QUOTE(Ranger72 @ Jan 6 2008, 07:47 AM)

Nobody really thought that a format that would never contain a Disney or Pixar movie could win did they?
Disney originally rebuffed DVD in favor of that ill-fated DivX disc pay-per-play competitor, the one which required a permanent phone-line connected to the player and a credit card on account. DivX had to fail miserably before Disney finally gave in to DVD.
Before that, during the 1980's, Disney had very expensive VHS tapes. As in US$80 per tape. Video rental shops were popular, but the price per tape was prohibitive. When studios realized they could sell VHS tapes directly to consumers as a secondary revenue source, VHS prices dropped quickly -- except for Disney. I recall it took several years before Disney realized they were missing out on a huge opportunity. When Disney finally entered the consumer VHS market, they still cost more than most other movies.
I've also seen a number of those made-for-kids players with various incompatible media. Those audio KidClips come to mind, and there's been a couple of those video-based monstrosities as well. The dead VideoNow and the newer Mix Max come to mind.
Disney also tried those dissolving DVDs, once you open the package the disk surface oxidizes over the next few days until its unreadable. That one never made it past the first few market tests.
Disney is not about good media formats, its all about extracting the most buxx possible. More than any other studio. Just because Disney is supporting a particular format over another does not automatically make the format a winner.
QUOTE(Verity @ Jan 6 2008, 09:04 PM)

Disney originally rebuffed DVD in favor of that ill-fated DivX disc pay-per-play competitor, the one which required a permanent phone-line connected to the player and a credit card on account. DivX had to fail miserably before Disney finally gave in to DVD.
Before that, during the 1980's, Disney had very expensive VHS tapes. As in US$80 per tape. Video rental shops were popular, but the price per tape was prohibitive. When studios realized they could sell VHS tapes directly to consumers as a secondary revenue source, VHS prices dropped quickly -- except for Disney. I recall it took several years before Disney realized they were missing out on a huge opportunity. When Disney finally entered the consumer VHS market, they still cost more than most other movies.
I've also seen a number of those made-for-kids players with various incompatible media. Those audio KidClips come to mind, and there's been a couple of those video-based monstrosities as well. The dead VideoNow and the newer Mix Max come to mind.
Disney also tried those dissolving DVDs, once you open the package the disk surface oxidizes over the next few days until its unreadable. That one never made it past the first few market tests.
Disney is not about good media formats, its all about extracting the most buxx possible. More than any other studio. Just because Disney is supporting a particular format over another does not automatically make the format a winner.
All that may be true but means nothing to a parent that knows their kids favorite movies wont be playable if they buy the HD-DVD player. Since Sony owns Disney there was never any chance that a Disney movie would go to HD-DVD.
QUOTE(Ranger72 @ Jan 6 2008, 10:11 AM)

Since Sony owns Disney there was never any chance that a Disney movie would go to HD-DVD.
Completely false! Please don't spread such misinformation.
Sony owns the Columbia Pictures group.
Disney is its own company with its own movie and TV studios, including Buena Vista, Touchstone, and television giants (USA) ABC network and ESPN.
Disney came onboard Blu-Ray voluntarily, without all the bribery. Most likely, I suspect, because of the enhanced DRM (BD+) and region-locking crap which HD_DVD doesn't support. As I said before, Disney is all about the buckazoids as well as heavy into DRM whenever and wherever they can find it.
QUOTE(statement @ Jan 7 2008, 03:08 PM)

well if HD-DVD failed they should start making Burnable HD-DVD-R more affordable
bring it down to DVD-R prices. bring on Dual layer HD-DVD-R!!
at least they can win @ costumer storage purposes ?
like backup blu-ray lol
i think all this time they been keeping prices for HD-DVD-R inflated to prevent people from making backups
and now since most the industry going blu there no more incentive to play nice with the studios time to give the storage capacity to the users and make profit the way.
there millions of HD-DVD player out there @ least we can make use of them i don't see then going any time soon if they make this a reality.
That's quite an observation! Considering where HD-DVD is, if the cost of HD-R's went down to prices more comparable with DVD DL, we could REALLY see a spike in sales of players and blank media, but I could guarantee that most movies watched would be bootleg...