[Knucklehead]

Walmart to exclusively sell BluRay
WOW!
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provid ... id=8200553

[Rocketfan]

Bestbuy and Netflix also earlier in the week pledged to only sell Blu-ray as well....Walmart just fell in line. The battle is over. Its now a waiting game to see when a Blu-ray player comes down in price. It will probably be the holiday season before the deals get good.

[phoenix]

Heard a rumor today that Toshiba is going to kill it's HD-DVD line. Same place I heard about WalMart.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... d-dvd.html

At least HD-DVD players will still play regular DVDs. Of course, K-Mart is still selling HD-DVD.

EDIT -- 50% off select HD-DVDs at Amazon.com. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html? ... =9325">Get 'em while they're hot!!</a>

[ALUmnus]

Did I not say that Walmart could/would mark the end of HD DVD when we were talking about it before? I believe I did, and was promptly dismissed for it. I will await an apology from a certain someone who can no longer post.

[Rocketfan]

Heard a rumor today that Toshiba is going to kill it's HD-DVD line. Same place I heard about WalMart.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... d-dvd.html

At least HD-DVD players will still play regular DVDs. Of course, K-Mart is still selling HD-DVD.

EDIT -- 50% off select HD-DVDs at Amazon.com. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html? ... =9325">Get 'em while they're hot!!</a>

They will be like Laser Disc in 5 years....collectors items.

[phoenix]

Why would they drop blu-ray prices? They've got what they wanted -- a market-driven monopoly. They can set their prices, and tech-heads will pay it. The prices won't start dropping until the high-end market is fairly saturated.

I hope I'm wrong -- I'll be very happy to be wrong about this one. But I don't see it happening. VHS VCR prices didn't start dropping after Beta tanked.

Of course, you could always get a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo drive for your computer (like <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-LG-GGC-H20L-Blu ... Item">this one</a>).

[flamesbball84]

Why would they drop blu-ray prices? They've got what they wanted -- a market-driven monopoly. They can set their prices, and tech-heads will pay it. The prices won't start dropping until the high-end market is fairly saturated.

I hope I'm wrong -- I'll be very happy to be wrong about this one. But I don't see it happening. VHS VCR prices didn't start dropping after Beta tanked.

They will have to drop their prices. Let's say for example Sony and Toshiba are the only ones producing the bluray players. Sony produces one for 100 dollars, Toshiba for 150. Most people who have a brain will buy the cheapest. If Toshiba doesn't drop their prices, then they'll lost most of the bluray business. IT may take a while, but one company producing the players will realize the benefits that can be had by dropping their prices and competitors will have to follow suit. If there was only one company producing them, then it most likely wouldn't happen, but with multiple companies producing them the market will dictate what they charge.

[RubberMallet]

Why would they drop blu-ray prices? They've got what they wanted -- a market-driven monopoly. They can set their prices, and tech-heads will pay it. The prices won't start dropping until the high-end market is fairly saturated.

yeah but only the tech heads will pay it...

i don't know about you but many are fairly satisfied with their upscaled dvd's....blue ray will have to lower its prices to meet the walmart/best buy audience...not just high end audiophiles...

especially with the thread of online dl'ing....they have to get prices low now or else they'll go the way of laserdisc...

[phoenix]

especially with the thread of online dl'ing....they have to get prices low now or else they'll go the way of laserdisc...

I think THIS is about the only thing that's going to hurt blu-ray margins at this point. Online downloads and Apple TV could hurt blu-ray.

[Purple Haize]

So I was in Best Buy on Friday and they had a Panasonic 1080p 42" playing a Blu Ray of Open Season. WOW I was absolutely mesmerized. I have never seen anything so clear in my life. I watched like 30 minutes of it before I realized I hadn't moved. Can't wait for both those prices go down.

[RagingTireFire]

I'm more amazed that you were absolutely mesmerized while watching 'Open Season'. I have a 4-year old (aka, FlickeringBrushFire) and even he won't watch that.

[Purple Haize]

Shows you how good the picture quality was. The only thing I was thinking is I wonder how Vivid Video's products would look in Blu Ray.........did I type that outloud?

[Ed Dantes]

You all forget that blu-ray's biggest competitor isn't HD-DVD, it's regular DVD's. People weren't gobbling up the next gen DVD systems because of two reasons -- #1) they didn't know who was going to win the format wars and #2) they don't want to get rid of the library they just built over the last few years.*

Blu-Ray prices will drop because they need to convince people to make the jump to next-gen. Plus, with HD out, there will be that many more manufactures who will be able to build Blu-Ray players, -- and cheaper ones, too.

