Warner Goes Blu-Ray Exclusive, biggest payoff yet

steveo wrote:
soda choice (Pizza Hut Pepsi only)

This analogy doesn't work too well. Pizza Hut owns Pepsi.

willbill wrote:
Lloyd Parsons wrote:

Really take a look at the BD machines out there. With a couple of
exceptions, they are grossly overpriced for the crappy way they
operate. Slow loading, firmware upgrades practically everytime a new
blockbuster hits the streets. And not a bit more reliable than the
$29 el-cheapo DVD player at WalMart, which never needs a firmware
update to play all the DVDs out there.


geez. as one of the few here (i.e. you)
who has both players, i was meaning to ask
you about your experience with each. my
own 3rd gen A35 is a bit clunky but not
so bad that it drives me nuts

Speaking of cheap DVD players and Toshiba A3's, see if you can spot
anything odd about this flyer a poster dug up from a regional
electronics chain:
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/DSC00763.jpg

(Hint: Look *very carefully* at the $299 "Upconverting DVD Player")

Derek Janssen (well, that's Ken Graffeo TOLD us it was anyway!)

On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 19:03:36 -0600, Lloyd Parsons
wrote:

In article ,
"Mark A" wrote:

"Lloyd Parsons" wrote in message
...
The competition that was good for the consumer was the phony war. The
prices of both BD and HDDVD would never have gotten as low as they have
if BD had been the only one. Or have you forgotten Sony's very vocal
indication that profits and prices weren't going to be anything like DVD?

Now we'll see some improvements and price reductions, but at a far
slower pace than if the war kept going for a bit longer.

I've got both HDDVD and BD players so I really don't give a damn which
one ended up, just wanted it delayed some more. I most likely won't buy
many (maybe none) more HDDVD discs.

That really makes no sense. Assuming that BD wins out, you will have the
same number of hardware manufacturers competing with each other, including
Toshiba to drive prices down. Admittedly, BD will always cost a bit more
than HDDVD because of its technical design, but if you look at the way
computers, flat panel TV's and even regular DVD players have declined in
price over the last 5 years, one can expect similar declines in BD player
prices.

This may not help the early adopters much, but companies like WB are looking
at the long term view with the bulk of consumers who are not going to
purchase BD or HDDVD in mass any time soon anyway.

You are not listening to the BD mfgs at all are you? They have said
that today's prices are artificially DEFLATED! Doesn't that give you
any hint at to what to expect them to do?


Tomorrow's prices aren't deflated. The only way they will get the
vast majority of consumers to buy at all will be to lower prices.
Most people have stayed far away from either format because of the
"war."
Thumper
And in case you didn't notice, they've effectively all of the Chinese
mfgs out of the BD market. You know, the guys that really build stuff
cheap.

Believe what you will, I don't think a sub-$200 BD player will be out
before the next Christmas shopping season, maybe not even then. BD will
remain a niche for quite awhile, imo.

Really take a look at the BD machines out there. With a couple of
exceptions, they are grossly overpriced for the crappy way they operate.
Slow loading, firmware upgrades practically everytime a new blockbuster
hits the streets. And not a bit more reliable than the $29 el-cheapo
DVD player at WalMart, which never needs a firmware update to play all
the DVDs out there.

"Mark Jones" wrote in message
...
steveo wrote:
soda choice (Pizza Hut Pepsi only)

This analogy doesn't work too well. Pizza Hut owns Pepsi.

Hasn't for a couple of years now.

steveo

In article ,
willbill wrote:

Lloyd Parsons wrote:

Believe what you will, I don't think a sub-$200 BD player will be out
before the next Christmas shopping season, maybe not even then. BD will
remain a niche for quite awhile, imo.


agreed



Really take a look at the BD machines out there. With a couple of
exceptions, they are grossly overpriced for the crappy way they operate.
Slow loading, firmware upgrades practically everytime a new blockbuster
hits the streets. And not a bit more reliable than the $29 el-cheapo
DVD player at WalMart, which never needs a firmware update to play all
the DVDs out there.


geez. as one of the few here (i.e. you)
who has both players, i was meaning to ask
you about your experience with each. my
own 3rd gen A35 is a bit clunky but not
so bad that it drives me nuts

i did have to upgrade the player from
1.0 to 1.3 firmware (a 40 meg ISO download,
via slow dialup!)

anyway, it will be interesting to see what
Toshiba does in the next weeks/months.
somehow i don't see them rolling over
and dying


bill

Well, my HDA2 works flawlessly if slowly... Fits the bill and was at a
what was considered good price when I bought it.

My PS3 is wonderful. Quick and solidly built.

My Sony S300 is imitating a doorstop as I just got tired of the slowness
to load and the twitchiness of operation.

"ChairmanOfTheBored" wrote in message
...
Wrong, dip****. Pepsi owns Dominos. Pepsico is not owned buy a ****ing
Pizza franchise.

Years ago, Pepsi owned Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell. The were spun off into
a separate company called Yum Brands. Yum Brands has also added A&W and Long
John Silver's. AFAIK, they all still use Pepsi products even though Pepsi
has no ownership of them (but many Pepsi stockholders are Yum Brands
stockholders because of the spin-off).

