Blu Ray is not benefiting from the death of HD-DVD

Despite winning the format war, it seems Blue ray is not surging ahead as the new video format of choice. It seems that upconverting DVD players are still seelimg very well, and BLue ray isn't even selling as well as HD DVD did when the format was was still. So it seems SD still has a lot of life left in it, and HD still has a long way to to go. Read the story here

So Blu Ray could in fact still fail as a format if consumers prefer to stick with tried and trusted standard def' DVD until the weight of HD from other sources (mainstream terrestrial broadcast, online video, cable video on demand, satellitesports boradcasts in pubs and the like) finally overwhelms it, by which time blue ray may have withered on the vide, and online HD could be a significant challenge.

Blu Ray licencing issues...

Ther has been some panic amongst independent media producers I (and I mean truly independent, as in wedding videographers, film students, educational producers, documentarians, etc) about certain licencing issues with Blu Ray. The rumour has been going around that Blu Ray requires AACS (Advance Access Content System, i.e. the copy protection system that Blu Ray uses that's already been cracked several times over) as a mandatory inclusion in order for the discs to play in certified Blu Ray players. The stinger comes that the licence for including AACS on your discs is $1000 per title.

Seems that there was too much worrying too soon. This post from a Mr Brian Standing on the DV Info boards contains communications with a Mr Kappei Morishita, licencing officer of the Blu Ray consortium. He doesn't answer all the questions, but the gist seems to be:

Yes, it will be possible to make and distribute BD-R discs without AACS that are at base compatible with the Blu Ray players in general. HOWEVER at the moment not all Blu Ray players support BD-R but will only play manufactured commercial Blu Ray discs (so called BD-ROM). However this was true of DVD in the first half decade of it's existence. In time, BD-Rs will approach hear universal compatibility, as DVD-R/+Rs do now.

These have to be produced by approved replicator firms, who will only do runs of 10,000 discs or more, at which point, if I'm reading my Morishita's response right, AACS does become mandatory, but for licencing rather than technical reasons.

Microsoft Dumps HD-DVD

This doesn't really add anything to the format war story, but might give some a shiver of shadenfreude.

Microsoft was heavily invested in HD-DVD and designed the interactivity layer HDi (which unlike the interactivity layer in Blu Ray is actually complete). Microsoft will stop selling the HD-DVD add-on of the Xbox 360, and presumably will soon release a Blu Ray add on.

Format war, round 2!

...Against downloads and standard DVDs.

This New York Times article (registration required) points out that movie rental downloads are a LONG way from challenging physical discs (at least in terms of movie sales), due to a number of factors, mainly access to fast enough internet connections, the lack of bonus features, and the limited range of films available and annoying restrictions, such as forcing you to finish watching the movie within 24 hours.

This article (also from the NYT) points out that while Blu Ray may have beaten its young rival, it still haS to see off the big daddy, the end-of-level-boss that is The Standard Definition DVD. Remember VHS took 30 years to kill and saw off three rival formats (Betamax, Laser Disc and VideoCD in case you're wondering).

DVD's dominance may yet be sustained by the new generation of up-ressing DVD players that allegedly do a great job of improving the look of SD material on an HD screen. The article quotes Mike Abt, the president of a US electronics retailer, “We have a lot of people who bought HD DVD players. [We tell them] you have an upconverting DVD player, enjoy it. You paid $150 for it, so you didn’t lose too much.” So, if you're in the market for a (newish) DVD player, you could do worse than hit Ebay and pick up a second hand HD-DVD player for a pittance. (they're already going for under £100, soon it'll be a LOT less.)

HD-DVD - fat ladies, singing, etc...

Reuters report that Toshiba has decided to give up of the HD DVD format (though Toshiba is neither confirming nor denying this at the moment), which would concede defat in the HD disc format war to Sony's Blu Ray format.  Warner Bros' decision to go Blu Ray only made HD-DVD look increasingly untenable, but Wal Mart's decision to turn its back on HD DVD (they are the biggest seller of DVD's in the US) effectively killed the format. Other big movers who turned away from HD DVD were Best Buy (US electronics retailer, think Curry's or Comet) and NetFlix, a postal DVD rentals a la LoveFilm, but the fatal blow was Wal Mart.

Market surveys in the US have suggested that many consumers were holding off buying an HD disc player until the format issue was decided. With DVD sales reaching a plateau, some companies seemed to have wanted to kill off this counter-productive format war AND QUICK. Wal Mart and NetFlix may also have been spooked a little by Apple Inc's relaunch of AppleTV - with HD movie rentals, along with the continued success of Microsoft's XBOX live movie downoads service, and wanted to hurry a resolution along before the confusion in formats allowed downloads to gain a strong foothold.

So you can all rush out and buy Blu Ray Players (and Blu Ray PC drives) in confidence now - and then invite me round to watch them!

Format war... almost over?

A month or so ago Warner Bros announced it would release only Blu Ray discs. So no more Harry Potter, Superman, and Batman sequels, or Loony Tunes on HD DVD.

In the UK, Woolworth's has announced it will now only sell Blu Ray discs and players.

Wired weigh in with their POV here:
http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/01/hey-hd-dvd-its.html

After loosing against VHS and DVD, Sony final win a home video form at war.

Third HD disc format announced

To much wailing an gnashing of teeth, a new proprietary HD disc format has been announced. HD VMD (High Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc) intended to be cheaper to manufacture, author and watch.

The format is being developed away from the big movie studios and technology manufacturers and is being aimed at markets outside the US, and in many ways reminds me of the way VCD set itself up as a cheaper alternative to DVD. VCD is ubiquitous in the Middle East and Asia. HD VMD may well take off in similar markets. Therefore talk of another format to compete with HD-DVD and Blu-ray may be a little of the mark.

Would be interesting if it also became as easy to author as VCD was in the early days as ompared to DVD.