*-- all of my regular DVD's look great when played in my blu-ray player. I won't update my library.**

**--but when the Star Wars & Lord of the Rings goes next-gen, I will***.

***--I am a huge nerd.

[RubberMallet]

Shows you how good the picture quality was. The only thing I was thinking is I wonder how Vivid Video's products would look in Blu Ray.........did I type that outloud?

being that i dont' work with the christianist of guys....their opinions so i've heard isn't good....analog hides alot of things...

[belcherboy]

Both will lose big. People don't want their media on discs any longer. Ipod will have a HD player soon that will allow you to download and play HD movies on any television (or on your mini ipod screen). I am already watching HD movies on my cable service and Xbox 360.

HD DVD and Blu Ray are both going to be obsolete in the next 5 years IMO. Especially with flash drives getting cheaper and cheaper (I got a 12 GB flash drive for $35 a few months ago).

[JDUB]

i'm going with belcher on this one. bluray will be obsolete soon. its all going to hard drives, they just have to get it where you can download HD movies quickly and easily, and I'd bet on Apple getting it done soon

[phoenix]

Both will lose big. People don't want their media on discs any longer. Ipod will have a HD player soon that will allow you to download and play HD movies on any television (or on your mini ipod screen).

Already here. <a href="http://www.apple.com/appletv/">Apple TV</a>

From what I've heard (admittedly from some Mac fanboys), the Apple TV update is quite awesome. Including the ability to view Flickr pictures was a brainstorm -- this will be the computer for Grandmas who want to see pictures and video of grandkids and nothing else. Still pictures on Flickr, videos uploaded as a video podcast, and bingo!

There's a reason that Apple didn't put a DVD-ROM on the Air (though I think they're jumping the gun a bit on that one). Jobs is convinced that the future is in downloadable media -- software, music, and video.

[flamesbball84]

Both will lose big. People don't want their media on discs any longer. Ipod will have a HD player soon that will allow you to download and play HD movies on any television (or on your mini ipod screen).

Already here. <a href="http://www.apple.com/appletv/">Apple TV</a>

From what I've heard (admittedly from some Mac fanboys), the Apple TV update is quite awesome. Including the ability to view Flickr pictures was a brainstorm -- this will be the computer for Grandmas who want to see pictures and video of grandkids and nothing else. Still pictures on Flickr, videos uploaded as a video podcast, and bingo!

There's a reason that Apple didn't put a DVD-ROM on the Air (though I think they're jumping the gun a bit on that one). Jobs is convinced that the future is in downloadable media -- software, music, and video.

Only problem is that they compress the movies A LOT to make them faster to download, BUT since theya re compressed so much their quality supposedly can't even compare to a HD movie you'd see on TV or on a Bluray disc. That's what I've heard, although I admit I haven't been paying any attention to apple TV or the movie rentals/downloads from iTunes because I don't care for it at all.

I'm still a disc supporter. Sure I'll download stuff, but only if I can burn it onto a CD or DVD. I trust the discs more than the harddrives. I don't trust the hard drives. I just recently had an external hard drive die on me, luckily I would backup the most important of things on it (mainly any documents i've been working on) to a flash drive. I wonder what Apple's policy is with iTunes purchases if your hard drive dies and you lose all the stuff you've downloaded...

[Ed Dantes]

As technology progresses, it'll be simple to download uncompressed files running close to 40 gigs... but the last guy is right -- unless I can save a copy onto a disc, I'll stick with discs.

[Knucklehead]

For the convenience factor, most with stick with buying discs. I can't see me having the patience to download a movie over the net.

[flamesbball84]

For the convenience factor, most with stick with buying discs. I can't see me having the patience to download a movie over the net.

I even still buy cds lol. I have legally downloaded a few cds here lately though, two from iTunes because the cd wasn't being produced in hard format anymore, and a bunch from spiralfrog (i found out how to get rid of the drm crap on the songs and convert them to mp3...)

[Knucklehead]

I still buy CDs and will for some time to come. I'm old what can I say!

[flamesbball84]

I still buy CDs and will for some time to come. I'm old what can I say!

I still buy 8-track! lol jk

[blwall1416]

For the convenience factor, most with stick with buying discs. I can't see me having the patience to download a movie over the net.

That's the thing for me. I don't want to download anything. BluRay looks nice using the PS3. I'll just stick with that.

[Rocketfan]

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.T) surrendered in the high-definition home movie war on Tuesday, giving up on its HD DVD format after losing the support of key studios and retailers to the Blu-ray technology backed by Sony Corp (6758.T).

The decision by the electronics maker ends the battle with a consortium led by Sony over who would set the standard for the next generation of discs, a fight that confused shoppers and stalled a move to the new technology in the $24 billion home DVD market.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080219/bs_ ... FZ3LW573QA