Sony Vindicates Betamax - RIP HD-DVD
James | February 12, 2008 | 6 Comments
Who would have thought that Sony’s proprietary Blu-Ray format would eventually win the HD home video war. Betamax got trounced in the 70’s, Mini-Disc never stood a chance against CD’s in the 90’s… it always seemed like a forgone conclusion that Blu-Ray would eventually follow their lead. Then came the PS3, a system that has seemingly done for Blu-Ray what the PS2 helped DVD do in the early years of that now ancient format. That is - get players in consumers hands - even if they didn’t want them. What kind of backdoor deals has Sony had to pull to get just about all of the other major studios to feel fuzzy about paying a royalty fee to Sony for every disc they press? Now NetFlix has picked Blu-Ray as their exclusive format of choice. Ring the bell, HD-DVD is officially cooked.
Sad news for open standards. Sony is notorious for extremely limited DRM schemes, having even taken to installing practically un-removable VIRUSES to music fan’s computers simply for wanting to listen to their music how they want to listen to them. Welcome to their hell film fans, it’s coming…
Related: Hitler concedes to Blu-Ray
6 Comments
Reginald Williams - Posted on 12/02/08 @ 8:11am
This is why I did not buy either player. I wanted to see who the winner would be first. Many people did not and are now stuck with a format that has no future.
Tower - Posted on 13/02/08 @ 10:49am
What?? My Netflix account has been on hold temporarily until I was able to catch up on some medical bills! No HD-DVD?
Yes, I am the unproud owner of an HD-DVD player, and about 18 films. The good news is they’re unloading HD-DVDs for about half price now at Amazon.
Nionix - Posted on 15/02/08 @ 2:48pm
*raises hand*
To answer your question, I called it.
Hopefully Sony won’t have much control over the content, as you said, limited drm… that doesn’t stop Apple from kicking ass in the MP3 player market though.
Tower - Posted on 15/02/08 @ 7:45pm
That’s it Nio, into the trunk with ya!!
J/K
Nionix - Posted on 17/02/08 @ 8:27pm
I get a “Largefarva” feeling from you, Tower… Who is this character with the unrecognizable screenname?!
Tower - Posted on 19/02/08 @ 6:39pm
As far as I know, dear old Farva has retired. Please keep in touch for all the Tower you could ask for!
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