News Wal-Mart chooses HD DVD

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/04...hooses_hd_dvd/

[DougEdey]

*Please let Asda pick this up*

(repeat above three times out loud and click your shiny red heels)

[BioSniper]

^--- What he said

[FooSai]

Originally Posted by DougEdey

*Please let Asda pick this up*

Well, given that they are basically the same company with a different sticker on the front, I'm sure they will. Maybe they will use Walmart in the US as a trial run, and then bring 'em on over here.
And Sony won't put Blue Ray out for the cheap until it's too late to make a difference (because everyone that's interested will have their slightly shiny cheap HD-DVD players sat under their TV).

[Fod]

strike one for common sense.

never thought i'd give a compliment to this of all companies but perhaps we have to thank wal*mart for this one.

as for ASDA following suit, there's not as much of an incentive to start pushing HD players so aggressively yet, since, well, nobody's really buying anything here. so they will, eventually, but only when people actually start to care about HD.

[mmorgue]

Sounds like it could be good news..

All jokes/flames aside -- if you put hd-dvd next to blu-ray, both on the same 1080p screen, can you actually see a difference between the HD quality of the two formats? Forget the logic of bits & bytes and 1's and 0's -- can you the human see the diff? (I have the x360 hd-dvd drive but only connected up via component so no 1080p yet -- only PS3 BD)

Reason I ask is, whether to continue collecting BD discs or hold and wait until the X360 Elite is out with proper 1080p hdmi.. Hmm

[sandys]

Originally Posted by mmorgue

Sounds like it could be good news..

All jokes/flames aside -- if you put hd-dvd next to blu-ray, both on the same 1080p screen, can you actually see a difference between the HD quality of the two formats? Forget the logic of bits & bytes and 1's and 0's -- can you the human see the diff? (I have the x360 hd-dvd drive but only connected up via component so no 1080p yet -- only PS3 BD)

Reason I ask is, whether to continue collecting BD discs or hold and wait until the X360 Elite is out with proper 1080p hdmi.. Hmm

Theres not a lot to choose between the two formats quality wise you get some bad quality and good quality transfers on both formats they are both MUCH better than DVD though especially if you have a large HDTV the downside is that there appears to be a trend where the extras aren't as good on the HD discs versus the SD discs which is a bit of a let down, these film companies really do get my back up with the whole 'Extended edition' thing, as a collector of the odd film I really hate the fact that a film is released and then a better varient is release 6 months down the line to cream some extra cash, means I now just wait and see all the time rather than actually buying something, well I wouldn't want to buy it twice.

[rupbert]

We have a winner.

[konsta]

To be honest, I'm losing faith in the whole idea that there must be a "winner" at all to this competition. This is not the same world that saw the decline of betamax, and just because some of the players are the same, it doesn't mean that the same game is being played.
There is no need for retailers to be able to push through very large bulk to make a profit; there are many internet companies who can subsist on selling small number of each player. There are plenty examples in the marketplace now of competing, incompatible products that have not seen a clear "winner". Furthermore, whilst it is clear that one standard will eventually die first (not many things happen simultaneously in this universe), it could be very many years before that happens, and after both formats have made decent profit for their owners.

[DXR_13KE]

i think Sony will not be that dumb, not to license the BR to the Chinese companies....

[Darth Joules]

Originally Posted by mmorgue

if you put hd-dvd next to blu-ray, both on the same 1080p screen, can you actually see a difference between the HD quality of the two formats?

I've seen both side by side oo two 46" Samsungs and to be quite frank I couldn't tell the difference what so ever, even 2 feet away from the screens. But I known would see the difference inside my wallet, making HD-DVD the logical (financial) choice.

[supermonkey]

Personally, I don't think many people can really tell the difference between the two formats. Given the wide range of quality in the television arena, both formats will only be as good as the monitor on which you view the content. Once you get 15 feet back in the comfort of your couch, the subtle differences are lost.

Most people who would choose price over quality (i.e., the masses shopping at Wal-Mart) aren't likely to spend the money for a good, quality display. They won't be able to tell the difference between BR and HD-DVD.

In my opinion, it comes down to price first, then storage capacity.

-monkey

[Tyinsar]

So is it Mal-Wart or Chinese manufacturers (since it appears that Wal-Mart is simply an outlet for Chinese manufacturers) that will decide the winner?

However, konsta has a point - the market and distribution system is much bigger than it was when beta died.

[Lazarus Dark]

We forget, 95% of the buying public is not informed as we are. Most Walmart shoppers buying that POS visio 720p tv will see hddvd and buy it to go along with their tv, because it says hd and they mostly will have absolutely no idea that there are two competing formats. That is, until they buy a bluray disc and return it because it won't play in their hddvd player. Then, if the return clerk has any idea what the difference is, they will explain that they have to buy another player to use bluray discs. And the customers will feel cheated as their "expensive" (to the average consumer) hddvd player doesn't play all the movies they want, if in fact some studios remain specific to one format. This format war will cause major confusion when it gets to prices that the new supercheap (crappy) hdtv owners will buy them at walmart. Already, I know of some bestbuy and walmart employees who have told me about many people returning hddvd's and bluray's because they would not play in their coby dvd players. Managers have to ignore the no return policy on software because it would cause big customer dissatisfaction if they said sorry, youre screwed, here, buy a 500 player for that disc.

I don't think Walmart will cause a major shift in the format war, but they will cause major confusion with the average uninformed buyer. Of course, most people will just hook up a coby dvd player to their "expensive" 400 dollar hdtv via composite and think thats as good as it gets. Like I said, the major confusion will mostly be people trying to play hddvd and bluray in their regular player. We may soon get sick of the walmart electronics clerk asking us if we have the right player for the type of disc we picked up.

[devdevil85]

I agree with Lazarus Dark: most people have no idea what is going on. Secondly, it's Wal-Mart! Most people who shop there are shopping there because they don't have a lot of money to spend or maybe they have the money, but they would rather just use their regular DVD players they just purchased 2 years ago for $150. I can tell you that this push is not going to be as big as people may think, but because the regular consumer will choose price over features and because most people will not be able to tell a visual difference between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD due to the quality of picture their HDTV's can put out, HD-DVD will more than likely win unless Sony can get the price of Blu-Ray down along with getting more major titles released.

[Aankhen]

Stop the presses! A bit too early as yet to be celebrating, it seems.

[Tyinsar]

Originally Posted by Aankhen

Stop the presses! A bit too early as yet to be celebrating, it seems.

Ooopppssss. Now you can all go back to the Hi everybody (relix hijack) thread.

[Aankhen]

What a coincidence… found some interesting related reading today.