How to complain to competition and consumer protection watchdogs regarding Warner's actions:

http://www.campaignhd.com/WATCHDOG.html

Blu 85% to HDDVD 15%....
Any day now Paramount and Universal and Toshiba....

http://www.highdefdigest...arner_Announcement/1383

How much more of this humiliation do you guys want to take?

Good Morning everyone, its 9:45 here in ENGLAND and a nice day to read some news, HA HA

http://news.teamxbox.com...ire-Sale-to-Save-HD-DVD/

Already covered. What day is it there?

Wednesday

sweet another firesale, who exactly is going to buy an HD-DVD player no matter what the price after toshiba just lost the format war???

70% is still not 100%

better than 30% and not forgetting the Hardware companies, who actually buys Toshiba rubbish, its crap hardware and will never live with Denon, Pioneer, Marantz, Panasonic or Sony

Hmmm.
Still here right now. Sad that it bugs you soo much.

a new alias for our favorite joey/steve/dave ?

and to think it's all about winning a niche market

Thinking the same myself.
Perhaps if he spent more time going out into the world instead of creating aliases he could find an actual fan boy friend instead of creating them at leisure.

^^^ What he said.

When Dualshock 3 comes out the PS3 will be a Blu-Ray Player, a next gen games console (with rumble) 100% future proof and the 6 axis is not useless its awesome and the release list for games using it even ads "Wii" elements to it asswell. The PS3 hand in hand with Blu-Ray IS going to Win.

Hold that breathe!
Yea all those state of the art gamees coming out for a POS console. Yet to see a game that offers those next gen elements.
6 axis = USELESS!!!
POS3 is winning nothing nor are they gaining ground on XBOX or WII.

If you continue to believe that your console will survive the next generation. keep believing the convoluted BS those Sony reps are feeding you. Technology in that field is continuing to evolve and your console will become obsolete before any game that claims to push that evelope is released.

Better than the XBOX which is allready obsolete, games are on the way which dont fit on a DVD and you will have to fill up that 20GB hard drive with install data to be able to run them. oooooh 20GB wont last long seen as 1 blu ray game could be up to 50GB

All those POS3 games that are holding that max 50g Capacity.
80g Hard Drive on a POS3...
Again by the time they push the evelope for space the CONSOLE WILL EVOLVE TO THE NEXT GEN!

Spoken like someone who's never touched a 360. Unlike the PS3, there is no 'install data' for disc based games.

"100% future proof"

Until the PS4 comes along...

As for the sixaxis...well the implementation on it has been disappointing. Of the 3 games that I've played that use it, (R&C, Heavenly Sword, and Lair), the motion sensing feels tacked on and gimmicky, at best. R&C probably had the best use of it, and even then, it's very limited.

Blu Ray - 70% of High Def market, THE END

Galway: HD-DVD is not superior at all. Both formats are similar in terms of the quality they deliver, however its a known fact that Blu-Ray is slightly better and can offer more due to the extra capacity. The problem we have now is that the likes of Toshiba and Microsoft continuing this war by not dropping the format, is going to cause more people who do not understand what is going on to buy into it when its obviously going to die, I think this is grosely unfair on the average public, we have to remember that not everyone knows about this stuff. The entire market now needs a singular accepted format which can take over DVD's. The fact that early Blu-Ray players are not updateable and will not be good enough for new features ie they are not the new profile, is unfortunate but early adopters will always suffer with new technology, DVD was no different. With regard to HD DVD, they may well have got their act together quicker, just like microsoft did with XBOX 360 but the fact remains the reason for this is because HD DVD like XBOX is old technolgy remastered like the new Half Life Game, looks nice but after 5 mins you take it back because no matter which way you look at it, its old.

"HD-DVD is not superior at all"

How can you state this and keep a straight face.

"The problem we have now is that the likes of Toshiba and Microsoft continuing this war by not dropping the format, is going to cause more people who do not understand what is going on to buy into it when its obviously going to die"

Just like Betamax you mean ?

"I think this is grosely unfair on the average public, we have to remember that not everyone knows about this stuff"

Totally agree, imagine the suprise when lots of users find out their blu-ray player was rushed lacking in features, and find out sony didnt bother to tell them and offer them to just buy another.

"The entire market now needs a singular accepted format which can take over DVD's"

Agree totally ... HD-DVD please.

"The fact that early Blu-Ray players are not updateable and will not be good enough for new features ie they are not the new profile, is unfortunate but early adopters will always suffer with new technology, DVD was no different."

Funnily enough not with HD-DVD.

"HD DVD like XBOX is old technolgy remastered like the new Half Life Game, looks nice but after 5 mins you take it back because no matter which way you look at it, its old. "

So its either old and feature rich, or new and non existant and more expensive to boot ? hmmm ok ???

"HD-DVD is not superior at all"

How can you state this and keep a straight face.

Because its not, everyone knows its not. This s why all the Daddy Electronic companies are waiting to see how the war pans out, ie Denon, Pioneer, Marantz, Panasonic, they are all behind Blu-Ray, and for those of us who buy the best equipment, we want the best format, your not arguing with me your arguing with the best electronic manufacturers in the world.

Where do you get your info from, your fighting a losing battle, oh and your betamax comment, yes it died but what the f*ck has thaty got to do with this.

I agree blu ray players at the mo are lacking and that is an issue which is why there is new legislation governing that all new players must be a particular profile standard.

Funny,

Profile evolution on blue ray should have been handled better on the BLUE side period. There is no excuse today not to have firmware upgrades on any player PERIOD. Any blue fanboy can continue to push the argument that its the early adopters fault for purchasing the product. You forget that without some of those early adopters you would NOT have a format!!.

Blue never was and will NEVER be superior! Production costs prove are an example of why HD DVD is a better format. IT is your side that started this so don't point to MS and Toshiba! they released a finished format whereas blo ray decided to put forth a unfinished just to try and compete.

I agree, Blu-Ray was not finished at launch, which means all the big companies and most of the studios have picked an unfinished format over a completed one, what does that say about your HD DVD which lets not forget is about to Die and the world knows it!

