Apple back Sony

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Apple Backs Sony Format for High Definition DVD's


Apple Computer is backing the Sony Corporation's Blu-ray format for the next generation of digital videodiscs, bolstering Sony's effort to dominate the $26 billion United States market for DVD's and players.

Apple, whose computers run software to create DVD's, joined the Blu-ray Disc Association's board, a statement by Blu-ray said yesterday. Sony is fighting to win support for its standard over one called HD-DVD that is backed by Toshiba and NEC.

Blu-ray said Apple would support the new high-definition DVD format in its iMovie and Final Cut video-editing software programs. "Apple is pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD," Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, said in a statement on the Blu-ray Web site.

The competing formats promise high-definition pictures, better sound quality, more storage capacity and better copyright protection than standard DVD's. The backing of film studios and computer makers like Apple will help determine the dominant standard. Blu-ray has five times the capacity of current discs and more than the HD-DVD standard.

Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., said, "Capacity is everything" for personal computer makers, adding, "In capacity, Blu-ray is much better."

Blu-Ray's backers include the two big PC makers, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, in addition to Sony, Walt Disney and Thomson, the largest supplier of recorded DVD's. Film studios including Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Universal and Paramount have said they will adopt HD-DVD. The studios may agree later to release movies on Blu-ray discs.

The Blu-ray Disc Association, with more than 100 members, develops specifications, including compatibility, for the format as well as promoting it. Blu-ray refers to a blue laser that reads and records the format, according to the Blu-ray Web site.

"Apple is pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD," Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, said in a statement on the Blu-ray Web site.


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It has also been announced that the forth coming Playstation 3 will have Blu-ray.
IMHO Blu-ray is a winner (its got a lot of backing, simple as)
 
That's so funny, cause job's is completly against pirating and had made statements in the past that a blue laser burner should not be put in a personal computer... I guess all the $$ he'll make changed his views
 
Well, the porn industry made VHS the winner over BetaMax. We'll have to see what all the adult stuff get's released on to know who win's this war, too...
 
My opinion is that the way things stand....Blu-ray is winning the next-gen DVD war. Forget the DVD movies all together. Blu-ray will be absolutely 100% successful just based on Video Game Sales with the PS3. I think this will help solidify people's decision about a console Blu-ray DVD player. I know the players will be out before the PS3 (players supposed to be out by the end of 05') but with Sony leading the way....I don't think this will be another Betamax. My only problem with the whole thing is this. The early adopters will get bamboozled either way because eventually there will be multiformat players (Blu-ray & HD-DVD in one player). Just like there are the DVD-R / +R now. Everybody started out seperate but due to mass confusion had to devise a way to patch the problem. I see the next gen DVD market having the same issues. There have already been talks from major companies stating they will indeed have the multiformat players to keep their sales strong. So no matter who wins.....The manufacturers win!! ~reservoir~
 
Well, i´m not so sure people will adopt an HD format as standard in four to five years (more...), the cheapest and easiest to burn should got it. I don´t know how is there, but here dvd players started to spread the moment anybody could back-up their films.

And i read a common sense opinion telling that people feel normal DVDs have enough quality for them, so any HD format will have to break this issue rather by being cheap or easy to copy, not just better. Maybe ten years is a good statement.
 
I don't understand how HD-DVD will ever make it out onto the market, except maybe because the name contains the letters "DVD" attached to the letters "HD". Blue-Ray has more capacity, and more companies are backing it every day, Apple being the latest. Whereas HD-DVD, the number of companies backing that format are slim. If however the distributing companies are truly going to adopt HD-DVD, it will make for an interresting battle; one that I don't care to see.

Consumers hate format wars. So, one format or the other will have to die out in the first few years, or all players should from the start support both. Either way, data is data; so in a sense it shouldn't really be like the Betamax vs. VHS war; but capacity really does matter. So if I was a betting man, I'd choose Blue-Ray. But since common sense is not common, I'd say the winner will be all about the marketing strategy each camp will use.
 
sony at apple

sony at apple

ya i was kind of curious about that, i was at the mac store the other day and i noticed that in place where they usually have the gl2 on a tripod they had the new sony HD there hmm.....
 
HD is all nver well and good....until you go out to buy an HD TV.

Umm....you want me to pay HOW much for a television?

Dan
 
bitterwithin said:
ya i was kind of curious about that, i was at the mac store the other day and i noticed that in place where they usually have the gl2 on a tripod they had the new sony HD there hmm.....
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It's kinda hard to convince people that their HD-edit capable Apple iMovie software is useful when you're showcasing a standard definition format camera...
 
I guess they base it on "well it's there if you need it" type of mentality:evil: . By making iMovie HDV compatible, Apple is saying :Hey, look, we can keep up with the trend too." :huh: Or it's simply future proofing? ... There's that work again! :lipsrseal I don't know, I'm just speculating.
 
During the keynote at MacWorld, Steve Jobs stated numerous times that 05' was the year of HD. Maybe Apple just wants to maintain a proactive-HD approach. They have been kicking tail and taking names these last few years with iPod, Final Cut, PoweMac, numerous other products. I'm sure they will continue to lead the pack and since HD is relatively new, they have positioned themselves at the forefront. ~reservoir~
 
Flintstone said:
I don't understand how HD-DVD will ever make it out onto the market, except maybe because the name contains the letters "DVD" attached to the letters "HD". Blue-Ray has more capacity, and more companies are backing it every day, Apple being the latest. Whereas HD-DVD, the number of companies backing that format are slim.
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Technical specifications have never been the determining factor in which technology succeeds in the marketplace.

Content, however, will be.

The simple fact of the matter, as I understand it, is that the DVD duplication facilities can switch over to HD-DVD manufacturing in about 15 minutes, at very little cost. Whereas switching over to blu-ray manufacturing will take billions of dollars in new infrastructure.

