Now that HD-DVD has lost two more studios, Paramount and Universal, I think its clear Blu-Ray is going to win this war. Some may wonder how Blu-Ray made such a big turn around, some may wonder why HD-DVD is getting dropped left and right. I think the main thing that helped BR win this war is a simple reason: Instant installed player base.
Every time a PS3 is sold, it is like selling 2 machines, a game machine and a movie machine. No need to go out and get an add on drive. Now that the PS3 is really hitting its stride and selling much better, the installed base is just getting better and better.
Another issue is video output. The 360s are all over the map, only one has HDMI, so the other models are limited to 720p and you need the component video cables for that. Also the HDMI the PS3 supports is better, it supports "deep color" so when those displays starting coming out, the PS3 will be ready to pounce.
The biggest killer in this war has to be system reliability. If I had a 360 I would be worried to play GAMES too much on it, what with how they seem to break left and right. The last thing I would want to do is stress the poor thing out anymore by getting a HD movie drive add-on for it and using it for that as well. As for my PS3, I have run it around 4200 hours total since I got in in April 2007. That is JUST Folding@Home (about 700 work-units X about 6 hrs per unit) and the machine is just bullet proof. I may get a standalone Blu-Ray player once they come down in price, and keep the PS3 as a game machine. 4200 hours, its sad but if you tried that on a 360 you would be on your 3rd or 4th machine by now and probably still not reach that amount of use.
So I think we can say the war is over. The PS3 has all the pluses in its column and now it seems the movie distribution house I have figured this out as well. The only thing that could muddy the waters is how much money Microsoft wants to throw away trying to buy support. That only works so long however. I believe it was Universal who had a 150 million dollar deal with Toshiba to not do BR for a period of 18 months, that expired and Universal did not renew. Paramount just dropped them altogether.
The war is over and it looks like Sony FINALLY WON ONE (they lost Beta Max, Mini Disc and UMD)
Comments
Blu-ray won the format war i guess...
and hey Zoomer..
700 WU...wow thats too much and brilliant,,,i finished 6 workunits,,lol
harleyd_78
About the "installed base", I'm sorry, but the lackluster PS3 sales up until fairly recently does not indicate an installed base. You obviously are a Sony fanboy and are not basing any of this on facts. HD-DVD players sold 2:1 over BluRay (INCLUDING PS3s), but the BluRay movies out-sold HD-DVD, so it had more to due with content not players. When WB chose sides (reportedly they were leaning towards HD-DVD until a huge check was waived in their face) there just wasn't enough content on the HD format any more. Lastly, take it from someone who has both a PS3 and an XBox, PS3 is great and all, but XBox just has many more enjoyable games...things may change this year but so far XBox has the better exclusives. Look on any list of the top games the last two years most are XBox or Wii exclusives or multiplatform...very few are PS3.