Yet all these "Daddy Companies" were rushed to put forth incompatable profiles players that will not support firmware updates. This shows that they were pushed to release a product before its maturity

"however its a known fact that Blu-Ray is slightly better and can offer more due to the extra capacity."

Really? It doesn't matter if they can... so far, they've haven't. The potential is there, but to date the space has been terribly wasted and unjustified.

And why exactly do you think that is? It's because HD DVD is holding back Blu-ray in terms of encode quality, and video/audio bitrates.

Studios don't want to encode their movies twice, once for Blu-ray, a seperate encode for the smaller capacity and bandwidth crippled HD DVD, so they go for the lowest common denominator, HD DVD.

Once HD DVD Dies (months, if not weeks), the sooner can studios turn the wick up on Blu-ray releases.

Thats Funny, Denon and Marantz have not released one yet. This is all irrelavant anyway the studios and tech giants have chosen

If the best you can do is call HD dead I fail to see a purpose for your conintual posting. If your here to gloat about a war that continues. Perhaps you should get together with Steve and share his bed with Sony.

Unless Warner decides back to HD exclusive the decision is still devided enough for an ongoing format war. Until one side decides to throw in the towel you can show all the skewed numbers to support your argument.

It's because HD DVD is holding back Blu-ray in terms of encode quality, and video/audio bitrates."

Umm no Sony didn't want to pay MS for the codecs
Same reason why they didn't have rumble in their controllers. They owed Microsoft money for the PS2 rumble tech.
Your 6 axis controller is useless.

The fact that early Blu-Ray players are not updateable and will not be good enough for new features ie they are not the new profile, is unfortunate but early adopters will always suffer with new technology, DVD was no different.

Excuse?

That DVD I bought today? Yeah, I can play that on the $350 Toshiba DVD player I bought back when DVD players still cost $350. I was an early adopter (and that player still works).

Cut the crap.

Nobody is excusing Sony for messing up the release of Blu-Ray and the PS3 but the fact remains that in 12 months from now the shops will be full of blu boxes. I am a PS3 owner for Games and I picked one over the XBOX due to being future proof in terms of games getting bigger and needing more space, but for movies I never really cared who won, I just wanted 1 winner so we can all get on with enjoying High Def, the fact Blu-Ray is going to come out on top is down to the quality of the product, all these arguments are really irrelevant.

Sorry to be the one to tell you. By the time your console comes close to pushing "a" evelope on a game the rest of the world and technology will be moving onto another console and tech. The POS3 offers nothing everyone is excited about Metal Gear, made for a console past its date.

Thats rubbish aswell, a modern dvd could well have DTS ES sound codecs, your toshiba DVD player will not play those codecs if it was an early one.

"Nobody is excusing Sony for messing up the release of Blu-Ray and the PS3"

Errm, why do they need excusing? In my eyes, they did the right thing, and delayed both products until the technology wes ready.

You only have to look at the mess Microsoft have made with the Xbox360 to see how it should NOT be done, with massive failure rates, and seriously lacking specifications that got added later on...

PS3 is pushing envelopes today that the 360 is simply not capable of. I am of course not talking multi-platforms, I am talking PS3 exclusives.

I think you need to wake up and smell the coffee.

"Umm no Sony didn't want to pay MS for the codecs"

You mean VC-1 (AKA WMV Pro), sorry, Blu-ray does that too....

Had my coffee still haven't seen a game yet that has pushed an evelope sorry. I see games made by developers for the 360 ported over to an inferior console to produce errors. IE Orange box (valve wanted nothing to do with your POS console)
COD 4 etc.

A lesser version of the one available.
Sorry

DTS ES has been available for sometime.
Are you sure you know what audio your talking about?

I agree the XBOX is a mess, a mix of addon hardware and re-release consoles. Sony though did mess up by releasing blu ray players that are not profile 1.1 let only profile 2.0, most HD DVD players are profile 2.0. However just shows how good blu-ray is as its been chosen over HD DVD when it is behind in develpment in comparison.

COD 4 on the PS3 is awesome, I've played both 360 version and PS3 the PS3 Sh*ts on the 360 W*nkBOX

Perhaps before the profile problems were public knowledge. I do think this will hurt the format. If anything they have created their own demise IF and I say IF they succeed. By that time the public will be soo tired of this that they will either stay with DVD or follow ON Demand.

Its apparent that companies do think there is a viable future for this method. All those Blo Ray fanboys can continue to argue all they want about it. I would rather go on demand then pay for a format that will continue to evolve because of problems with extras and copy protection.

Until one company decided to throw it there is still a format war. It is the reason why you fanboys still feel the need to post prematurely about your format winning (without a declared winner) and why Toshiba and MS, Universal and Paramount / Dreamworks continue to publish for the format.

Bahahahhaha..

Yea more people on LIVe. I have played it on the POS3 and the Xbox is better! You can keep you bugged version I as the 250k+ people who are online with the xbox will keep their version.

Yes thank you, and it has been around for a while but an early DVD player would not have supported it.

lmao

Give me *one* example of a DVD that doesn't contain a compatible audio stream for my DVD player?

Does it hurt to stretch like that?

Your remark was about Toshiba DVD players therefore implying your talking about HD players. Perhaps you should be more specific.

Must be hard when your too busy giving out high fives to the two other Sony BLO Ray Fan Boys trolling this forum

"and delayed both products until the technology wes ready."

Ummm Blo Ray released premature.
Your console released with technology after its prime. Which had evolved and at the point of its inception of availabilty to the public in an effort to compete with a console that had already been released for some time and said console is still selling stronger.

Actually Microsoft had to make WMV9Pro specifications public in order to get it included on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs, it had to be an official ITU-T and IEC/ISO standard. This turned it into VC-1 and it's not Microsoft collecting royalties but the organizations formed by all those Microsoft competitors that put some effort into fine tuning WMV9Pro to make it better.. although they couldn't do any miracle as Microsoft marketeers want you to believe. VC-1 is still an hacked/modified version of the same old MPEG-4 ASP specifications, it's inferior to MPEG-4 Part10 AVC H.264 which has been developed by the organizations in the following years.

