WOW, they sure picked some flops for there initial release of the new formats.

I'll definitely wait a few years, maybe longer, I've invested WAY TOO much money in over 550 DVD's. $2000-$4000 for a high def TV and a $1000 for a new HD dvd player. Not something I'll be upgrading to soon.

MOst retailers have a hard time finding space to sell the DVD format that is out now, I don;t think you'll be seeing these at Target/Walmart for a longtime. I've heard they will only be sold where the players are being sold. Lets let them work the bugs out of the system for a few years and see what format wins. I love the referance to BETA, cause it is going to happen to one of these formats.

Phantom of the opera and Doom on HD, they weren't very good for DVD, lol. I would have picked different movies for the initial release. I love that The FIFTH ELEMENT is being released, I'm jealious.

ECE wrote: I think Blu Ray will win because it will come with PS3.

"Yeah! Just like how the UMD discs on PSP took off! and how we are all walking around with MiniDiscs instead of CDs, and BetaMax was a big hit when VCRs came out. All by Sony" I said, SARCASTICALLY

Just gonna wait until Blu-Ray burner technology improves and they're at a reasonable price. Until then, I'm sticking to what I already have enough of.

Is it more or a lot of these movies not very good?? Out of all of these I'd only get maybe 3. This format war is going to be ridiculous. I think I'm gonna wait this one out.

Looking at the Blu-ray list I can tell they are mostly targeting a male audience, who are probably more interested in technology than the actual film ie the people most likely to buy the hardware early on. Although I would have expected Starship Troopers in there.

HD DVD seem to be after a more broad audience going on their selection.

Mal wrote: Looking at the Blu-ray list I can tell they are mostly targeting a male audience, who are probably more interested in technology than the actual film ie the people most likely to buy the hardware early on. Although I would have expected Starship Troopers in there.

HD DVD seem to be after a more broad audience going on their selection.
Yes! But they are not releasing the hardware with the DVD's!lol, it baffles me. "Ooooh look, DVD's, I'll buy them and wait till November when they do release them." You know? I don't understand this move at all. Well, Sony baffles me cause Blu-ray isn't expected till November in the states, I forget about HD-DVD.

Mal wrote: Well I think there's supposed to be a Blu-ray player appearing in June, it was originally planned for May but is suffering from delays. Will of course be very expensive. Here:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/04/samsung...
Oh yeah, Samsung, I forgot about them. But isn't Sony's Blu-Ray player being delayed? Hence the delay in PS3?

Sony has made many mistakes before with the older formats they tried to introduce - I haven't seen a post that also mentions their SACD yet - didn't that go off in a huff!!!

But seriously, just wait for a player that does both! The technology is there.....

Worst Nightmare wrote: Sony has made many mistakes before with the older formats they tried to introduce - I haven't seen a post that also mentions their SACD yet - didn't that go off in a huff!!!

But seriously, just wait for a player that does both! The technology is there.....

It is really quite sad that Sony doesn't seem to market what it's got.  SACD is an awesome format, especially when you consider that you can make hybrid SACD/CD that play in regular CD players, but give 5.1 to people that have SACD players.  I was really never in to the format, but when I bought my Sony 400 disc changer, it came as an added bonus.  I have a few hybrids, like Dark Side of the Moon, and they sound incredible.

Looking back, Sony generally has the better technology, but either because they don't know how to properly market it or they want to high of royalties off their format, the formats generally tend to die.  They don't have a good record:  Betamax, Minidisc, UMD, SACD, etc.  The only one that seems to be viable is their Memory Stick, but I don't know another company that uses Memory Sticks.

I am not gonna spend all that money on a new player and a new widescreen high definition tv just to watch movies as I would imagine the majority of people won't. Any high definition format is going to take a long time to warm up to people. DVD was so popular because you could easily buy a DVD player for less than 200 bucks very close to release. But having to spend 1500 on a player and just about as much to get a high definition TV? The prices to me don't add up to a slew of people jumping on board. This war will go unwon for years until prices are dropped.

 Meh.

Adrian wrote: Looking back, Sony generally has the better technology, but either because they don't know how to properly market it or they want to high of royalties off their format, the formats generally tend to die.  They don't have a good record:  Betamax, Minidisc, UMD, SACD, etc.  The only one that seems to be viable is their Memory Stick, but I don't know another company that uses Memory Sticks.You have pretty much hit the nail on the head there.
I think that the main reason why memory stick hasn't taken off is probably due to the fact that Sony probably charges too much to allow copying of their technology so therefore you can only get a Sony memory stick and then they charge heaps for it...

i won't be buying either player when they're (eventually) released in australia. however, if microsoft do release the HD-DVD add-on for the xbox 360, then I will definitely consider it... depending on the price. if I had to pick one format, i'd go with HD-DVD, just for Serenity.

I'm content for buying only DVDs for now.  It looks fine to me on my non HD TV.

Seriosuly why are so many of these movies not worth buying?? Chronicles of Ridd**k? Van Helsing???

Why not release star wars or LOTR or something that could actually generate a large audience? Titanic? Sound of Music??? I don't know