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Whats this??? Gates and Dell arent in the same bed!!!

Surely not!! They must be lonely!!

It is hard to trust any poll that is not independent. But, take that Microsoft!

Like 99% of the population has a clue about one format over the other. Any "survey" done by Blu-ray that shows them ahead should be taken with a big grain of salt.

The backers of the HD DVD format are obviously not forward thinking companies and that is no surprise, look at who is included in the list.

My money is with the innovators. Pioneer, Disney, Apple, Electronic Arts. Besides, the companies that support Blu-ray Disc are the ones who make the drives and devices that will make and play these types of discs.

So what is the real reason why content creators are on the same side as Microsoft?

This DVD format war has to end. The consumer is the one who suffers in the long run. Blu-Ray appears to be a better format so I hope it wins, not just because Apple is Blu-Ray and MS is not. Although another case where Microsoft eats dirt is always a welcome one as far as I'm concerned.

Biased survey poll. I trust it about as much as I trust the White House right now.

I agree that any poll at this time is to be taken with a grain of salt. It will be interesting to see if BlueRay does as well if the drives and media are substantialy more expensive to purchase. I want blueray to succed, it seems much more techniacaly interesting, but if I can purchase burnable media at a fraction of the cost using HD DVD, it would be a very tempting alternative.

JadisOne notes: "The backers of the HD DVD format are obviously not forward thinking companies and that is no surprise, look at who is included in the list."

They're mostly not forward looking because they're more interested in the bottom line than in the consumer.

HD-DVD disks will be cheaper to manufacture since they are close to current DVD disks in composition. So the content providers (the ones who make movies and music, e.g., Viacom, NBC Universal, and Time Warner) want the cheaper-to-manufacture format. The supporters of Blu-ray are mainly manufacturers and not content providers. They want what their customers want (more storage) because they're competing for the customer on content capability and not content itself.

The content providers are so short-sided. They haven't thought through that they can soak the consumer by claiming a price premium for a new medium the way they did with CDs. Let's hope (as consumers) that Blu-Ray wins and that consumers will refuse to support HD content unless it's as reasonable as DVD content.

I bet if the question was 'Do you want the next generation DVD players to have backward compatibility with todays DVD's?' HD DVD would have won hands down.

Who will decide what format is adopted is the Porn industry. Once they decide, it's a done deal. Personally I think they will pick Blow Ray. Closer to home.

>Biased survey poll. I trust it about as much as I trust the White House right now.>

Or what the lefties spin about it.

Blu-ray - Hooray

"I bet if the question was 'Do you want the next generation DVD players to have backward compatibility with todays DVD's?' HD DVD would have won hands down."

Don't be confused by the DVD in HD-DVD. The HD-DVD format does not make the player inherently compatible with today's DVDs. "Backwards compatibility" has to be built into the players regardless of the high def format.

Blu-Ray & HD-DVD both use blue lasers for reading the media. Old-timey DVDs use a red laser. So no matter what new format comes along, the player will have to have a 2nd red laser if it is to be backwards compatible.

Said it before and I'll say it again. PS3 will dominate next gen game console sales. PS3 will use Blu-Ray. The results of the format war will be decided by the installed base of PLAYERS. Therefore, Blu-Ray will win. People aren't going to rush out and buy a new DVD player, but they WILL rush out and buy a new PS3 when they come out. When they start buying HD movies, they wil buy Blu-Ray, because they already have a player. Done deal.

It all depends on how the questions are worded.


Question 1, asked by the "company backing Blu-Ray":

Do you want a next-generation medium with a larger storage capacity and more headroom to grow, or do you want something not much better than DVD?


Question 2, asked by the company backing HD-DVD:

Do you want a next generation medium that will force you to repurchase all of your currently owned DVD's or do you want a standard that is compatible with current DVD's and ALSO allows you to play HD media?


Ask any 1,000 people Question 1, and Blu-Ray wins. Ask the same people Question 2, and HD-DVD wins. It's as simple as that.


PS: Repeat - what if MS decides not to support Blu-Ray drives? Over 90% of computers can't read/write Blu-Ray. HD-DVD wins. "Done deal."

MW: Use. As in "Which format will most people USE?"

In addition to the Sony/PS3 impetus, I bet if 20th Century Fox supported Blu-ray, the battle would definitely be over (Star Wars released in HD)

A poll conducted by the group backing the Blu-ray


that's all I need to know... biased questions... throw the poll out.. it's meaningless unless someone objective writes, askes, and scores the questions...

star wars would rock in HD in H.264 1080p. 5.1ch surrond sound. Sweet on Blu- ray

Bryan,

RE: the first part of your post. Did you bother to read Al's post about 2 hours earlier? Didn't think so. Thanks for saying the same thing again with more words, though.