Danno, you don't know what you are talking about. VC-1 is the same on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Don't mix things up to make Microsoft sound cool and Sony bad, because that's just a childish attitude which is not based on facts. Don't spread around more wrong technical info than what it's already floating on web sites.

"Once HD DVD Dies (months, if not weeks), the sooner can studios turn the wick up on Blu-ray releases."

sorry, this "war" is not ending anytime soon

"Where do you get your info from, your fighting a losing battle, oh and your betamax comment, yes it died but what the f*ck has thaty got to do with this."

If you read what the reply was to, then it would be clear. I recomend more time reading and less time ranting.

Choosing ... there is a difference. The battle is still on, otherwise the other studios would have done the same. Who is to say they will not switch back after HD-DVD notch up sales at the rate they are allready achieving.

I must say, its whooping sonys behind real bad in sales right now, not bad for a dead format.

You cant argue with stupid people, they bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.

Are you an imbecile? DTS was and still is an optional sound format on DVD. Why is that even an issue?

Do we really want to get into all of the things that all Blu-ray players are supposed to be able to do but cannot?

That should be a short pissing match...

Actually, they owed Immersion for licensing fees on the rumble technology.

Its premature to dismiss HD-DVD.

In the grand scale of things, HD media is a fraction of DVD sales. Toshiba seam to have the right idea, and I expect to see a turn around with sales picking up for films and more studios supporting the HD-DVD format. Sony didnt give up with betamax or minidisk so easy and so they should expect a fight on there hands.

HD-DVD is technically superior & Cheaper, and is far from being obsolete compared to blu-ray which already sony admit to rushing with early to present day adopters needing to buy a new player to support the features present in HD-DVD.

1) Toshiba is going to make a U-turn towards Blu-Ray and needs to get a few bucks back from the failed HD-DVD standard
2) More studios supporting HD-DVD ? Are you dreaming ? Where have you been in the last few weeks? The only studios that are going to switch but towards Blu-Ray are Paramount/Dreamworks and Universal. And that's going to happen soon.
3) HD-DVD is not technically superior at all. Otherwise it would be the one featuring more space per layer. Period.
4) No one really cares about interactivity and web-updates features. Those don't sell a disc format and hardware for watching movies in HD. The highest available bitrate=quality does and that's the reason why Blu-Ray has won the format war. And to get the highest bitrates you need more space, something that HD-DVD hardware couldn't deliver and still can't. While Blu-Ray 4-layer 100GB discs are going to be released pretty soon and if the PS3 will be able to read them with no issues then the studios could decide to release deluxe editions at very high bitrates.

1) LOL ... Blow all creditability before you start.
2) In the last week, more HD-DVD players have gone though the door than sony can hope for, you think this wont effect studio loyality. Those sony $ wont buy them for long when they are losing potential sales.
3) Sorry to burst your bubble, but im afraid sony is playing catchup to toshiba on features. HD-DVD caught sony up on the storage front, you not heard with your head in the sand ?
4) Features do mean something, have you not been reading what sony and HD-DVD have been saying during beta news last week coverage ?. Your waffle about highest bit rate and quality are complete nonsence. By your reasoning MP3's are a obscure obsolete format since its cleary inferiour to cd ??. I supose these bitrates and space are needed on a ps3 just to cope with the uncompressed audio?. Im not going to comment on your vaporware disk format. Your whole post is of a brainwashed sony fan who is clearly missinformed or blatently lieing.

Keep dreaming. HD-DVD is a dead format. The format war is over. Blu-Ray is the only standard.
You are the one spreading false info and desperately trying to tell people that HD-DVD was better.
The fools wasting money on HD-DVD hardware now will have to use those as DVD players and nothing more than that.
This time Microsoft has lost, thanks God!, and customers have chosen the best format which is Blu-Ray.

I agree aredo, however I feel sorry for the "fools" who have wasted money on HD DVD as many of them will be people who simply dont follow this stuff like we do and toshiba alon with microsoft hav screwed over many people and are not going to be thanked for it, see my main post. oh and Galway I dont know what planet your from do you work for microsoft or something, I hope you do because you can also tell them to shuv MOVIE DOWNLOADS up their rear.

In my opinion, the only "fools" here are the ones that think it is over. I prefer HD, but, if Sony would have finished their format prior to releasing it, I do think things would have been different. If you remember, Sony and Toshiba were in talks prior to either format releasing, Sony wanted HD's software. Sony is only superior in disc capacity.

"This time Microsoft has lost..."

I think you mean Toshiba, and from your comments I can conclude your a deranged sony fanboy or a paid for blogger.

Amen! Sony is NEVER concerned about the customer, & they ALWAYS fool the customers to gain profit on BOTH the software & hardware level, & u all know that clearly, & what makes me even more sad is that some customers are still fooled & still believe it!!!

To Warner Bros, These are what the customers really want:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics

The A3 sales are raising up dramatically & is #4 in Amazon's best sellers & even surpassing all the ipods except for the 4GB nano..

Again am not a fan boy, but for the best of the Customers:

Long Live HD-DVD:))

An up-scaling DVD player (as well as HD DVD player) for $126 I'm not suprised their selling loads, Here in England thats £60 ish at the moment with the pound so strong, and I spend more than that on a pub lunch!!! so hardely real evidence that HD DVD is suddenly going to crawl back into the market.

You know if this sale sells a few million players i can see a couple of studios swaying over to HD-DVD! Take Sony's money and run to be honest.

Amen! Sony is NEVER concerned about the customer, & they ALWAYS fool the customers to gain profit on BOTH the software & hardware level, & u all know that clearly, & what makes me even more sad is that some customers are still fooled & still believe it!!!

To Warner Bros, These are what the customers really want:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics

The A3 sales are raising up dramatically & is #4 in Amazon's best sellers & even surpassing all the ipods except for the 4GB nano..

Again am not a fan boy, but for the best of the CUSTOMERS:

Long Live HD-DVD:))

As mentioned, nobody is buying the HD-A3 for HD DVD, they are buying it as a upscaling DVD player.

By admiting this, you admit the HD format was is over.