Of the six major studios, four are supporting HD-DVD. Two are supporting Sony's Blu-Ray, but of those two, one is Disney, which supports just about any format they can get onto (heck, Disney supported Circuit City's DIVX, so that's not saying much!) Disney is also talking about supporting HD-DVD, although they haven't announced yet. And the other studio supporting it is Sony (and its MGM division).

And all the studios are likely going to make their commitments "nonexclusive", so they could support the other format if it becomes dominant.

So if the majority of the major studios are already announced as putting their content on HD-DVD, and the production facilities can make HD-DVD discs tomorrow... and they're just as cheap to produce as DVDs... and HD-DVD players are fully backward-compatible... well, the handwriting is all over that wall.

If you look at the companies supporting blu-ray, they're pretty much the computer companies (Dell, HP, etc) and the consumer electronics manufacturers (like Pioneer and Thomson). Not content companies. If you look at the companies supporting HD-DVD, they're the entertainment companies (Paramount, Universal, Warner, etc). Content will drive the desire to buy -- content and price. By all accounts HD-DVD is superior in content and in price.

Sony will push blu-ray in areas where it controls (such as MGM and Columbia/Sony Pictures, and in PS2). But if only one format can survive, it looks like the smart money is likely on HD-DVD.

Time will tell.
 
I would take a wild guess and say they'll both be around for quite sometime. It seems we'll probably have Blu-ray / HD-DVD / DVD / DVD+R / MP3 / JPEG / VIDEO CD players that have everything covered. It should only be a matter of time. My opinion is probaby a little different from Barry. I do not think content will be the foremost thing to look for. I think the players will be. For instance:

When Sally goes shopping at Circuit City & Best Buy for that new HD player she's gonna see the Kids favorite Disney movies on Blu-ray and Dad's favorite Arnold Swartzeneggar (misspelled) action movies on HD-DVD. Then she'll probably see the Toshiba HD-DVD player, the Sony Blu-Ray player, and the (Panasonic / Pioneer / APEX) Hybrid player which will play both formats. To keep the Kids and Dad happy she'll get the hybrid player. That's a scenario that I *THINK* will happen but it will be awhile.

I doubt there will be hybrid players available immediately unless certain compaines are desperately trying to gain an edge and have a win-win situation for themselves no matter which format takes off first.

Or...Both formats could go down in flames and fail miserably causing the industry to combine it's technogies into one format like they should have done from the beginning. Like I said before, since the Movie companies are on one side, the Video Games Companies on another side, and everyone else scrambling to decide which sinking ship to jump on, most of the early adopters of the technology (like myself) will more than likely get shafted some way some how.

I don't know about anyone else...but I'm already looking forward to the $1,000 dollar players and the $30 dollar discs no matter WHICH format prevails!! Aren't you guys? ~reservoir~
 
Barry_Green said:
The simple fact of the matter, as I understand it, is that the DVD duplication facilities can switch over to HD-DVD manufacturing in about 15 minutes, at very little cost. Whereas switching over to blu-ray manufacturing will take billions of dollars in new infrastructure.
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I wasn't aware of that fact... this changes things. But like I said earlier, I hope one format dies sooner then later... I don't mind acquisition format wars, but delivery format wars... I can't stand!
 
Barry_Green said:
The simple fact of the matter, as I understand it, is that the DVD duplication facilities can switch over to HD-DVD manufacturing in about 15 minutes, at very little cost. Whereas switching over to blu-ray manufacturing will take billions of dollars in new infrastructure.
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This is what Verbatim's manager of DVD production said. (Living in Charlotte has certain advantages.)
 
no no and no

can anyone remember the cd rom backlash?

dvd's still havn't caught on in the computer market...

manufacturers were forced to sell dvd burners for $50(8x right now) to promote it

don't ecpect blu ray to just take over dvd's are more than enough, you speak of ps3? thats just sony xbox 2 will use dvd's

seriously mass market wise dvd will be here for a long time,

i remember reading boot magazine about dvd(before it came out) wow wow when it came out and to this day its still not needed by most(i still use cd to do a clean install as do most of you) point is dvd is and will be the de facto standard... funny thing is even when blu ray comes your o/s will still not even be on dvd's but cd's thats right 650mb hardpressed sweet little compact discs, that they said would be long gone by now(dvd emporium)
 
But Lebroz...you are fogetting that the PS2 has the biggest installed user base in the world for console gaming machines. There are more than twice as many PS2's as Xbox's. Possibly 3x as many. I haven't seen the latest sales specs but I'm pretty sure that's close. Xbox and Micro$oft can do what they will. Any version of playstation should continue to dominate based on past experiences. Take a look at Nintendo's Game Boy. Absolutely untouchable!! I have them all so I don't really care. I collect video games so I'll get all three (Micro$oft, Sony, and Nintendo) ~reservoir~
 
GenJerDan said:
HD is all nver well and good....until you go out to buy an HD TV.

Umm....you want me to pay HOW much for a television?

Dan
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Oh man it's so worth it... futureproofing with current benefits. Not to mention Certain PS2 games will play in 720p and 1080i.
 
Umm....you want me to pay HOW much for a television?
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Depends on what you are shopping for, and what display technology you use. Toshiba apparently sells a 26" for $600, including tuner. The Sony XBR960 is the top-of-the-line CRT, 34", native 1080i and 720p, and goes for around $2,000. Sure it's a little pricey, but it's not *that* much, considering what you get.

Now, if you want plasma or LCD, those are pricey. But CRT HDTVs still deliver the best picture quality at the lowest price. They're comparatively big and heavy though, and I believe the consumer is buying flat screens (whether they're HD or not) because they want a flat screen, not a high-def screen.
 
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