Blu-Ray, HD-DVD Talks End

[BWF89]

Consumers are about to get shafted. Sony and Toshiba have been holding on-and-off talks about Blu-Ray and HD-DVD - their competing next-generation media formats - and the possibility of working together on a single, unified format. The talks have failed.

A report out of Yahoo! News citing Japanese publication Kyodo News has Toshiba sources confirming the talks have floundered. "It is regrettable but unavoidable that two formats will remain (on the market)," said an unnamed Toshiba official.

Regrettable is an understatement; now we're on the verge of an awfully nasty format war.

The end result for you, me and the rest of the world is complete chaos. PlayStation 3 will ship with Blu-Ray compatibility, while a recent alliance between Microsoft and Toshiba suggests Xbox 360 will eventually incorporate HD-DVD sometime down the road. You will not be able to play your Blu-Ray movies on Xbox 360 or HD-DVD films on your PlayStation 3.

Studios are split between supporting the two formats, which means the market will soon flood with movies on DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, but in order to play all three you'll need at least two kinds of players.

Extreme, ridiculous and very likely? Yes, yes, and yes.
http://consolewar.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3143081

[xequence]

Heh... I dont see what is so hard about talking to make one unified disc format. Its not like they are in deep talks about nuking a country, its just a disc. Shouldent be that hard to figure something out o.o

ANyway, they dont exactly need a new one. You can get a DVD quality movie in divx onto a 700 MB cd. They could just use a modified version of divx or xvid to have a HDTV file on the normal DVD. Im sure an 8 GB DVD could hold it o.o

But then again, I dont have a HDTV and I Dont plan to get one, and I dont even buy movies so this doesent matter to me ;)

[mrtaber]

Well, I'm old enough to have lived through the Betamax/VHS wars, and, to quote the Who song, "I Won't Get Fooled Again." This time, I'll sit it out until a clear victor emerges (or until dual-format drives become reasonable in price). I've heard it said that whatever the porn industry uses is likely to determine the victor. I wonder if it's true? If it's not, it's a nice story :)

Mark

[aveline]

Well, I'm old enough to have lived through the Betamax/VHS wars, and, to quote the Who song, "I Won't Get Fooled Again." This time, I'll sit it out until a clear victor emerges (or until dual-format drives become reasonable in price). I've heard it said that whatever the porn industry uses is likely to determine the victor. I wonder if it's true? If it's not, it's a nice story :)

Mark
afaik its perfectly true, i've seen it quoted in pc gamer recently.

aveline

[poofyhairguy]

Its not a hard choice:

Either pick MSes format which requires a DRM monitor and a DRM OS (at some level) to watch the better content.

OR:

Pick Sony's format which will require buying a closed video game console or software that is compatible with Blu Rays' DRM.

I think I will choose: which ever one is cracked first....