Domino's is a completely separate publicly traded company.

In article ,
Mark Jones wrote:
steveo wrote:
soda choice (Pizza Hut Pepsi only)

This analogy doesn't work too well. Pizza Hut owns Pepsi.

You have that backwards. Pepsico own Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried
Chicken, Frito-Lay [potato chips], Taco Bell, and the list goes
on. Close to 500 subsiciaries of Pepsico if you include all the
little ones and local bottling plants.

Bill

--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

T.B. wrote:
"willbill" wrote:

Blu-Ray was winning the HD format war in North America and Asia,
but not Europe, until the Dreamworks/Paramount buyout.


up front, i'm in the USA and recently
bought a 3rd gen Toshiba A35 player

what on earth is Warner thinking of?

i mean, how on earth is this Warner
decision going to reduce BD standalone
player prices in the USA?

as far as i can tell, it won't

Warner has just shot themselves
in the foot

i wonder how Europe will take this?

Good Lord, get a grip.

Warner Bros made the right move. At least they didn't pull a Paramount
and stop releasing titles the week they made the announcement.

If this stalemate continued into '09 or beyond, it would have likely
consigned both formats to the dustbin of other failed competing formats
like DVD audio and SACDs. As it stands, it already may be too late but
at least with the possibility of only one HD disc format by the end of
this year, HD via blu-ray has a chance of gaining a decent hold on the
home video marketplace in a couple years.

And really, the same misguided hair-pulling was made at the end of the
90's by laserdisc fans when dvds first hit the consumer marketplace.
Software and especially hardware prices eventually dropped, just about
every obscure movie imaginable has been released on dvd (some, half a
dozen times or more) and the media quickly outgrew the initially crummy
transfers that dogged many releases the first few years of the media's
existence.

And really, blu-ray is technically a better format than hd-dvd.

T.B.
if you made blu-ray dvds from tivo hd or hd files from the internet you
would hate blu-ray. Blu-rays take hours and hours to convert a 1080p
mpeg 2 file to AVCHD. With hd-dvd i can just use the 1080p mpeg 2 file.

Btw i already made 7 1 hour hd-dvd on dl dvd+r this weekend. It would
take you all day to make 1 blu-ray dvd.

This will be true for sometime.............

The largest majority by a wide margin will be very happy with standard DVD's
and cheap DVD players for many years to come..

Despite this development and other in this area.. the capture of the "large
majority" audience for HD will not happen.. Most are simply not going to pay
the price you have to payupgrade to HD. Many will never think the price
difference is worth it compared to a normal DVD..

Those of us that do this HD thing are really a minority today and will
remain so for several years.. Most laugh that I buy so many DVD's at all HD
or not.. as they simply rent... too most it is all about "cheap"

I buy both formats.......... so I have ways to play both in numerous ways..
I still have not bought a stand alone bluray player as I was not happy with
the cost/performance -- will keep looking as 2.0 profile machines come out..

I'm looking forward to some great pricing on HD-DVD's, if folks start "fire
sales".. If I can get a title that I can play in my setups for much cheaper
then why not............



most people I know don't care about HD anything. They are fine with $10
DVD's. They come over and see my stuff and have a hard time seeing the
difference. $200-$700 for a player and $30 movies? $1500+ TV..forget it
they say and laugh their asses off..

In article ,
"Steven" wrote:

This will be true for sometime.............

The largest majority by a wide margin will be very happy with standard DVD's
and cheap DVD players for many years to come..

Despite this development and other in this area.. the capture of the "large
majority" audience for HD will not happen.. Most are simply not going to pay
the price you have to payupgrade to HD. Many will never think the price
difference is worth it compared to a normal DVD..

Those of us that do this HD thing are really a minority today and will
remain so for several years.. Most laugh that I buy so many DVD's at all HD
or not.. as they simply rent... too most it is all about "cheap"

I buy both formats.......... so I have ways to play both in numerous ways..
I still have not bought a stand alone bluray player as I was not happy with
the cost/performance -- will keep looking as 2.0 profile machines come out..

I'm looking forward to some great pricing on HD-DVD's, if folks start "fire
sales".. If I can get a title that I can play in my setups for much cheaper
then why not............



most people I know don't care about HD anything. They are fine with $10
DVD's. They come over and see my stuff and have a hard time seeing the
difference. $200-$700 for a player and $30 movies? $1500+ TV..forget it
they say and laugh their asses off..



The secret is to never look at either HDDVD or BluRay discs on your new
HDTV. If you never see it, you won't notice how much better it is.

Frankly, unless you are willing to have an HDTV and a decent surround
system to take advantage of the new sound codecs too, there is not a
huge benefit to either at what is normal viewing distances for the
average viewer.

I took my PS3 up to my mom's house and we hooked it up to their 40"
HDTV. While most liked the improvement in picture, they thought I was
nuts to pay $400 for it. Part of that is because the viewing distance
is further than optimum, while being pretty normal for most folks, and
they don't have anything but the TV speakers for sound. IMO, fully half
the experience comes from the sound.