CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

MYoung · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 369 Location: Madison, WI

Another blow to HD DVD...

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSWEN388420080211

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

That, on top of everything else, could be the death knell.

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:22 pm Post subject:

Every time something happens, it's the "death knell".

Well, isn't that nice? More than half the movies in the 'saved' (unreleased) section of my queue were HD DVD. Four movies coming out in the next 30-60 days that I won't be able to rent, now. One - Kite Runner - was a movie I was going to rent for the girls in my wife's book club to come over and watch. I guess I'll be buying it, now.

Basically, Netflix has chosen to make movies unavailable to some of its customers, and for no good reason, really. I think I'll cancel my subscription for a month just to say "F-U", and maybe I'll give Blockbuster a try - at least they still support HD DVD online.

It's this 'picking sides' sh*t that has really made this war a bunch of crap. What damn business is it of Netflix's who they support. I got a Netflix subscription specifically BECAUSE they supported HD DVD AND Blu-ray. *******.

SC

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject:

I just put my account on hold for 90 days. That's $17/mo for 3 months (or about $50) they won't get from me. I wonder what their little 'show of support' is going to cost them in real dollars. If 10,000 other HD DVD customers do the same, that'll be a half-million dollar ding in their revenue column.

SC

dropzone7 · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 1069 Location: Charlotte, NC

Same here. I have the 3 movies at a time plan and have rented nothing but HD DVD from Netflix. If they wont support the format then my subscription will be canceled for sure. I plan to be dual format eventually but right now I'm happy with HD DVD. Things like this make it more and more difficult not to jump ship. I will always have an HD DVD player because I have a decent amount of movies that I like. I just feel like we are being railroaded into Blu Ray all of a sudden. Really sucks because the least expensive player I would consider is still $400 as opposed to the very best HD DVD player for $225.

paw · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 1176 Location: Arvada, CO

AAA!!! You beat me to it.

I just spoke to Wendy at Netflix. She said, not exact quotes

"Starting this week Netflix will not purchase any new HD DVDs

Within the next 6 months, Netflix will sell existing it's HD DVD inventory internally or to external vendors. It's not planned at this time to sell to Netflix members but that could change."

So you will not even be able to RENT HD DVDs from Netflix in 6 months.

I'll bet Block Buster will follow this lead.

I guess we'd better buy any HD DVDs we want to watch.

Goodbye HD DVD, we hardly knew you. Crying or Very sad

dbaisey · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:49 pm Post subject:

Im wondering how long Bluray will still be a media type. Looks to me it will all be going server sent and disc's will be a thing of the past. Doug

ecrabb · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:01 pm Post subject:

Doug, it's going to be years. If it happens any sooner, we can all start crying because picture quality like we've come to know from HD DVD and BD will be a thing of the past.

The only way internet-based HD movie downloads are going to work is if A) Not many people are doing it, B) The US internet infrastructure is massively upgraded, or C) The content is HEAVILY compressed WAY beyond what we see with HD DVD and BD.

We can all start crying now if option C comes true anytime soon. As option A starts to occur, option B will have to also start to occur (it already is on some levels). Even that is iffy though, since the telcos would dearly love to start charging for broadband based on how much bandwidth the customer uses instead of charging a flat fee.

Lots of stuff at play here.

SC

dropzone7 · Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 1069 Location: Charlotte, NC

dbaisey · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:29 pm Post subject:

I was reading this link http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2246987,00.asp and at the time there was a picture of a Directv PC box but I dont see it now. Doug

Here it is. http://www.everythingusb.com/directv-hdpc-20-usb-dual-tuner-14057.html

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:39 pm Post subject:

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

MYoung · Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 369 Location: Madison, WI

I was considering Netflix myself, as renting makes much more sense than buying, especially if movies are at the $30 price point. Though renting doesn't directly help a format's sales figures. I guess I'll just continue buying HD DVDs. With many Universal titles on sale for $15 each, renting isn't as crucial, especially if you watch a title more than a few times over the course of owning it, whereas at $30 each, you'd really have to like it. Content is becoming a real issue. It's not that Universal and Paramount don't alone have great movies. It's that they aren't releasing them on HD DVD. Toshiba is doing their part to keep HD DVD alive. Microsoft should make the Xbox 360 add-on at most $80, and studios should inject some excitement by getting more catalog titles on HD DVD. Many people have seen recent titles in the theater in film quality, but not many have seen older classics in the near film quality that HDM offers.

I wonder what Universal and Paramount think about Netflix dropping HD DVD. On one hand it means the HD DVD crowd will have to buy titles instead of rent them, which could mean some better software sales for Universal and Paramount. On the other hand, it hurts the format having less renting options. While this hurts HD DVD, I still don't think the death knell for HD DVD will come until either Paramount or especially Universal go format neutral.

dbaisey · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 5:58 pm Post subject:

What if a studio didn't need a format storage disc for consumer sales and sold the media direct to the consumer via download or wouldn't Sony let that happen? Doug

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:04 pm Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:05 pm Post subject:

garyfritz · Joined: 08 Apr 2006 Posts: 12026 Location: Fort Collins, CO

I agree with SC, there is NO way the Internet infrastructure can support large-scale movie downloading. The bandwidth just isn't there. Furthermore let's say you've got a hot 5Mbps broadband connection on your cable or DSL. 5Mbps is about 625kBps, so you can download about 2.25 GB per hour. That might work for SD movies -- maybe -- but not for HD. An HD film runs in the 15-25 GB range. So even if you've got that smokin' 5Mbps line, it will still take you about 6-12 HOURS to download a movie. A few people like Cliffy might have uber-fast connections that can handle it, but 98% of the people in the country won't have a connection anywhere near that fast. It's just not gonna happen within the next 5-10 years at least.

Most people can probably get a Blu-Ray disk delivered from Netflix faster than they can download the same movie!!

**kal** · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:20 pm Post subject:

It'll work because they'll compress the CRAP out of the signal. Yes, it'll still be a 1920x1080 image but it'll look like crap to us but the average person won't care. The files will probably be x5-10 smaller.

Or they'll reduce it to 1280x720 and call it "HD". Some of them are doing it now.

There's no way in hell they'll try and maintain up to 40 Mbit/sec bitrate like you have on HD on disc.

Kal

dbaisey · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:42 pm Post subject:

The sad part is they will most likely do it anyways. They are already sending the movie houses the media via the server networks. Doug

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:01 pm Post subject:

Well people are also looking past 1080p. I've had two calls in the last week asking me about whatever Japan is working on currently.

I told both people the same thing: I have no idea, I'm still working on converting people from hooking their HD boxes via an Svideo cable...