# Wow, so blu-ray won. What happened? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 8, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736 "2008-01-08T14:54:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/1 "2008-01-08T14:54:31Z")
History was against the format. Every previous Sony attempt to introduce a consumer media format has failed, and those attempts are numerous (minidisc, umd, betamax, atrac, memory stick (well, the last two are still around, but they aren’t at all acknowledged outside of Sony CE products themselves)). HD-DVD seemed like the obvious bet. Did Sony do something different this time (AFAIK, they were as prohibitively possessive with blu-ray as they were with their other formats, with high licensing costs and whatnot)? Or was this just the one moment they happened to have lucked out? ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/2 "2008-01-08T14:59:07Z")
I [still say](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=450222) it’s a bit premature to declare it the winner, although it certainly looks like things are headed that way. And because BR and HDDVD together still only command a small percentage of the DVD market, it’s still entirely possible that another format altogether could overtake them. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/3 "2008-01-11T16:26:16Z")
Sony created the CD format, didn’t they? Anyway, I think the future holds hybrid players, so consumers can buy either kind of disc and let the machine figure it out … sort of like DVD+R and DVD-R now. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/4 "2008-01-11T16:54:34Z")
[QUOTE=Greg Charles] Sony created the CD format, didn’t they? [/QUOTE] Nope, IIRC, it was Phillips. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/5 "2008-01-11T16:57:15Z")
[QUOTE=Greg Charles] Sony created the CD format, didn’t they? [/QUOTE] Sort of. The CD was a joint project from the beginning with Philips, not a Sony-only proprietary format. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/6 "2008-01-11T17:09:11Z")
[QUOTE=Greg Charles] Sony created the CD format, didn’t they? Anyway, I think the future holds hybrid players, so consumers can buy either kind of disc and let the machine figure it out … sort of like DVD+R and DVD-R now. [/QUOTE] I don’t. The +/- thing happened behind the backs of the general public - the blu-ray/hd-dvd fight is much more analogous the the equally public beta/vhs fight. With blu-ray effectively having won this early on with less than even 500 titles on either format and the famously low penetration of even HDTV sets, let alone either of the players which are useless without one, why would manufactures need to start releasing dual format players? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/7 "2008-01-11T19:42:22Z")
Even though HD-DVD has better features, I think the simple fact that “Blu-Ray” is easy to say, and rolls off the tongue much more easier than “Aych-Dee-Dee-Vee-Dee” (ugh.) might have something to do with it. Never underestimate the power of a name. [Here’s](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/the-state-of-hd-dvd/the-state-of-hd-dvd-330684.php) a great article at Gizmodo talking about this very topic. ---
**Author:** ![MrFloppy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@MrFloppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFloppy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/8 "2008-01-11T20:25:03Z")
I think that both formats will be short lived anyway. Comcast is promising HD downloads in 4 minutes. In 5 years time, that row of Blu Ray disc on your shelf will be as outdated as CDs. I’m sticking with my $80 upconvert player. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/9 "2008-01-11T20:37:19Z")
I don’t care what minor upgrades they make to the technology. I’ve spent the last 7 or 8 years building a nice little DVD collection after replacing my VHS tapes, and I’m not going to replace them with the latest new thing. Even if I have to stockpile a few cheap DVD players as they wear out over the next few decades, I’m not getting into Blu-Ray. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/10 "2008-01-11T20:50:17Z")
OK, I’ll ask. When was Blu-Ray declared the winner? I thought the “battle” was still on, with different studios siding with different formats. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/11 "2008-01-11T20:56:58Z")
[QUOTE=Big Bad Voodoo Lou] I don’t care what minor upgrades they make to the technology. I’ve spent the last 7 or 8 years building a nice little DVD collection after replacing my VHS tapes, and I’m not going to replace them with the latest new thing. Even if I have to stockpile a few cheap DVD players as they wear out over the next few decades, I’m not getting into Blu-Ray. [/QUOTE] You know that you can play your regular DVDs on a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player, right? They also play those other kind old-people DVDs that just have music on them. > [@Mahaloth](#): > > OK, I’ll ask. > > When was Blu-Ray declared the winner? It wasn’t. But Warners recently [announced](http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141070-c,ces/article.html) that they were dropping HD-DVD support in favor of Blu-Ray (they had been supporting both up until now.) That leaves Universal and Paramount as the only major studios supporting HD, and Universal spent the week denying rumors that they were now going to switch to Blu-Ray. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/12 "2008-01-11T22:09:43Z")
