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Formats: The Other Shoe Drops, Both of Them

B.Greenway — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:32:15 +0000

A few weeks ago I mentioned waiting for the other shoe to drop with regard to Warner Brothers announcing their exclusive support of Blu-ray. Well it dropped, both of them to be exact. Best Buy was up to bat first with their announcement that the company would recommend consumers choose “Sony Corp’s” Blu-ray high-definition video [...]

Formats: The Other Shoe Drops, Both of Them

New HD DVD Promotion & Lower Cost Blu-ray Player

B.Greenway — Wed, 16 May 2007 16:23:59 +0000

As if the 5 free HD DVD movie incentives weren’t enough; Toshiba is ready to tempt the HD DVD curious just a tad more this summer, effective May 20th (through June 9th) new HD-A2 HD DVD player purchases qualify for a $100 in-store instant rebate. But the marketing with a theatrical trailer/commercial promoting HD DVD [...]

New HD DVD Promotion & Lower Cost Blu-ray Player

My Choice in the Format War – One Year Later

B.Greenway — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 14:30:16 +0000

The real question remains, how much are you willing to invest in the hardware to get the HD-disc ball rolling? Because with what would appear to be the second manufacturer entering into the dual-format player arena, its relatively safe to say that whether you buy your discs in blue cases or red cases, you're in no danger of not being able to play them for years to come. This isn’t going to be decided anytime soon, if you’re interested in watching pre-recorded high definition movies at home, find a deal on a player and hop off the fence. Your eyes and ears will thank you, your wallet will forgive you.

My Choice in the Format War – One Year Later

Format Wars: Red Herrings Abound

B.Greenway — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:08:58 +0000

It’s been over two weeks since I’ve commented on the format war, new record? Seriously though this is getting crazier by the minute. By now you may have heard that Sony has claimed victory over HD DVD with Blu-ray, but per-usual any proclamation of victory may be a wee bit premature as a good chunk [...]

Format Wars: Red Herrings Abound

Interview: Ken Lowe of Sigma Designs

B.Greenway — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:35:26 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to speak with Sigma Designs Ken Lowe (Sigma’s media processors can be found in Blu-ray players from Sony, Pioneer, and Panasonic) about his thoughts on Blu-ray and HD DVD. It was an impromptu interview but Ken had some interesting things to say on the subject so without further ado, [...]

Interview: Ken Lowe of Sigma Designs

First Images of LG’s Blu-ray – HD DVD player

B.Greenway — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 09:43:59 +0000

It may not win any industrial design awards but it does qualify as the first stand-alone Blu-ray slash HD DVD player. More details can be found at Best Buy’s product page that’s right the retailer has already put up the preliminary details for LG’s (BH100) “Super Multi Blue Player”. The price you ask? $1,199.99, looks [...]

First Images of LG’s Blu-ray – HD DVD player

Format Wars: Dual Discs and Dual Players

B.Greenway — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:52:10 +0000

Wow, what a difference a day makes. Before the first visitor to this year’s Consumer Electronics Show even hit the show-floor, we’ve had two significant announcements in the format war. Today, yesterday I suppose for you west-coasters, LG announced a Total HD disc from Warner other than initially it will contain the Blu-ray and HD [...]

Format Wars: Dual Discs and Dual Players

Interesting Blu-ray vs. HD DVD Comparison

B.Greenway — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:32:05 +0000

Tek Jansen of Games Central has posted an interesting screen-shot and interactivity comparison of Blu-ray and HD DVD. Tek has grabbed screen captures from several different titles that are available on both formats. The results surprised me somewhat; not in that one was perceivably better/different than the other but in how they were different. For example; [...]

Interesting Blu-ray vs. HD DVD Comparison

Format Wars: Even the Executives are Confused

B.Greenway — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 08:42:34 +0000

It’s no wonder consumers are confused about the next-generation optical disc formats, it appears as if executives in charge of overseeing the production of next-gen video titles are as well. In a recent interview Peter Chernin (President and COO of News Corporation – Fox’s parent company) declared “PlayStation is by far the dominant game platform, and [...]

Format Wars: Even the Executives are Confused

Hollywood Insiders Second Guessing Blu-ray Support

B.Greenway — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:29:07 +0000

Variety recently ran an month of August alone, revealed that HD DVD movies outsold all other high definition formats by a factor of nearly three to one. This is where the proverbial rubber meets the road folks, VideoScan numbers don’t lie, those numbers are sales not shipments and will factor heavily in future studio support [...]

Hollywood Insiders Second Guessing Blu-ray Support

Format Wars: Strange Bedfellows

B.Greenway — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:37:48 +0000

To the uninitiated Blu-ray and HD DVD may seem like oil and water and while that may be true from a compatibility standpoint, don’t think for one second manufacturer allegiances to one format over the other preclude companies from working with the competing format. Exhibit One: the ‘Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation’ a joint venture between [...]

Format Wars: Strange Bedfellows

HD Audio, the Second Go-Round

B.Greenway — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 14:11:14 +0000

A funny thing happened about six years ago, two audio formats were introduced that offered superior sound to the compact disc; what’s funny about this you ask? by and large no one cared. But that’s not to say that all of us ignored SACD and DVD-A, however if anyone was looking for an excuse the [...]

HD Audio, the Second Go-Round

Faulty Logic with Dual-Format Discs

B.Greenway — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:06:45 +0000

I can’t help but think the news reports of Warner Brothers filing a patent for a dual-format Blu-ray – HD DVD disc, or “multilayer dual optical disk” as its referred to in the patent, missed the big picture.(pun) Dual format discs won’t solve the format war. The very notion the existence of a

Faulty Logic with Dual-Format Discs

Warner Bros. Little Secret in the Format War

B.Greenway — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:25:51 +0000

It’s amazing the kind of things you can stumble upon while looking at old quotes for references in future articles. For example let’s say you were trying to get some background information on how the studios arrived at which format(s) to support. Google being the vast resource of current and archived information it is, provides you [...]

Warner Bros. Little Secret in the Format War

Lite-On announces HD DVD Player

B.Greenway — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 00:21:20 +0000

I first heard mention of Lite-On working on a HD DVD (and Blu-ray) player several weeks ago but without firm IFA Consumer Electronics Show, in Berlin September 1st-6th. The HDP-Z1 HD DVD player handles HD-DVD-ROM, HD-DVD-R(W), DVD-ROM, DVD±R(W), CD-ROM and CD±R(W) media. Other specifications (including pricing) were scarcely mentioned but I did notice this phrase from [...]

Lite-On announces HD DVD Player