RSSSony Wants Single Standard for HD DVD
By Ed Oswald | Published April 13, 2005, 11:53 AM
Sony said Wednesday that it sees "no visible progress" towards a standard for the next generation of DVD discs, but the company is open to working on one to prevent an inevitable format war.
Sony is the creator of Blu-ray, one of two formats that the industry has thrown its support behind to move DVD into true high-definition.
A senior official with the Sony Media Group told Reuters that from the standpoint of the consumer, getting the entire industry to agree on one standard would be good business. However, no progress is being made towards that goal, as neither group has endeavored to do so.
The competing format, HD-DVD, holds an advantage over its Sony-produced counterpart: discs are backwards compatible, and have been shown to work in tests with hundreds of DVD players. This would ease the transition to the new format.
Even with some definite advantages for its competitor, Blu-ray is still gaining support within the industry. Apple Computer announced it was backing Sony's format last month, joining Dell and Hewlett Packard.
The first DVD players supporting each format will be released later this year, with DVDs in Blu-ray and HD-DVD expected to be available around the same time. Movie studios hope that the timing of the release -- close to the holiday season -- will give the technology a much-needed boost.
However, confusion could reign supreme and delay adoption, as consumers will be forced to understand complicated differences between the competing formats.
IMO Blu-ray would be better to adopt as a single standard regardless of whose product it is
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|Sony has ALWAYS been about proprietary nonsense, from ATRAC to SACD and now next generation DVD recording. The best thing the industry could do is to roundly ostracize their offerings in the the same way that Microsoft's offering should be avoided.
It's not even as if they had anything worthwhile to offer most of the time. ATRAC is pathetic audio quality (actually below WMA - now that's scary!) and SACD quickly becomes recognizable as an audio con-job when one compares the "methodology" to DVD-Audio.
The best technology is not always the best solution. Didn't anyone learn anything from Beta vs. VHS? When you have a greedy company known for throwing its weight around in the industry and screwing consumers, that new technology loses its shine.
And that personifies Sony.
Thanks but no thanks.
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|I was thinking along the same lines, i was SHOCKED sony wanted a "single standard." Or is this single standard their own format? Then again, just maybe sony is making a change. We'll have to see if they practice what they preach. You are what you do, not what you say.
PS, Sony, if you're listening, please support Ogg Vorbis in your audio products & dvd players.
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|This is one topic that I don't really have an opinion about. Let me know when a decision's made, and I'll buy whatever's out there. Well... as long as it's worth my money anyway.
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|All they have to do is kill off Blu-ray.
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|It happened with VHS and Beta, it happened with Mini Disc and DCC, It's still happening with SACD and DVD-Audio. Sony was/is in the middle of all of those. Personally, I support Blu-Ray, HD-DVD is only half way there, it's too limited in storage capacity. I'll probably buy a PS3 when it comes out, however, I think a main issue I'll have when either format comes out is that I have a HD tv that only has component input, which probably won't be supported by either format. So I guess I'll have to wait and buy the APEX player that plays both formats and has HD component output.
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|lol same thoughts!
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|...just like VCR beat Beta tape, just like casette beat 8 tracks, just like DVD beat DivX (don't lash out I'm referring to those old DivX mini-discs that were out at the same time dvd's came out--for a short time movies were made for both players. Now remember? Yeah--THOSE DivX discs...). HELLO SONY? This has happened the same EXACT way everytime new media comes out--always a duel, never a clear-cut winner at the beginning, never more than 2 dueling. The one who wins every time in history--the cheapest. Sony look at history--if you really, really want to have Blu-ray be the standard, MAKE THEM CHEAPER THAN HP-DVD. Simple.
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|You forget the consumer. Consumers can reject one format for another, or both formats. DVD just made major penetration last year.... people aren't going to want to replace those collections anytime soon.
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|I agree that may change things up a bit...but until movies for both formats are released and consumers clearly favor one over the other (cost/compatability/whatever), both will co-exist. Based on history, it shouldn't take long for the clear winner to trumph, but hey it could be different this time. Highly unlikely.
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|Sony always wants things their way, and the Sony standard is always inferior.
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|I'm not so sure about that.
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|Can you say mini-disc? What happened to being able to buy our favorite albums on mini disc?
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|Sony's has never been the inferior technology... it hasn't always been clearly superior, but it's never been worse.
Betamax VCRs - and get it right, betamax was a VCR just as much as VHS systems were... Betamax was substancially better - in picture quality and durability. VHS VCRs were cheaper, in both quality and price (and cheaper to licence the technology)... so every company out there could afford to make cheap VHS machines... which is how they won the market.
The PS2 is a better product than the X-Box, although it's a slim difference.
Mini Disc is a fantastic format, but CD is cheaper.
If sony had had a patent on cassette tapes, walkman never would have caught on, because a cheaper alternative would have come out.
Sony is a company with a history of making excellent products, and excellent media formats... and when they make machines that play nicely with standard formats, they excel - if they make sure blu-ray is open enough and can compete on a level playing field with HD-DVD insofar as player pricing, licensing, and so forth - it will destroy HD-DVD... but if they pull a Beta or MiniDisc attitude towards it - Blu-Ray will vanish from consumer sights within months.
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|PS2 a better product?
Certainly not technologically.
The XBox has FAR better audio and better image quality (a much smaller margin in that department though). Does the PS2 have more games? Yes - and it should. It got there first.
Minidisc?
A huge ripoff: low capacity, relatively high cost, ATRAC proprietary garbage lossy compression with poor audio quality.
When their memory stick debuted, it was broken. The company put the device identifier in the STICK instead of the reader, leaving it to OS vendors to kludge a solution because the device could never be properly recognized by PNP. When they did that it was a CHANGE of the original spec they had tabled and when they were braced with that point their reply was essentially "well, I guess you have a problem, Mr. OS Vendor".
Beta failed because of predatory licensing fees. Good technology, bad company behind it.
A cheaper alternative to cassette tape form Sony? Pure conjecture and likely fantasy - typical Sony doctrine would dictate a proprietary high pricing scheme to accompnay that new technology.
Their TVs are nothing special over the competition yet always command a price premium. A/B a Toshiba CRT product next to a Sony and that becomes pretty hard to miss.
Their audio line is a joke.
Those are just a few of the more obvious examples.
Sony have a long-standing track record of tabling more expensive proprietary formats and products and any statement to the contrary blatantly ignores that obvious history. I'm sorry but I'm no Sony Fanboy - the company's track record speaks for itself for anyone to see.
I'm sure there will be a most convoluted rebuttal but I won't be reading it - I've already got the facts and the goods on that company from years of experience.
He who has eyes to see, let him see.
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|You have opinions.
Quoting them as fact doesn't make them truth.
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|No they are not.
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|I believe it is!
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