Posted Nov 05, 2007 at 02:43PM by Karl B. Listed in: Blu-Ray, News Tags: Sony, UK, Ken Graffeo
Ó

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD - Image 1


Ken Graffeo, the executive vice president of Universal's DVD Strategic Marketing has revealed in an interview with Pocket-lint.co.uk that Universal has no plans of supporting Blu-ray. Said Graffeo:

We want to be able to market all the great things HD DVD can offer consumers. We couldn’t do this if we split our resources on two formats, hedged our bets and had to avoid over promoting features on one format so we wouldn’t undercut the other format. HD DVD allows us to provide the type of quality and truly next generation experiences we need to get consumers to migrate from DVD.


Graffeo also gave his two cents on how recent price cuts for the Sony PlayStation 3 home video game console can affect the format wars. According to Graffeo, the PS3 is a gaming machine first, and studies have shown that "70% of gamers don’t even know that their console has a DVD playback option."

Graffeo also noted that the prices of standalone HD-DVD players will be "as low as US$ 199 this holiday shopping season". He further added that "the PS3 simply hasn’t been the gamer changer Sony had hoped it would be."


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20 Comments


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   by Turismo20 - 2007-11-05
 » asdf

Who else doesnt like Qj's new interface. You have to click on the article to read more.

   by Quixand - 2007-11-05
 » no matter how you slice and dice it

every person who buys a PS3 is another household who wouldn't have a need to buy your HDDVD players.


   Re: JackBeNimble - 2007-11-06
 » WOW

im tired of them saying this 70%bull***** its on the f*cking box they gave you a f*cking blu ray movie, its on every case.
   by Slipstream0 - 2007-11-05
 » actually...

if you want to be sure to watch any movie you want, you will need to buy a blu-Ray and HDDVD player (spiderman on bluray, Transformers on HDDVD, and so forth) which is the reason most people wont buy either.


   Re: blkthunda - 2007-11-05
 » ..

There something that calls DVD...it plays on a regular DVD player and it also can play on a hddvd/bluray player

   Re: xche78x - 2007-11-06
 » lucky me

hddvd/bluray combo drives for PC are now available in japanese markets and is getting cheaper every month. there are now hd-dvd/bdrw combos that also burns bd-r, read hd-dvd and all previous formats for as low as 550 bucks, non burning combo models are also way cheaper. ill be purchasing one later when blank bd-r disks are cheap.

and to the ceo-vp guy above, you are very stupid, havent you looked at the market lately? and what formats the stores prefers? what the stores carries is what the consumers buys! isnt that simple and clear? how can consumers buy a format that store doesnt carry or gives little shelve space?
   by GW2 - 2007-11-05
 » screw HDDVD

blu ray for the win. more space=better. (in my cas and opinion) they will have to adopt bluray withing 2 years, thats my prediction. because HDDVD will die, just like betamax.


   Re: trixter - 2007-11-06
 » Kinda agree

Well I for one watch blu ray movies on my PS3 because it has a blu ray player (I knew that right up front...where they get the 70% from is questionable - who did they use in that survey because I was excluded - probably the same with you!).

My first DVD player was my PS2 - I only bought a standalone player roughly two years after having bought the PS2 by which time I had already formed a decent DVD collection.

Plus I have already bought nine (9) blu ray titles (so on top of the 2 that I got with the console it's eleven (11) titles)...so it would be kinda stupid for me to now switch to HDDVD (just far too many consoles and components already under my TV.

I may have considered HDDVD if the 360 came standard with an HDDVD drive - but it doesn't so that ends that (but maybe it'll come with one when I have to replace it for the third time)
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   by JelloBiafra - 2007-11-05
 » yknow

yknow quixxand not everyone who enjoys movie could give a rats ass about games. Therefore the argument you brought up is more valid the other way " every person who buys a HDDVD is another household who wouldn't have a need to buy your PS3's." thats a more sane opinion considering a hddvd can be had for 100bucks.


   Re: RavenSPe - 2007-11-05
 » Your missing the point

Read the article, it says Gaming consoles are for games first. Quixand was pointing out that HOWEVER, when a PS3 owner does opt to go to HD why would they buy a HD DVD player when they ALREADY own a Bluray Player. Now if they owned a stand alone player then obviously they ALREADY made the jump to HD! So what you said is mute and makes no sense.

   Re: rawrskies - 2007-11-05
 » @ Jello

owned.

   Re: Billie - 2007-11-14
 » huh?

