Cost Comparison: P2 vs. XDCAM

And how many years (or months) until we are are back to filming 4:3 for distribution to primary viewing on video iPods?

Internet distribution of HD just isn't going to happen any time in the next 5 years. Even if the bandwidth was there, it wouldn't be there for everybody. I have friends who still cannot get broadband outside of satellite connections.

For all the talk about HD-DVD being dead, I just don't see it. It just came out and while it isn't just going crazy, the players are sold out almost everywhere. HD-DVD has the ability to offer hybrid films and retailers wouldn't have to stock more than one title. Backward compatibility is worth something. I have a lot of SACD titles I cannot play on a regular CD player, so if I want to listen to it in my car I have to buy it again. What's up with that crap?!

As far as being able to copy the data elsewhere, managed copy is in the spec for both HD-DVD and BluRay. I am happy about that, as I have a ton of money invested in my Kaleidescape system and look farward to putting more HD content on it. Hollywood knows consumers want to play content on different units - they just want to get paid more to let you do it.

Porn won't have any weight in this format war. They helped launch home video and the internet into many homes because they removed the stigma of going to public places to get your videos. HD-DVD won't offer that advantage because they can already remain anonymous with today's delivery system.

Solid state is certainly the wave of the future for capture. Archiving will probably stick with discs because that will be cheapest in the long run. Either way, whichever format has the lowest $/GB ratio will win the archive war unless they are close and then it will go to reliability, size and convenience.

When it comes to backing somebody in a format war, I have a hard time believing Sony will win. It is sort of like rooting for the Italians in a war. I have been burned by Sony in many formats - BetaMax, MiniDisc, Hi8, Digital 8, SACD. In fact, I cannot remember a format war Sony has won, can you? Past history doesn't guarantee future results, but from what I have seen in the past I wouldn't put money on Sony unless I got some good odds.

Sadly, I think each side has just enough clout to torpedo the success of the other side. I would have hoped that the industry would get together and create one format, but they did just that and they came up with HD-DVD. The BluRay camp broke ranks and decided to do their own thing. That same thing happened with DVD when DiVx was formed. I purposely wouldn't buy anything that could play DiVx even if it was cheaper. I had no intentions of supporting the group that couldn't work toward giving us one format.

Now BluRay is the new rogue player and I won't give them a dime of support as long as there is a format war. It is a principal thing for me here.
 
Shooting 5 hours of footage per week would take over 1,500 years to reach 400,000 GB. I don't know anybody who lives that long. Shooting 5 hours of footage per week for 50 years would reach 13,000 GB; much more realistic.

However, P2 and XDCAM HD will both be extinct and dead as a dodo 5 years from now so who cares?
 
Also, remember that the XDCAM is a lesser quality codec than what the HVX200 does!

Not to mention that P2 has been round for a few years now. It's not "brand new"! It's only brand new to us in this lower end market.
 
Mike Poindexter said:
For all the talk about HD-DVD being dead, I just don't see it. It just came out and while it isn't just going crazy, the players are sold out almost everywhere. HD-DVD has the ability to offer hybrid films and retailers wouldn't have to stock more than one title. Backward compatibility is worth something. I have a lot of SACD titles I cannot play on a regular CD player, so if I want to listen to it in my car I have to buy it again. What's up with that crap?!
Click to expand...

Just because the players are sold everywhere means that the format is succeeding (that'd be like saying UMD demand is skyrocketing because the movies and PSP are being sold everywhere). Companies have every reason to push the sale of their new high end product to early adopters, regardless of whether the format is going to succeed or not.

And I don't understand your comment about backwards compatibility. All the "hybrid" discs are HD-DVD's with the HD version of the film on one side and the SD version on the other. They've done this before with DVD's, offering Widescreen on one side and 4:3 on the other, and speaking as an owner of some of these non-distinguishable, gaudy looking disks, I don't really like it. Blu-Ray is not only capable of the same "backwards compatible" thing, their solution is better, because it can write HD AND SD onto the same side (each on a different layer), and the DVD laser passes right through the HD layer onto the SD one (not saying they can't do this with HD-DVD too, I don't know, but they aren't yet).
 
Backward compatibility works both ways with HD-DVD - the players will play DVD as well. I was under the impression that BluRay players won't play DVD - maybe I am wrong since it is just too much work to keep up with everything.

As far as having dual sided discs, I would prefer a higher bit rate one the widescreen version and no foolscreen version but that's beside the point - I don't really have a problem with those types of discs. I only have to deal with it one time when I load them into my media server.

Now, I didn't say HD-DVD is succeeding because they are being sold everywhere. I am saying it is odd for them to be declared dead when they are selling out everywhere. It seems as though sales are exceeding expectations.
 
Mike Poindexter said:
Backward compatibility works both ways with HD-DVD - the players will play DVD as well. I was under the impression that BluRay players won't play DVD - maybe I am wrong since it is just too much work to keep up with everything.

Now, I didn't say HD-DVD is succeeding because they are being sold everywhere. I am saying it is odd for them to be declared dead when they are selling out everywhere. It seems as though sales are exceeding expectations.
Click to expand...

HD-DVD is backwards compatible using the same red laser. Blu-Ray is backwards compatible using a 2nd red laser since, of course, it uses a blue laser. This is my understanding.

Super Audio CD and DVD Audio sold...but cmon...dead.
 
Yes, SACD and DVD-A sold, but they didn't ever sell out. The only format I have seen that sold out and still failed was D-Theater. Lots of titles sold out of their entire run in the first two weeks. Still, we all knew that was an interim format.

HD-DVD uses a blue laser. HD on DVD via MPEG4 uses a red laser.

OK, Dave, let me rephrease that. Can you name a consumer format war that Sony has won? They have a history of trying to make simple things proprietary just to make more money - look at Memory Stick! I'll pass on risking another mini-disc unit in my A/V graveyard.
 
Mike Poindexter said:
Yes, SACD and DVD-A sold, but they didn't ever sell out. The only format I have seen that sold out and still failed was D-Theater. Lots of titles sold out of their entire run in the first two weeks. Still, we all knew that was an interim format.

HD-DVD uses a blue laser. HD on DVD via MPEG4 uses a red laser.

OK, Dave, let me rephrease that. Can you name a consumer format war that Sony has won? They have a history of trying to make simple things proprietary just to make more money - look at Memory Stick! I'll pass on risking another mini-disc unit in my A/V graveyard.
Click to expand...


Define sold out? Each store got one or two units and people bought them? I highly doubt it was a very big launch with very many units shipped. So, I'm not sure I would call "selling out" a success just yet.
 
Oh, I wouldn't call it a success, but I think it is hard to call something dead when we still don't know how much the market will consume since they have taken all that are out right now.

I think it is certainly premature to call either format dead yet. Yet, I feel it is also very early in the game to assume either format will be viable in the future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top