Comments on: Interview: Ken Lowe of Sigma Designs

By: James M

James M — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:50:36 +0000

I agree that both formats are equally as good as each other and none videophiles will be happy with whichever one wins this stupid war. At the end of the day I think everyone would agree that content will decide who comes out on top. When Mr Lucas and Mr Spielberg start releasing discs then we will be one step closer to a resolution. Its just a shame that George is with 20th Century and Steven with Universal for most of their films.

Oh will this lunacy never end? Come on Hitachi, get your holographic format running and guzzump Toshiba and Sony.

By: paulc

paulc — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:41:53 +0000

Very interesting. Honestly, I have been advocating a “vote with your wallet” campaign as an active way to force both sides to work out a compromise and have one standard. 2 very different formats will/should never be a real successor to SD DVD.

Having some even more expensive players is no solution at all.

AND we can really have a whole ‘nother discussion about value. When I got my first HD set a little less than a year ago, SD DVDs took a HUGE leap… in that having a wide screen source play on a widescreen screen meant that the apparent size of the image jumped 80% (based on going from a 32″ 4:3 to a 40″ 16:9, meaning a vertical image was roughly the same on both).

Going from SD to HD at this point doesn’t seem to be as big a “jump” in enjoyment as the mere fact of seeing a substantially larger image. Couple that with the fact that for a lot of movies, one has to look pretty close to see the benefits of HD makes me think the current huge price disparity delivers substantially less value per dollar.

Yes I know all about economies of scale, but how can that happen if we have competing formats?

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:02:03 +0000

I believe that until one format substantially pulls away from the other, your average consumer will be reluctant to spend their hard earned money on either format. Why take a gamble with your money when the particular format you choose could be next years BETAMAX. The powers that be should have put their collective egos aside and agreed on one format. You would then see sales increasing exponentially. People are either very frustrated with this or they simply do not care because DVD is good enough and can be had anywhere.