RE: the second part of your post. The drive manufacturers will write any drivers necessary to make their products work in Windows. Non-issue.

MW: Who gives a sh*t, as in "Who gives a sh*t" what your damned magic word is?

> PS: Repeat - what if MS decides not to support Blu-Ray drives? Over 90% of computers can't read/write Blu-Ray. HD-DVD wins. "Done deal."

That's ridiculous. If MS decides not to support Blu-Ray, then someone else will write a driver. In fact, I'm sure at least one of the manufacturers has already done that (and probably all have). If Blu-Ray is the better choice, people will make it happen, and MS will look stupid if they don't do it themselves. You live in a sad world view if you think that MS can dictate what hardware you use. If MS does something to try to stop people from controlling their choices, then it would be time for the DOJ to get involved, again.

Yeah, and out of the 1200 polled, 1000 were MacHeads.

first to market usually wins........

> first to market usually wins........

Uh, have you ever heard of MPMan (the first MP3 player) or Betamax?

It is not correct to believe that miscreasoft has anything to do with the optical drive in a computer. The computer company has control over what hardware to put into a box, what brand optical drive, what speeds, just the same as the company making the RAM

It doesn't really matter what format the xbox and ps3 use. It's not like you can stick an xbox game into a ps2. Why would that change. I think when they say microsoft is backing hd-dvd they mean using it in xbox 360. The OS is another animal all together. Their going to support whatever anyone wants to put in their machine. They'd be retarded not to. I'm sure OS X will be able to see data on and mount hd-dvds as well. Probably won't support burning hd-dvd in iDvd or something silly.

"It all depends on how the questions are worded."

Not necessarily.

"Question 1, asked by the "company backing Blu-Ray":
Do you want a next-generation medium with a larger storage capacity and more headroom to grow, or do you want something not much better than DVD?"

True statement.

"Question 2, asked by the company backing HD-DVD:
Do you want a next generation medium that will force you to repurchase all of your currently owned DVD's or do you want a standard that is compatible with current DVD's and ALSO allows you to play HD media?"

Untrue statement. Backwards compatibility has to be built into any hi-def player, HD-DVD as well as BluRay. No one will have to repurchase DVDs. If standard DVD players can play HD-DVDs there might be an element of truth to question 2. They won't be able to, so the question is moot.

"Ask any 1,000 people Question 1, and Blu-Ray wins. Ask the same people Question 2, and HD-DVD wins. It's as simple as that."

Wouldn't life be so much simpler if it were. Too bad life is a bit more complex than that.

"PS: Repeat - what if MS decides not to support Blu-Ray drives?"

As a Mac user, I can only hope MS does do exactly that.

"Over 90% of computers can't read/write Blu-Ray. HD-DVD wins. "Done deal."

As things exist now, 100% of computers can't read/write to any hi def format. Deal not done by a long shot.

Take a look at the list of supporters... it's really a no brainer which format is going to win out on this one.

Sorry, but as long as Sony, Dell, HP, Hitachi, LG Electronics (Goldstar), Matsushita (Panasonic), Mitsubishi, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, TDK, and Thomson all support the Blu-Ray format, the game is over before it even starts. It's not relevant which format the content providers, Microsoft and Apple support.

Don't kid yourself into thinking that Microsoft or Apple will support only one format in their OS... it's not going to happen. It's up to the hardware manufactures to decide this time.

"I think when they say microsoft is backing hd-dvd they mean using it in xbox 360."

XBox 360s will ship with standard def DVD drives. HD-DVD support (if it ever happens) will most likely be available as some sort of external device.

MDN word "farm." As in, I wouldn't bet the farm on MS's XBox 360 for a HD player. A PS3 will be a better value.

g3m4nn,

My point about Blu-Ray being in PS3 is in regards to what MOVIE format people will buy. If someone already has a PS3 for games, they'll more likely go buy Blu-Ray movies than go buy an HD-DVD player and buy movies in a separate format.

As far as games go, though, you're absolutely right. A game is a game is a game. The boxes are all proprietary, anyway.

first to market usually wins........

--

Heard of the iPod?

Sega Saturn?

Hmm well, for me if BluRay holds more data then thats the obvious choice. Mind you it will probably take about 9 hours to burn a disc. What are they 50 or 60gigs or something.

"What are they 50 or 60gigs or something."

"One point twenty-one jigawatts!"