Extension

This is mainly just a little extension from the last post about the whole format war fandango.

Found out today that Woolworths have become the first high street retailer to fully halt selling HD-DVDs in store.

Reasons for this are because Blue Ray discs outsold HD-DVDs 10 to 1 over the christmas period. This has been linked to the PlayStation 3;

“The main reason is the success of Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine. Because it plays Blu-Ray discs, there are over three quarters of a million homes in the UK that can view the new high definition format. There is nowhere near that number of HD-DVD players around."

For more information go here

Also the rumours that the 80 gb PS3's are being dropped are continuing, they are said to be dropped and replaced with 120-140 gb machines bundled with dual-shock 3 controllers.

Blue moooooon

Who remembers when DVDs first came out?
I do, i remember being like 'what the crap?! Whats wrong with video tapes?!' but in the end everyone turned to the DVD as the main means of home entertainment in terms of the film experience. The DVD was a lot more cutting edge than the chunky video tape and that can be identified easily just by visuals alone. The DVD had the capacity for more storage there fore more interactivity and content on, DVDs came with things such as 'interactive menus', 'special features' and 'bonus content'. Plus they were alot more reliable than the sage old tape, and one thing i personally loved, never having to rewind a film ^.^

The DVD has nestled in nicely in pretty much every home in the western world with DVD players converging with peripherals such as games consoles and computers.

But now on the eve of many other technological advance such as next-gen games consoles and LCD HDTV home entertainment systems, some clever sorts thought that the DVD has in fact become outdated and has for what ever reason seen the need to create a 1 up version of the DVD.
These come in the form of Blu-Ray Discs, and HD-DVDs.

Wikipedia (aka: God of all knowledge) defines blu-ray discs as;

"a high-density optical disc format for the storage of digital information, including high-definition video."

and HD-DVD as;

"is a high-density optical disc format designed for the storage of data and high-definition video."

Hmmm all seems rather similar, however both are locked in a 'format war' to determine which of the two formats will become the leading carrier for high-definition content to consumers.

After a quick google search i managed to find a few prices for the Blu-Ray players and HD-DVD players, because they are made by separate companies there would be no chance one would play the other...it would be like incest.

Any way a Blu-ray player would set you back from £899.99 to £300, infact the cheapest Blue Ray player at the moment is in fact the PlayStation 3, which still costs an arm and a leg.

And a HD-DVD player will set you back ermmm only around £500

A DVD player, £100 at the most. Bearing in mind, HD-DVDs and Blu-Ray discs are both also pricey compared to a normal DVD.

At this moment in time Blu-Ray is in fact on top with Blu-Ray players outselling HD-DVD players;

"New sales figures from the NPD group show Blu-ray taking nearly 93 percent of the market in the week ending January 12. Compare these figures to the week before Warner’s announcement, when there was a near 50-50 split between the two competing formats."

The reason for this is that distribution companies and studios such as Warner Bros. were in the process of deciding whether or not they would cater for both the formats and unfortunately for HD-DVDs they went with Blu-Ray. This gave other studios incentive to go exclusive for Blu-Ray as well as certain retailers. In other words, HD-DVD seems to have lost (for now, just in case they have a sudden explosion in sales and i would feel retarded for writing that, covering my you know), but being the ever nerdy gamer that i am it is possible to see how the format war with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can have ricocheting effects on the console war between XBOX 360 and the PlayStation 3.
As Sony were the pioneers for the Blu-Ray discs the PS£ (haha see what i did there, unintentional as well) comes with a Blue Ray player built in already, how ever with the 360 Microsoft chose to go for HD-DVDs and instead of having it built in you have to shell out an extra 100 quid on an add on to play HD-DVDs, maybe thats why they system is so much cheaper than the PS3 but adding to the theory that the PS3 is 'future proof'. With a boost in sales as consumers are buying the PS3 as it is as said before the cheapest blue ray player on the market as far as im aware. Thus begging the question, will the 360 go blue? Apparently not, as Bill Gates says that discs are a thing of the past and that digital films will prevail. Sore loser.

To be honest ill still be buying DVDs regardless until i absolutely have to start getting blue rays, because as far as i can see theres no difference between a blue ray disc and an upscaled DVD to the untrained eye. Remember to get the full High-def experience you also need to buy a HD-TV as well...thus rendering you moneyless. Best bet is to just wait just like when the DVD first came out.

Hmmm...

In other news;

Apparently a third of all xbox's are prone to failures and sales of the systems have dropped by 2.3% which could be due to the dwindling 'halo effect'.

Sony are rumoured to be dropping their 80 gb version of the PS3 due to poor sales. This could be because people are just buying the cheaper 40 gb PS3s and then just upgrading their hard drives. This is because Sony have encouraged PS3 owners to 'mod' their systems, enabling them to buy hard drives and replacing it with the one already in the console. So you could go from 40 gb to 100 gb in ten minutes.

With the release of Grand theft auto 4 drawing ever closer (i believe it is being released in the UK during late april some time? Correct me if im wrong), news has arisen that there is to be 2 extra story lines exclusive for the 360 entitling 360 owners to hours upon hours of new game play. Lucky scamps.

Wahey!

Not much news in terms of Nintendo, their wii's are still selling well and questions about its longevity are still arising. And as for the Nintendo DS, thats the best selling gaming machine out.

So i give you a wiitarded (yes, i did just make that pun) comic.



Until next time.