily with DRM, so the most the FS/OSS crowd will do is possibly be able to read and write blank Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, mush like current DVDs.

Shot Themselves in the Foot

[LewsTherinKinslayer]

HD vs Blu-Ray; which will you choose? I think I speak for the majority of people I know when I say: neither. Every single person I know is still using a standard 19" NTSC and most people don't have anything bigger than 30" in their living room. Most of them also have 19" monitors and very nice PCs, but I can't see them bothering to spend the money on any high definition drive or the media.

High Definition is a rich person (or not so rich, but with lots of disposable income,) toy. And most people aren't gonna be buying into that fad until its a lot cheaper. Throw in the heavy backlash from the tech-savvy crowd because of DRM, the lack of a single standard format, and the high cost of media compared to "traditional" DVD, and its gonna end poorly for these companies.

Very few people outside of video editing, etc, are going to take advantage of this technology for burning storage. And the PS3 may be linked with blu-ray, but that doesn't mean its going to drive sales of the media, outside of the games.

Re:Difference?

[thatguywhoiam]

I have to agree there. I don't see PCs having as much of a pull on the HD-DVD Vs. Blue Ray war as consoles will (Xbox 360 Vs. PS3).

PCs won't have much effect on this until Apple ships a Blu-ray drive.

You may scoff, but they have a long history of doing just that. And with Apple sitting on the Blu-Ray board, and Jobs basically being new High Overlord at Disney, I think Apple may be the piece of the highdef format wars that people are overlooking. If there are a flood of MacTels and PS3's with Blu-ray all of a sudden, that will play a significant factor.

Re:Are these companies retarded?!

[pla]

Seriously, HD DVD formats on a laptop are laughable. LCD displays are limited in resolution, and for that matter, so are current HDTV monitors/displays. Your HD DVD would look the same on a 17" widescreen laptop as a non HD DVD, unless you're lucky.

Virtally all laptops now support at least 1280x1024 (which allows 720p, or 1280x720), and many now come with 1920x1200 (allowing 1080p at 1920x1080).

Now, will that look good on a 17" display? Across a room, from the TV stand to the couch - no. On your lap? It makes NTSC look like NTSC did old 8mm home movies by comparison.


You'll most notice the difference in text, though. Although plenty of dongles exist to let you use an old NTSC TV as your monitor, any text thereupon needed at least a 40pt font for the barest of legibility, and the flickering of any sharp transitions (such as the edges of those huge letters) would give you a headache after five minutes. On an HDTV (better yet an HDTV-compatible LCD) you can read text literally as easily as you can on a monitor of the same resolution.

Re:why pay more for DVD drive?

[Eivind]

Very true.

When CD-roms where being introduced, a single cdrom was larger than many harddrives.

Now blu-ray and HD-dvd are slowly being introduced. Yet even today a single harddrive has a capacity 10 to 30 times larger than these media.