While it will take years for BD to hit true mass market there is still a lot of money to me made in the run-up.
It was essential for the format war to be decided so that a format had the chance to be mass market. The movie studios had vested interests in making sure that the product they sell gets the most margins.
Having to make a DVD,HD-DVD and BD product available was expensive. The disks are cheap but then you have online features to serve,packaging, store space and promotion. It also required Hollywood to make future predictions on the popularity of a movie and the popularity of the format. So not only would they need to figure out how many copies of I Am Legend would sell but how many HD-DVD vs BDs
The stakes for picking the wrong side in a protracted format war could have realistically meant closing a studio.
The consumers weren't ready but Hollywood found it long overdue,except for the few players that held out for cash.
If Toshiba could have done a better job with the movie studios they would have won.
Nfinity- I think that there are still some pretty sever challenges for BD bit this is totally different than the psp model.
First of all there are many players by many makers. Right now Sony dominates the market but they don't own it.
Psp movies required that you view them on a psp. Initially you could only view them on a 3" screen. That is a big limitation.
Sony worked hard to get Hollywood on board with BD. The psp only took Sony movies. BD players work with anyones movies.
HD-DVD for all it's supporters wasn't able to hit mass market even with vastly lower prices.
Sony seems to have done the market research right. Gamers drove HD-TV adoption. They also rate highly on media purchases. The mass market wasn't and still isn't ready to adopt HD movies at any price.
BD has time to get ready. I've seen less than $250 BD players and most movies cost me around 20$.
That is pretty comparable to the price I paid for my first dvd player but BDs are less than I paid for dvds in 1999. Comparably BD is costing me less than DVD's when I factor in inflation.
Even if there was a perfect mode of digital distribution today it would take years to catch on. BD is doing just fine for now.
Wait for Christmas 08 and the DTV switchover in 09 for the real indication of BD success.
Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"I have a MacBook Pro and an Xbox 360 and I would like to get a 20- to 24-inch display that will support both devices. The speakers should be inbuilt, or there should be an aux out on the display to hook up external speakers. Help! Please!"
The most commented posts on Engadget over the past 24 hours.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
While it will take years for BD to hit true mass market there is still a lot of money to me made in the run-up.
It was essential for the format war to be decided so that a format had the chance to be mass market. The movie studios had vested interests in making sure that the product they sell gets the most margins.
Having to make a DVD,HD-DVD and BD product available was expensive. The disks are cheap but then you have online features to serve,packaging, store space and promotion. It also required Hollywood to make future predictions on the popularity of a movie and the popularity of the format. So not only would they need to figure out how many copies of I Am Legend would sell but how many HD-DVD vs BDs
The stakes for picking the wrong side in a protracted format war could have realistically meant closing a studio.
The consumers weren't ready but Hollywood found it long overdue,except for the few players that held out for cash.
If Toshiba could have done a better job with the movie studios they would have won.