I actually know plenty of people that went to HD DVD even though they have a PS3. 1 - because there are exclusive HD movies, 2 - you can find a player for $100.
   by lansingone - 2007-11-05
 » well

buying a PS3 is the safest way to get into high def media, for 10 years your going to have somthing to play blu-ray discs

   by Quixand - 2007-11-05
 » JelloBiafra

you missed the point buddy...

my post was a response to the HDDVD camp downplaying the effects of the PS3 (and it's pricecut) on the format wars...

with them making a spin on how it has minimal effect cause people who buy game consoles are buying so cause of games and not movies, even adamantly insisting that PS3 sales shouldn't count as a Blu Ray hardware sale... i just said that no matter how they spin it evey person who has bought a PS3 equals to one household who doesn't need their HDDVD players to enjoy HiDef movies... so it does count cause household penetration is what's important... and if it doesn't count then who the hell are buying all those Blu Ray movies!!!!!

i didn't say that to enjoy movies you should buy a PS3... did I say that? or did you just imply that i did?

   by platon - 2007-11-05
 » so now they attack a game console to prove that HD-DVD is better?

Huummmm, I'm convinced!, lol.

Anyway, the ps3 that I have is not used as a BD player, no. But it's because I download my movies... (sorry for all the billionaires that won't get my money). But if I really like a movie I'll buy it, and I'll buy it on... "trrrrrrr, ta dam": BD. Why? Because I can read this HD format while I would need to pay another PS3's equivalent in price to play hd-dvd. And if I wouldn't have a ps3? I suppose I'd pay a a BD player, knowing that the millions of sales of PS3 will make the BD tech go cheaper like any kind of tech. Also, even if I was sure that the ps3 would stop selling tomorrow, I'd take BD anyway since this way, I wouldn't have to pay for another new player in 3 years because I now need two dics for my movies... (like right now on DVD). Anyway, I'm not into HD-dvd. lol

HD-DVD is a new way of coding the info right? Sowhy don't they cooperate and build an "HD-BD"? This would be cool no? lol.

ps: I hate the new qj interface. I like the last one WAY better. Now it's looking like the old websites we don't go to anymore... QJ should just keep the last one, it was great! :D

   by ISOHaven - 2007-11-06
 » WTF!?!?!?!?!

Some pretty lame comments here.

Lame #1: Someone that owns an HD-DVD player would have no need for a PS3? Someone rode the short bus this morning!

Lame #2: "70 of gamers don t even know that their console has a DVD playback option." This is a down right lie and a joke at the same time. One week ago it was 60%, now it's 70%? These people just LOVE to make up lies and pull garbage out there rear end. Either way, lie or not, aren't the new 40GB units COMING with a movie? That should make this guy look like a complete piece of crap.

Lame #3: "Universal has no plans of supporting Blu-ray." Then I guess PS3 or other Blu-ray owners physically CANT support Universal (unless someone owns both). Sounds like dumb business sense to me. It's obvious Toshiba is flipping large bills toward Universal and it's only going to hurt them in the end.


   Re: Billie - 2007-11-19
 » I doubt it

I highly doubt that Toshiba is paying Universal for exclusivenesss. Considering that Universal is the only BIG exclusive movie studio to back HD DVD it is a smart business deal. This way when HD DVD owners buy movies, it's almost a guarantee that it's a Universal movie purchase.
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   by Lifeline - 2007-11-06
 » well..

All i'll do is by paramount and universal films on DVD for my PS3 and everything else on bluray!!

   by shabghai360 - 2007-11-07
 » so bigger is better, small iceberg sank the Titanic.

Really its rather a daft format war. Apple has already decided that future laptops will not have a disk drive.
HD DVD is available via the internet and for downloading.
Blu-Ray is bigger and better??
Already on a simple DVD 9 there is so much extra content that we never use.
Languages extras film clips and trailers etc etc etc.
The HD DVD is already more than big enough to handle the highest definition video signal. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD both offer high definition.
Extra storage for extra what? Now we can listen and watch what the Actors Auntie made for dinner?
Blu-Ray will win out on the PC purely as here it is useful as a backup medium, but then again online backup is getting more mainstream and I almost forgot external hard drives from 500GB only cost 300 USD.
And as a parting shot future PC's will not even use a hard drive as memory banks are the future so the disk is essentially dead as far as tech is concerned.
This war is to convince the consumers to pick a side and then when it is introduced it will fade out the moment the developers have money in their pockets from the sale of hardware. It will then be replaced by the next level which is already developed but waiting in the sidelines.
By the way I was supervisor on an exhibition show in Hong Kong back in 2000 where we had promo developer cameras with bluetooth. We also had a demostration of camera to gsm to e-mail client via bluetooth. ***** I just remebered thats now on the market.
HD DVD Blu-Ray is a con. its not the next generation its an in between solution.



   Re: Billie - 2007-11-19
 » yep

Agree, except you can find 500GB drives for like 129. I just bought one from Dell.


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