You are so smart to know what people are doing with their money. What an idiot fan boy. You must be nervous about this since you are posting left and right trying to beat everyone down.

Steve Austin..it is funny I have read most of your comments dso far in this thread and not once have you said the A3 is a good player! It is and at this price point it's a fantastic bargain!! What are you ? Against the customer THIS IS A BARGAIN FOR THE CUSTOMER. By the way Steve Austin "we can rebuild him" that rings a bell from years ago lol. Blue ray we can rebuild it because this price vut sure is going to make a karge dent for sure. FANTASTIC PLAYER!! Go out and buy one!

If Betanews had an ignore feature Steve Austin and Joey Deacon would be on it. They never have anything intelligent to say, just mindless idiotic shilling for Sony. I don't even read their posts anymore.

There's at least some value to them. If only for morbid curiosity or pure entertainment...

the best part is when they say "You don't know what your talking about"

it's almost comic genious

Hahahaha, OOh #8, ooh #6, ooh# 4...WELL! here's the rude awakening kids...they need to sell what REMAINS OF IT!!! hahahaha, hahaha, AH HA HA HA HA HA HA.

wow must of been hard taking time away from your ps3 circle jerk to come up with that piece of brilliance.

WOW cant believe it!!..Toshiba rises from #6 to #4 in amazon's best sellers.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics

The A3-HD DVD Player is now outselling ALL the ipods except for the 4GB nano..

Long Live HD-DVD:))

Toshiba rises from #8 to #6 in amazon's best sellers.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics

Long Live HD-DVD:)

The format war is far from over. Sony and their army of idiotic fans seem to believe they were able to force a format war victory by trojan horsing Blo-Ray with the crappy PS3, but they're in for a rude awakening. While Sony keeps bleeding billions of dollars worth of losses on their PS3, in the end the format will still fail. Price is the only factor that will decide this war, and not forcing a format down people's throat. We all know none of this will deter Sony from trying the same trick again in a few years. They keep ramming their garbage down the consumer's throat and never learn from their mistakes.

apparently the new price is working a3 is now in number 8 spot on amazon's electronic's top seller list with no bluray player in sight

What would happen if SD flash memory came into this war? The possibilities are indeed intriguing. Right now SD 8Gb is about 29bucks, maybe yrs from now 50gb is 5bucks.

Imagine movies on SD flash memory where no more "layer changes", no more scratching, lower bootup or loading times, super durability, super low power, extreme portability and functionality. And because it's flash, studios can set aside part of the SD memory for adding additional special features (when connected to internet), instant updating to always be "the latest version" of the movie, new movie trailers, ability to rearrange the movie into how you want it to play, ability to add or subtract audio or video codecs, new or updated subtitles, ability to add Easter eggs, constantly updated biographies, company or studio info, or web links(add commercials? ARGH! egads). This is the end of the format wars as long as it's SD or memory Stick, and we already have multi input slots standard.

Imagine being able to pop that same SD card into an ultra portable hybrid disc player (with built-in SD slot) along with OLED backlighting. You could play movies for HOURS on a plane because of the energy efficiency

Now take that same SD card, pop into any PMP, the built-in OS will auto switch to the best resolution the device can handle and simply "play". I call it "smart" 2 way communicating flash memory.

There will be a whole new wave of devices where they communicate directly with the SD flash card and the content it carries.

There would be no need for "special" or expensive optical assemblies, the playback devices can be made much simpler and for cheap.

TV's, appliances, monitors can easily have SD slots built in for cheap, making all LCD's capable of playback.

Imagine watching something on TV, a special icon pops up indicating that show or movie is available for instant download for x dollars.
press a button, BOOM, show downloads and you can play on any device. The movie packaging comes in the mail later on.

For the longest time, optical discs have ruled. But Flash memory could very well be the next new media of the future.

Flash is a perfect complement to upcoming VOD or download on demand.

WOW! (foaming at mouth)

Can you say DRM up the wazooo? Well not like they dont already have DRM protection but I can see them being able to DELETE movies off the card at will too.

I like it, but I agree. It would have DRM up the proverbial "wazoo". I do think that is a much better way to package and sell movies though, I absolutely agree with you on that. I think that is where we are heading probably, in one form or another.

Having movie players with no moving parts what so ever and no issues of scratched or damaged media is very appealing, no question about that.

I share your fears about DRM. Hopefully they make it like normal dvd drm; Enough drm to prevent "casual" copying,but made so we are allowed fair use backup, or ability to move the movie unto a media server or other personal playback device.

Companies need to understand that we like to move media around at whim, to different devices or laptops without hassle. We should be free to do whatever we want with media, as long as we are not uploading it, sharing it, or breaking fair use laws.

cheers

I think this is just the beginning of Toshiba really throwing its weight behind HD-DVD. Just because all the movie studios have "chosen a side" doesn't mean it's set in stone, did Paramount not switch from Blu-ray to HD-DVD?

In getting more screenshots, I realized I haven't used one of my Amazon cards for 2 years.
I may just have to pick up one of the Toshibas so my card doesn't get cancelled.

WARNING!
DO NOT click on the links if you are allergic to high credit limits!

http://i159.photobucket....angPhotos/AmazonBob.jpg

http://i159.photobucket....ngPhotos/AmazonWang.jpg

Why would you want to share personal financial details?

I see this is turning into a I make more than you thread. Bottom line is you make to much money. I bet you don't even give a penny to charity.

Not that having millions makes me an authority on anything; besides how to make money.
I used to hint at being rich, but it became clear that some people were too dense to take hints.
So, I just cut to the chase to reduce chatter.

I don't tithe 10%, but I average 5%.
Is that enough, or do I need to do 95% to impoverish myself to the level of most fanboys ;-)

I'm just trying to make the point that even peope worth millions are not buying into either format.
Many people would dismiss that contention as baseless, I'm using myself as an example.

No I am glad to see that you do. A couple of my friends make so much money that blowing 60k at Vegas is fun but gives nothing to those less fortunate. The greed with some is amazing and sad. I am not referring to you since I do not know you. We don't make millions but we give our fair share.

