Things have definitely gotten better for consumers when it comes to deciding which format to buy.
USA Today: Dizzy from high-def duel?
USA Today: Dizzy from high-def duel?
If you're thinking about buying into one of the new high-definition video disc formats, your decision just got tougher.That's the studios are still shifting sides. Last week, Paramount and DreamWorks joined Universal in exclusive support of HD DVD, battling Sony's Blu-ray for space in your home theater setup. With three major studios now in each camp — Disney and Fox also support Blu-ray, while Warner releases films on both formats — the war shows no signs of ending, certainly not before the holidays."It really splits things down the middle," says Peter Bracke of High Def Digest (highdefdigest.com). Where Blu-ray had seemed to be pulling ahead, now "it's back to a stalemate."
Wait a minute! Didn't I say that things were better? I did. Read on:
A major weapon could be the price of the players. HD DVD now holds the upper hand with a $179 add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game system and Toshiba players for less than $300. Samsung and Sony sell Blu-ray players for less than $450; the Blu-ray-based PlayStation 3 starts at $499.
During the Christmas selling season last year, as a consumer you had a 50% chance of ending up owning a $1000 door stop. Now this Christmas, you have a 50% chance of owning a $300 to $450 door stop.
If that's not good news for consumers, I don't know what is!
Either way, half of the people who take a side in this format war will be doing this to the other half by the end of next year:
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1 comment:
What I can't figure out is why so many people want to volunteer to be cannon fodder in these format wars.
I say we get the CEOs from the competing companies, put them on an island and run a "special edition" of Survivor. In the end the losers adopt the winners' format and a boxed DVD set gets published to help consumers kick off their new format library.
At least it would spice up the financial pages for a few weeks.
"Samsung Suffers 12% Market Loss When CEO Hurls During Immunity Challenge"
Now THAT'S entertainment!
'Nuff said!
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