[QUOTE=MrFloppy] I think that both formats will be short lived anyway. Comcast is promising HD downloads in 4 minutes. In 5 years time, that row of Blu Ray disc on your shelf will be as outdated as CDs. [/QUOTE] Yep. It’s like arguing about which is the best type of 8-track. Removable media that you keep in little cases on a shelf? It’s so last century. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/13 "2008-01-11T22:23:22Z")
I still watch VHS tapes. Fuck all this new shit. I hate DVDs and always will. On a VHS tape, you could just fast forward if there was momentary distortion or tracking. On a DVD, if there’s a problem, it FREEZES and distorts the screen and you have to take the disc out and put it back in and wipe it off and all kinds of other crap. They don’t hold up worth a damn - the discs are scratched to hell with a few years of normal use. I’ve got VHS tapes from the 80s that still work just fine, because the tape is protected inside a solid cassette instead of the medium being completely exposed like on a disc. The DVD players themselves are always some cheesy assed fake-silvery-grey-plastic color, something that I despise (with VHS, I can have a woodgrain unit that doesn’t clash with all my furniture.) Some of this might just be me being difficult just to be difficult, but some of it is definitely real. I do watch DVDs all the time, but I have a lot of nostalgia and respect for VHS - the tapes could take a real beating and keep on working. ---
**Author:** ![Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tool\_of\_the\_Conspiracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tool_of_the_Conspiracy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/14 "2008-01-11T22:43:09Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] Yep. It’s like arguing about which is the best type of 8-track. Removable media that you keep in little cases on a shelf? It’s so last century. [/QUOTE] I think that people are still going to want an object that they can hold and display, even if they transfer the data onto a media server. However, I’m sticking with the position that the next _successful_ format won’t involve optical discs. Today I can get a 4GB USB hard drive for $18. Flash memory isn’t a whole lot more expensive. By the time these formats blow over in a year or two, magnetic and/or solid-state data storage will be dense enough and cheap enough that we won’t be spinning an exposed disk to watch a movie. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/15 "2008-01-11T23:00:26Z")
Can’t they make an HD-Blu-ray[sup]\*[/sup] format that would have more capacity than either format? Wouldn’t that spell the demise of both formats? - I don’t mean the previously mentioned players that play both formats, I mean one format that takes advantage of both technologies. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/16 "2008-01-11T23:01:55Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Some of this might just be me being difficult just to be difficult, but some of it is definitely real. I do watch DVDs all the time, but I have a lot of nostalgia and respect for VHS - the tapes could take a real beating and keep on working. [/QUOTE] So long as you kept them away from magnets. [X-Box may go Blu.](http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/a83974/microsoft-may-consider-xbox-blu-ray.html) > [@](#): > > After Warner announced that it will cease HD-DVD production in favour of Blu-ray, Xbox marketing manager Albert Penallo has revealed Microsoft will consider launching a Blu-ray player for the console. > > While Microsoft and its Xbox 360 currently backs Toshiba’s HD-DVD format, with the industry now moving towards Blu-ray Microsoft has admitted a U-turn could be on the cards. > > Speaking to Reuters, Penallo said of a possible move to Blu-ray: "It should be consumer choice, and if that’s the way they vote, that’s something we’ll have to consider.” Tellingly, Toshiba did _not_ show off new HD-DVD players at CES, while everyone else had Blu-Ray players. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/17 "2008-01-11T23:27:55Z")
[QUOTE=Christopher] Can’t they make an HD-Blu-ray[sup]\*[/sup] format that would have more capacity than either format? Wouldn’t that spell the demise of both formats? - I don’t mean the previously mentioned players that play both formats, I mean one format that takes advantage of both technologies. [/QUOTE] It’s basically the same technology, just different standards. Both use blue (405 nm) laser diodes. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/18 "2008-01-11T23:32:01Z")
In which case, I’m holding out for the X-ray player. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/19 "2008-01-11T23:35:46Z")
Sony may win the HD disc battle, but lose the war if they concentrate on that and ignore the couch-potato downloaders with increasingly fast internet connections and big, big hard drives. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736/20 "2008-01-11T23:37:22Z")
Quick question: I was just given a Panasonic HD Camcorder that records to 8GB SDHC FlashMemory. It came with a DVD Burner. Does the Blue Ray standard make my newest toy already obsolete? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wow-so-blu-ray-won-what-happened/432736.md?page=2)