If you are in the market for a regular upscaling sub $140 SD DVD player (and millions get sold every year) why would anyone buy anything other than the (excellent) HD A3?

WOW! It's currently $131.98 on Amaz_n! with 5 free movies. Does anyone know if the HD-A3 all come with 300 and Bourne movies inside the box?

Is there anthing else worh getting on HD DVD?

HD DVD still has Blades Of Glory as an exclusive title...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

Children of Men, Battlestar Galactica series and Star Trek first year series are also good. Myself I'm old school, I'm waiting on Saturday Night Fever HD believe it or not LOL
The only exclusives lists I could find might be old, but here goes:

http://www.amazon.com/Be...ovies/lm/R22ANE10NK2MRT

current hd-dvd entire catalog, not sure which are exclusives:

http://www.thelookandsou...om/catalog.php?view=all

BTW Steve that youtube clip is funny as hell! I'm still laughing my @ss off lol!

There is only one response.

LORD OF THE RINGS.

Blu-ray exclusive, you can keep your Blades Of Glory..

PS. If you havn't seen the movie Downfall (from which the youtube link was taken from), it's a must see...

The only HD-DVD exclusive titles worth buying are:

- Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum
- Heroes Season 1 (and Season 2 if it ever gets released on HD-DVD.. it's highly likely that Universal might switch to Blu-Ray soon...)
- Transformers

"Is there anthing else worh getting on HD DVD"

- Typical trolling from the resident Blu-ray idiot.

There are currently 430+ titles (if you import) available on HD DVD right now.

(Yes, when Warner go (at the end of May) that will fall back to 'only' 300 titles - plus whatever has been released in the meantime.)

You can only get Universal and Paramount titles on HD DVD.

What sort of fool pretends that neither Universal or Paramount have nothing worth seeing out on HD DVD?

.....and of course, being the superb upscaling players that they are, all the Toshiba HD play SD DVD beautifully.

(in fact the HD A30 & HD A35 compare very well with very high end Denon SD DVD players and at a fraction of the price)

I have an A-35 very impressed with the upscale. Amazing HD player!!!

If 2.0 is where some of the important extras are then NO. Secondly Universal is a founding member so highly UNLIKELY.

Yea.. ETA on that one?

What about Matrix on blue???? Anyone??? No?
Batman Begins on blue??? Anyone??? No?

Keep holding that breathe.. I bet we see LOTR On Demand before you even see it on Blue.. that is if the extras are compatible with the current player version

Steve, Thanks for the info on the Downfall DVD. I will look for that movie.

All: Come on guys, let's all just get along. Please no more name calling or picking on anyone no matter what format they use. 10yrs from now, we'll all be laughing about this mess. I remembered the old Atari vs Commodore 64 vs Coleco vs Intellivision wars. Today it's emulated on PC/MAC and now anyone can play :)

Eventually dual format players will rule the day, we just gotta wait.

peace all and enjoy your format of choice!

Funny movie..
yes we could all have learned for the POS3...
Make a console sell it off as a player for an unfinished format.
Funny thing here is you can't log in under one of your aliases to help defend your crappy console and use a Hitler movie instead. Wow even more of a child now aren't you? Grow the hell up!

If you had half a brain you would be able to tell there is lots of stuff to get on HD DVD. But then again Sony pays you to be a moron. Then again I am pretty sure you were born that way.

You could also say that there is nothing on blu ray. It is after all about preference.

Again I say not everyone likes movies like that. Many do but not all.

I will agree about the downfall part that is a good movie.

You Microsoft/Toshiba puppets are really silly, indeed. Keep dreaming along with your Bill Gates boss.

"I remembered the old Atari vs Commodore 64 vs Coleco vs Intellivision wars."

Like it was yesterday... :)

What was so silly about it, aredo? How is what he said any sillier than half of your comments littered with opinions and predictions galore?

The current HD-A3 sale for $139.00 is making HD-DVD compete again with standard DVD upscalers and Oppo upscaler units. Looks like hd-dvd is on track to get to that $99.00 magic pricepoint again. :) At that pricepoint, it's really a sweet deal on the Toshiba A3. No other standalone "at that $99-$139.00 pricepoint" can compete with it in terms of technical features. You essentially get a fantastic sd upscaler with "free" hd-dvd playback feature. I'm going to pick a second one up so I can watch my current collection in my bedroom. The upscaling really rivals the top rated Oppo units. For current BD owners, these would make a great second unit if you want to enjoy the Matrix series, Pitch Black 1 and 2, Fast and Furious series, Dawn of the Dead, King Kong, Batman Begins. They are a tremendous deal and select hd-dvd movies are currently $14.99 on Amaz_n at the moment. (or you can rent them via Netflix) Who knows how long it will take Warner to release existing hd-dvd titles, and whether older BD standalones will have trouble playing them.

So what you are saying, is that IF (and it's a big if) Toshiba manage to sell the knock down fire sale units, then it's for DVD playback, not HD DVD playback..

That's not particularly good news for Toshiba..

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

What I was saying is that its a great pricepoint for people looking for a great upscaler to extend their current SD collections, and if they want to play HD movies, they can if they want to since it's "free". The Oppo 980-H units are currently $169.00 but only play SD discs.

Again I guess it depends on which movies on which platform you prefer. We're at the mercy of the Studios so some movies unfortunately will be on one but not the other. :(

Everyone is saying this movie studio uses blu-ray and that one uses HD-DVD but you're missing one thing. What is the porn industry using mostly? I did a google search and I found more porn on HD-DVD than on blu-ray. The articles I've read have been pretty old, but most point toward HD-DVD and some point to blu-ray.

Bzzt, another wrong answer..

All the big porn studios are going blu, which is a shame, as most HD DVD owners are wankers..

http://www.pcmag.com/art...2/0,2704,2247577,00.asp

Nope. Wrong answer.

All the porn studios much prefer HD DVD. They say it is much easier to work with and develop/author disks for and create special features for and, the big reason, much LOWER licensing fees than with Blu-ray. That means more money in the pockets of the content developers.

