Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Talks Over and Done for - Really, This Time We Mean It
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 10:00 AM
"Sony Computer Entertainment President told Nikkei Electronics that talks were over between Sony and Toshiba regarding a unified DVD format. The scenario is not new to consumers, and in the end we lose out. Let’s remember the glory days of BetaMax vs. VHS, Minidisc vs. CD's etc. The talks between Sony and Toshiba almost seemed one-sided with Sony pushing for Toshiba to switch to Blu-Ray."
Ok, enough already! It's dead, it's over, and the two warring DVD camps are going to plunge the high-definition DVD world into war for at least three to five years. Why is each side being so stubborn? Because so much is at stake - when you consider that in 2004 the total DVD sales of the major movie studios was 15.4 billion dollars, imagine Sony getting a Blu-Ray royalty on every one of those DVDs sold. It's very likely that whichever HD standard wins will be around for at least one or two decades, meaning the royalties at stake here are in the billions of dollars. So if each camp throws a few hundred million dollars trying to promote their own solution, it's a small price for the payoff at the end. Factor in that Sony has picked the losing storage format every single time (Beta, Minidisc, Memory Stick) you can see why they're so determined not to budge on this issue.
Wouldn't it be great if the dark horse in this race, WMV compression on a normal red-laser DVD, beat them all? :twisted:
Ok, enough already! It's dead, it's over, and the two warring DVD camps are going to plunge the high-definition DVD world into war for at least three to five years. Why is each side being so stubborn? Because so much is at stake - when you consider that in 2004 the total DVD sales of the major movie studios was 15.4 billion dollars, imagine Sony getting a Blu-Ray royalty on every one of those DVDs sold. It's very likely that whichever HD standard wins will be around for at least one or two decades, meaning the royalties at stake here are in the billions of dollars. So if each camp throws a few hundred million dollars trying to promote their own solution, it's a small price for the payoff at the end. Factor in that Sony has picked the losing storage format every single time (Beta, Minidisc, Memory Stick) you can see why they're so determined not to budge on this issue.
Wouldn't it be great if the dark horse in this race, WMV compression on a normal red-laser DVD, beat them all? :twisted:
