Josh Zyber on Paramount's Big Bombshell

[jed]

When Paramount announced last week that they'd be giving up on Blu-ray and exclusively supporting the lesser-selling HD DVD, the studio stunned and confused the High-Def world. In his latest commentary, Josh Zyber takes a look at their decision, its possible causes, and all the publicity spin that's followed in its wake.

Read it here:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/921

[Mark Booth]

GREAT article!!! Josh has completely nailed it in what I view as a completely unbiased article!

Mark

[ack_bak]

I thought that was a fairly well balanced article and was surprised that I shared as many of the same views as Josh. There were a few things that I wished he addressed such as the fact that Toshiba recently slashed their player sales projections by 44% for 2007, or they fact that Blu-Ray has maintained (and actually grown further) a healthy 2:1 sales lead even though they have had 38% less releases over the last 3 months.

Well done Josh. I am glad that you are tackling the combo playback problems next. That has bit me in the butt three times now.

[Xyz123]

Who cares that Paramount switched for the money?

2/3 of their most important HD customers according to their own CTO (early adopters).

[Bamelin]

Finally a balanced article. Bravo bravo!

[aygie]

Originally Posted by Mark Booth

GREAT article!!! Josh has completely nailed it in what I view as a completely unbiased article!

Mark

hahaha nice signature, no wonder you felt the need to say this wasn't biased. thats pride f***king with ya son. I'll believe the "HD-DVD slag off" article when i see it.

[Mark Booth]

I didn't say I was unbiased. I said Josh's article was unbiased. I personally think all you Blu guys are nuts for putting all your eggs in a Sony basket!

Mark

[jrutz]

Loved the article!

[Mark Booth]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

There were a few things that I wished he addressed such as the fact that Toshiba recently slashed their player sales projections by 44% for 2007, or they fact that Blu-Ray has maintained (and actually grown further) a healthy 2:1 sales lead even though they have had 38% less releases over the last 3 months.

Well done Josh. I am glad that you are tackling the combo playback problems next. That has bit me in the butt three times now.

Yep... Toshiba cut back their HD-DVD player sales projections to about 1 million players. How many stand-alones is Blu expecting to sell by December 31?.... 150,000? 200,000?

As for Combo problems... I've had ZERO problems with combos since firmware 2.1 (or was it 2.0?).

Mark

[Xyz123]

IMO, there is a clear hd dvd perspective in this article, and the blu-ray point of view (counter-points) aren't given the same level of focus.

IMO, this was not a balanced article or one that attempted to be balanced, rather an opinion piece based on one man's opinion.

[John Groshko]

Great article, but there is one thing I disagree with:

If the video game market can survive with multiple formats, each offering their own exclusive releases, how is the High Definition market any different? Personally, I foresee both HD DVD and Blu-ray coexisting for a long time, and potentially both thriving.

This won't happen because DVD already offers every title available on it's format. There has never been a game system that has offered every game available on it's format has there? (i thnk not) I believe in order for mass adoption to occur - the majority of titles (95%+) will need to be available on ONE format before people will start trading in DVD for high-def - otherwise they will feel cheated when films they were able to get on DVD won't be available on their next-gen format. The only way both formats can coexist is if combo players become the norm. Which is highly unlikely at this point since they're so freaking expensive and cost more than buying separate stand-alone HD DVD and Blu-Ray players.

But we'll see I guess...

[Icy Red]

Excellent article all around

My favorite quote:

Let there be no confusion on this point. DVD is where the studios make their money. High Definition media amounts to barely a blip on the DVD sales radar. Bragging that Blu-ray has outsold HD DVD 2:1 at these volumes is like boasting that an ant is larger than a flea, just before the big shoe of DVD comes down to smoosh them both into oblivion.

[Liqwid]

A very good read, that was. I still don't see myself going neutral until all of this hubbub settles down and all of the studios finally pick their format positions.

[joeymac]

Totally spot on.. this is going to drag out for years... If anything the two groups should be joining forces, making multi-format players more. They have to address all the hold-out customers who have HD tv's but are angry and don't want to buy anything till "one format wins". There are a LOT of those people... they know about both formats but aren't coming anywhere near.

[CouchPotato]

I wouldn't say that op/ed piece was unbalanced.

It appears balanced because it doesn't have any fanboy tone in it, but it leans HD-DVD for sure.