So i post a link to back my story up, and you make somthing up. Is that how it works..

Please less of the 2006 stories...

Dude can you read? The article doesn't say anything about more companies using blu-ray. Some of them said they were looking to blu-ray in case that format wins, but didn't say anything about making more movies. One Vivid actually said that more blu-ray online sales were made but more HD-DVD store sales were made. Plus it says that more of the industry likes HD-DVD because it costs less and its easier to make a DVD in that format. blu-ray makes the studios use and pay for the copy protection and HD-DVD doesn't.

Seems to me like you're one of those people who reads but only sees what he wants to see. I'm not saying either format is a winner yet, the fat lady hasn't sung. Sure blu-ray may win, but not yet, lets see what Toshiba and MS has up its sleeves if anything.

No, I just think you are grossly misinformed, that's all. You need to do more research than just posting ONE link to ONE story that fits your agenda and then expect to have any kind of credibility.

From what I can tell from reading your other posts though, there is little danger of that happening any time soon.

That article posted does not say in any way that all studios are going blu. It does however have statements why they have been reluctant (those facts that you like to ignore) in pursuing a blu future.
At best for you it says Hustler released a successful disc, however it was not purely blu-ray as it was packed with hd-dvd and sd-dvd.

In fact, did you even read that? It’s not exactly a gleaming ray of light article for blu-ray. They are simply watching what’s happening.

That is the way do it so I guess it does work that way.

All those millions of kids with sticky PS3 controllers... I shudder to think.

Ha ha ha ha.

Look at the Sony/PS3/Blu-ray shill-troll/fanboy claim HD DVD has no content.

430+ titles out right now and he wants to pretend there's nothing to play on them.

What an a$$hole.

Universal & Paramount.

There's 2 massive studios right there that you won't be getting on Blu-ray
(& they have some excellent titles due out this year).

.....and there's a hell of a lot of Toshiba
HD A3s that are going to be bought as the single best value high quality upscaling DVD player on the market, if nothing else.

"There's 2 massive studios right there that you won't be getting on Blu-ray"

Bzztt, wrong. Both studios have suspiciously only said their current plans are to continue HD DVD support.

1. Note the word CURRENT
2. Note the clever wording that allows them to go multi-format.

With 75% of the studios now Blu, it's only a matter of time before those 2 also join them.

Sorry...

Also,it's far from 430+, it's actually 350, and less, if you count Warner and Paramount recent cancellations (hmm, Paramount cancelling HD DVD titles....)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

"Bzztt, wrong"

- Er, no.

You're either plain lying or a wishful 'thinking' deluded idiot.

I am 100% correct.

If it's so wrong show me the Universal & Paramount Blu-ray films.

There are none.

You are wrong.

I was right.

Universal & Paramount only release on HD DVD.

Only today they (with Toshiba) started a very nice HD DVD promotion.
Fool.

Your desperation is laughable.

What happened to your insider info that predicted Warner going HD DVD exclusive?

http://www.betanews.com/...l_Commitment/1190236933

By Hocuspokus Sep 19, 2007 - 10:05 PM

"There are several claims that the deal has already been done & that Warner will announce a decision to go HD DVD exclusive in the new year."

Is that the same as Paramount and Universal are not on the verge of going neutral? I'm suprised you have the nerve to continue to post your drivel here, after getting that prediction so badly wrong.

warner was going to swing one way or the other, and they swung blu. predicting what any of these companies does just shows how juvenile any of you act when "format war" news shows up. give it a rest.

Can't you see, HockusPokus would be shouting from every thread going, had Warner gone HD DVD, the fact he rarely does now, and when he does it's in final desperation mode, clinging to "Profile 1.1 nonsense.."

It happens if it happens. Until then everything anyone blu says is pure speculation and over exaggeration. Statements get twisted to support peoples arguments all the time and just because they neglected to put the icing on the cake does not mean it is any different.

Until it happens…. There is indeed two studios blu-ray does not have.

"Your desperation is laughable."

- What is laughable here is that on the day Universal & Paramount announce
(with Toshiba) actions to start the HD DVD fight-back you are here trying to pretend that they are about to go Blu-ray at any second.

Your subsequent attempt to avoid your own lies on this is what is laughable.

Admit it, Universal & Paramount have not released a single Blu-ray movie.

"What happened to your insider info that predicted Warner going HD DVD exclusive?"

- LMAO

You went back & got a quote!? Pathetic.

Anyone who knows what happened knows that WB are having serious rows right now as their pro Blu-ray CEO and a handful on the board went against what the board had thought had been decided.

WB were supposed to go HD DVD at the press conference on the Friday
(which is why the HD DVD were so stunned at the news).

Those are the only facts anyone could have known beforehand.

Anyone else claiming to know that they were going to go Blu-ray is either just guessing or a liar.
The board has decided to go HD DVD.

"Is that the same as Paramount and Universal are not on the verge of going neutral?"

- Show me the Universal or Paramount films.

Show where in today's press release they show the slightest bit of wavering.

You Blu-ray idiots have claimed that Universal are out of contract to HD DVD and that Paramount have an escape clause if Warner left.

So what happened?

What are they doing supporting the HD DVD fight back?

Why haven't they at least gone neutral?

"I'm suprised you have the nerve to continue to post your drivel here, after getting that prediction so badly wrong."

- The difference between myself and a dreary little fanboy like yourself is that I said the facts as I knew them, mine was not your kind of blind 'belief' and guessing.

Unlike you sad & dreary little fanboys I do not run away and pretend I did not say what I said.
I do not hide behind multiple accounts.
I stand by my comments and am prepared to admit the case when things work out differently
(and like I said the WB decision was not one anyone could have predicted - it came within a whisker of going to HD DVD).

He posts facts were you on the other hand spew lies. You can deny the reality of the profile mess but it remains a problem. The again you a blind fanboy. I bet if Sony made an electric chair for homes you would buy one. If we are lucky you would use it.

As much as I hate to say it...

'Bruce Almighty', a Universal HD DVD exclusive in the United States... also distributed in Europe on Blu-ray by Buena Vista.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/...keywords=bruce+almighty

However, since Universal did not release it on Blu-ray... correct!

If you have to buy one of these units it shoudl be a dual format one. once again the customer gets in it in the rear..

Ummm....yeah. 90,000 units sold in one day....sure, I'd call that "crucified" all day long...NOT! Give me a break.

Once yet again, HD DVD players will DRAMATICALLY outsell blu-ray players at the retail level as a result of this pricing move by Toshiba. Customers LOVE a deal!!!!

What part of "price is the determining factor when it comes to sales" don't you guys understand? This is simple economics folks. When two products are essentially the same the one with the lower price sells first. Easy math here. Simple price elasticity. Nothing more.

The blu-ray manufacturers will never drop their prices to the level that the HD DVD players are at and at these levels, people coming into the stores looking for just standard upconverting DVD players are going to be walking out with HD DVD players.

I think Toshiba is proving to be a lot smarter here than what people have been giving them credit for. I think this coming quarter's sales figures will bear that out as well.

Rumors of HD DVD's demise have been GREATLY over exagerated it would appear.

Now, you combine this news with Sony and Co's latest slap in the face to its customers by not having their blu-ray players be upgradeable from BD profile 1.0 to anything above that and you have the makings for a very interesting first quarter of the new year now with respect to this "format war"

"Now, you combine this news with Sony and Co's latest slap in the face to its customers by not having their blu-ray players be upgradeable from BD profile 1.0 to anything above that"

Remind us all about triple layer HD DVD again, and how it does not work with existing players, and is nothing but vaporware..

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

Happy to remind you.

The differece here is that Toshiba isn't actually SHIPPING those products out to the market while deceptivly and misleadingly selling them off to unsuspecting customers.

Sony and Co's are selling these types of disabled/unfinished/rushed to market products to CUSTOMERS and then having the audacity, the unmitigated GALL, to publicly say "they knew what they were getting into".

See the difference?

Oh, and did I need to mention the whole Root Kit thing again, or would that just be overkill here at this point?

The vaporware comment is valid since they are not out yet. But everything I have seen, read, heard..etc indicates they will be usable on every 2nd gen and newer player. Only the 1st gen players might have issues.

Try to get your facts straight before posting. You might eventually gain some credibility.

i think he past that point along time ago...

HD-DVD is (was) far from a fixed specs product. Region Coding was recently approved for inclusion to the format specs and firmware updates were scheduled to add support for it. However now it won't matter anymore, the format is dead already.

98% of Blu-Ray customers have been using the PS3 anyway so far, and it surely doesn't have any update issues, in fact it could support all proposed BD profiles since the beginning.

I stand corrected. Let me rephrase that. HD DVD was a far more settled/finalized spec when it went to market than Blu-ray was. Blu-ray was rushed to market far before it was finished/ready/completed because they didn't want to loose market share or mind share to HD DVD which was far more complete of a spec. In doing so, Sony and the blu-ray camp, trashed whatever good will and credibility they had with their cusotmers by not making it abundantly clear on their boxes that the current players were not built to the final BD profile spec and that they would not be upgradable. This, to 99.999% of the consuming public, is tantamount to fraud and deception. No wonder so many people were calling for a class action law suit against the BD camp when this issue fully came to light in the media. I don't blame them one bit. No reasonalble consumer that expects to be dealth with fairly would I don't think.

Is it just too much to ask these companies to act with at least some assemblence of decency and integrity?

"...they knew what they were getting into"

Guess so.

"...they knew what they were getting into"

They have a point there actually. They should have known if they buy a Sony product, they were going to get screwed over in the end. Typical Sony.

"Toshiba is hoping the price drop will enable HD DVD to continue the momentum it had over the holidays"

What momentum would that be? They got crucified over the holiday season, when compared to Blu-ray sales...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

Does anyone really believe a ANOTHER HD DVD fire sale will help things? With no studio support, even $149 is a wasted $149.

The $99 fire sale did not work, even with more studio support, so why would a $149 fire sale work with LESS studio support.

The horse has already bolted, even at this price, most people will walk on by, after hearing HD DVD was dead.

No studio support ??!! hahaha. Which rock have you been living under ?

Universal and Paramount. No small potatoes there mate.
How many movies have you watched that started with that familiar globe and the world Universal orbiting into view ?
The odd 1 or 2 I`d guess.

HD-DVD isn't dead, only the Blu-Ray supporters want to think so and are jumping all over this WB move to verbalise that.
You say people will walk on by, but how many will take a pass on buying a Blu-Ray now knowing that 2.0 is coming and the one they buy now may or may not be upgradeable ?

Sony have absolutely no scruples or morals when it comes to its customers. In this case the likes of rootkits and this Blu-Ray 2.0 upgrade that will cripple early buyers. They don't give a toss and that attitude alone sees me supporting HD-DVD all the way to the end regardless of the outcome.

Also I dont get why some people seem to be happy and revelling in the supposed death of HD-DVD.
Did you have money on this big fight ? You have shares in Blu-Ray ? Whats so personal ?

Umm...Yes, actually. I belive it will help things. Thanks for asking. Any other silly questions? :)

Hddvd is not over...I didn't buy into the fire sales but I'm still neutral. It's nice to be mentally healthy and not deranged like some of you. ;)

Agreed. Nice to see some more neutral people who can see things for what they are

Despite the constant rhetoric, neither high-definition format has made an impact in the marketplace compared to standard DVD.

Every single article on this topic needs to have this line, in bold, at the top, along with the current penetration in % of HD to compare to the percentages held by each format.

Ya know, just to give some of these folks a bit of perspective, something of which they appear to be direly lacking...

With the quality of some of the posts in that previous hd-dvd thread I would say it won’t make a difference. Clearly some people can’t read.
Their eyes scan the article but their mind makes the words up for them.

Excellent.

Great to see HD DVD fight back.

Hollywood remains deeply divided.

Fine by me; I'll continue to buy HD DVD, watch movies on my HD TV services & download.

Blu-ray is still nowhere near being at final spec (hard luck for all those that can't play profile 2.0 discs properly - "you knew what you were egtting into".
LMAO

How many more months until they get even close to a proper range of affordable well spec'd profile 2.0 players?

......and what horrors are you liable to get hooking your profile 2.0 Blu-ray player up to your network?

Sony's rootkit fiascos have nothing on what a net-linked Blu-ray could do.

Man, I'd go buy a dual format HD player if I wasn't getting a PS3 when GT5 comes out. This seems stupid to me though, if they were going to drop the price they should have done it at the same time that the PS3 dropped its price to $400.

LOL! HD-A3 does not even have 1080p.. LOL!
Of course Toshiba want to sell out their stock of HD DVD players before they are completely dead.

Why are you laughing. How many millions of TV's have been sold that don't support 1080p anyways. If it makes it cheaper not to have 1080p so be it.

Really?? Man, I didn't know that!

So its not going to give my 720P TV the best picture it can get huh?

Yeah.. HD DVD sucks because it has lower cost players that conform to the TV's the majority of people currently own!

1080p so over rated.

LOL! HD-A3 does not even have 1080p.. LOL!

Doorknob, listen up.

1080p (Conversion from 1080i is done in the player)

1080i (Conversion from 1080i is done in the TV)

Simple as that. The number of televisions not capable of doing the conversion is minuscule. Anyone spending money on an HDTV either knows that or deserves to waste good money on a bad television. :)

This also needs to be made in bold :)

Agreed. One of the tiredest lines on them thar intarwebz.

How credible can a comment be that is prefixed and suffixed by a 'LOL!' ?

Its like the ramblings of a pre-teen.

you forget joey/steve/dave doesn't count us "walmart" consumers who buy less expensive tv's

like or is?

"Doorknob, listen up"

You get that impression you are talking to a doorknob sometimes :)

So why don't you post a picture of your 1080p tv. Oh, wait you you already posted your 720p Panasonic tv with your Sony Cybershot camera.

...or someone as dumb as one.

Oh thank God. The website went back to the proper design.

I'm just worried they are brewing something up behind the scenes to c*** it up with the parrot design again.

Agreed

Far from over says who Toshiba? Trust me its over all right, they have not only shot themself in the foot, they have then told everyone they ment to do it and to join them LMAO. If you believe HD-DVD will be here after they have so many missing titles your wrong. You need movies to play on your players fact is there going to be fresh out and most of the retail community know and are treating it as such.

It will only be over the day Universal and/or Paramount switch sides. Once one leaves, the other will have to follow.

Until then, its still anyone's game. With the new MSRP's, I bet it won't be long before the A3 is consistently under $100. If it sells in significant numbers and new releases sell in the 200-300k copy range, you think blu-ray exclusive studios wouldn't consider switching?

1st of all i am glad the website has went back to the standard format b/c the other suck bad.

2nd I am a big HD DVD supporter and personally I think the HD optical disc war is over. sales for the the blo-ray disc has been outselling the HD DVD for a while now. With WB and New Line jumping ship the ratio will be even greater for blo-ray.

3rd I have a great upconvert player for now. I am going to wait and see how the HD download service turns out over the next 12-18 months. With download service I don't have to worry about where to store the media. I am running out space with just 350 dvd and HD DVD's today. My wife likes the instant access to the movies but she don't like me storing them around the house. If I get a download service with good picture quality, latest audio codecs and unlimited for less than $50/month. I would be all over it. Time shall tell. With HD movies being 15-25 GB this will be very hard to do without compressing.

Time shall tell

"Although the move is surely to be branded a "fire sale" by Blu-ray supporters"

you know, you're just encouraging them. is that really necessary, encouraging zealots?

Nah...they're not encouraging them, so much as beating them to the punch.

there is no punch.

hd dvd is like rocky!
keep nocking it down and it gets back up
can not fault them and im still waiting for its big punch.

same here you know they have to be cooking up something. i'm just glad to seem them keep up the competition good for consumers both sides

yeah, they're cooking up a 100 dollar player for a finished format. sony's still working on the finished format part and they're chillen at 250-270 for their "low price" bunk model

"keep nocking it down and it gets back up"

No, that's Chumbawamba.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubthumping

First, by focusing on price you are implying that consumers are the deciding factor for the format war. Unfortunately, the movie studio's are deciding this one for us consumers. What good is a $100 player that only playes titles from Universal and Paramount?

The movie studios have obviously made up their mind (not to mention that consumers have as well choosing blu-ray...see the nielson sales figures for 2007).

As far as finishing formats goes, the PS3 updates its firmware routinely. I hope they NEVER finish the format, i'm enjoying the new features that continue to emerge with the bluray format! hope there are more to come!

...and I had *finally* forgotten about that song.

*sigh*

N000B! The only thing that differs between BD 1.1 and the upcoming BD 2.0 spec is the ability to get internet content directly to the player when movies are inserted.. I wouldn't want that anyway.

That's the famous blu line - I wouldn't want that anyway.

Thats fine for you - how many of the consumers that haven't bought either format might want it someday - or at least want the ability if they have a title that supports it.

And I really think they are just scratching the surface with what's possible with the interactivity. Dismissing it so early is a mistake.

There are over 400 HD DVD titles. Even with the supposed studio advantage blu-ray had from the begining, they don't have many more titles.

With the Warner move, now mabe they will truly have that advantage.

Universal and Paramount have some great movies too, so as long as they keep pumping out HD DVD's, you will need HD DVD for some of the latest and greatest movies.

1- The consumers SHOULD be the one's deciding this. In a perfect world, both formats should have co-existed for a time, with EQUAL support from all of the studios (multi-system/format support has worked well for video game publishers for years). But alas, it's not a perfect world, and ultimately, the studios are deciding on the format, for the consumer.

2- The Nielson figures show something very telling: 1.9 billion DVDs vs. 11 million hdm discs (both formats). If either format wins, its really nothing more than a cursory win.

*slides a cider down the bar to PC Tool*

just wait til the bda gets 2.0 working right then they will all be ranting about how awesome it is

You sure about that? For someone calling another a N000B you left something out. Better go back and check your blu-ray specs

Ahhh... A bit of the "Make it go bye-bye" juice.