Post-XMAS HD DVD Sales Surge: #8 ranked HD DVD surpasses #1 Blu-Ray in sales

[Zaphod]

Why can't they come up with an open format.

An open format != A royalty free format.

I wonder though the DVD license must have decreased in price as time went on though right?

Not really, but the encoder cost was lowered a bit in 2002 and distributed media cost will successively decrease going forward. You can check out the licensing terms and patent holders on the MPEGLA website. MPEG2 is actually more costly than both VC1 and AVC/H.264 at the moment, but next gen players will obviously have to pay more as they require licenses for all three in addition to AACS and more. It racks up.

 

[Sxotty]

An open format != A royalty free format.

Then a royalty free format Is the chinese eDVD or whatever they called it royalty free?

 

[Zaphod]

Is the chinese eDVD or whatever they called it royalty free?

Unknown. The last time they attempted to launch EVD they were to use VP6 from On2 (the codec adopted in Flash) and some Chinese audio codec enhanced by Coding Technologies. Royalties were said to be ~$2 in total, significantly less than for MPEG2. The latest round of news in December, IIRC, said 'royalty free', but I don't know what they'd use. Theora and Dirac are the options I can think of.

 

[Capeta]

I think there's a bit of revisionist history going on here, because I'm hearing this story a lot -- "It's Sony's fault!"

The history has been explained a few times on these forums and much of the fault lies with Toshiba, who decided to continue with their HD DVD format well after Blu-ray was accepted by most of the industry (and still has most of the industry support).

Doesnt' compute. Both AOD and BR were concurrently in development. Why would Toshiba abandon AOD and go OUTSIDE the DVD Forum to join the BDA? That's just retarded. If you're going to be proposing the next HD DVD format it would be wise to do it inside the DVD Forum which is a standards setting body that has existed for over a decade with hundreds of techology members.

Whether or not DVD forum accepts something is completely irrelevant, last time I checked, they aren't the body that dictates whether any movie format is worthy or not. It seems there's a bit of false security applied to DVD forum's approval of HD DVD -- it doesn't mean anything in regards to industry wanting a given format. Toshiba wanted a continued piece of the royalty pie and so they created a format to do so... they did this in spite of a format that was already accepted by the industry. If anything, Toshiba caused this war, not Sony.

It's a standards setting body. It's goal is to develop a single optical/movie standard. Wouldn't it have been nice if we had two DVD formats? Red-ray and DVD?

 

[Deleted member 7537]

Studio Canal moves from HD-DVD to Neutral.

http://www.worldinhd.com/movabletype/archives/2007/02/studio_canal_la.html

I think it produces most of european films.

 

[Bobbler]

Doesnt' compute. Both AOD and BR were concurrently in development. Why would Toshiba abandon AOD and go OUTSIDE the DVD Forum to join the BDA? That's just retarded. If you're going to be proposing the next HD DVD format it would be wise to do it inside the DVD Forum which is a standards setting body that has existed for over a decade with hundreds of techology members.

BR was pretty much agreed upon by the industry, Toshiba decided they wanted to keep their patent royalties going, so they went on in spite of BDA having the industry support. BDA is the new DVD forum for the HD optical disc era -- they have more industry support, by quite a bit. Industry support is what made the DVD forum what it was...

It's a standards setting body. It's goal is to develop a single optical/movie standard. Wouldn't it have been nice if we had two DVD formats? Red-ray and DVD?

The DVD forum is merely a body to further and continue the current royalty payouts of DVD... they weren't set up to dictate all movie disc formats for now and in the future. What they have to say about a HD optical disc format is really irrelevant and whether or not they voted has little to do with anything except how much of the current body in charge gets to keep the royalties going. The usefulness of DVD forum ended at DVD, yet a few of the main patent holders have tried to continue their existance in spite of most of the industry going a different route.

Toshiba's greed was more of the cause of this than anything -- had Toshiba decided to play nicely with the rest of the industry, we wouldn't have had this problem.

You seem to be under the impression that HD DVD is akin to the DVD forum of the DVD generation, when it's BDA that's the closer to the DVD forum and HD DVD is something closer to DIVX which went on in spite of the rest of the industry. Of course, those examples aren't perfect, but they are somewhat close.

It's odd to see people whine about Sony's greed and not support them because of it, while opening their arms to Toshiba, who's display of greed in this format war might end up costing us a thriving HD optical disc format in the end.

 

[Capeta]

BR was pretty much agreed upon by the industry

If that was true then we wouldn't have companies backing HD DVD. A quick look at the HD DVD promotion group's member list shows a very healthy dose of industry support.

Toshiba decided they wanted to keep their patent royalties going, so they went on in spite of BDA having the industry support.

And SONY wanted to keep theirs creating BD so they could use a less efficient MPEG2 codec.

BDA is the new DVD forum for the HD optical disc era -- they have more industry support, by quite a bit. Industry support is what made the DVD forum what it was...

If it's the new DVD Forum, why did the BDA members keep their voting seats in the DVD Forum so they could sandbag HD DVD? I guess the DVD Forum is relevent afterall.

The DVD forum is merely a body to further and continue the current royalty payouts of DVD... they weren't set up to dictate all movie disc formats for now and in the future. What they have to say about a HD optical disc format is really irrelevant and whether or not they voted has little to do with anything except how much of the current body in charge gets to keep the royalties going. The usefulness of DVD forum ended at DVD, yet a few of the main patent holders have tried to continue their existance in spite of most of the industry going a different route.

If the DVD Forum is irrelevent how come they're still holding meetings to refine the HD DVD format?

Toshiba's greed was more of the cause of this than anything -- had Toshiba decided to play nicely with the rest of the industry, we wouldn't have had this problem.

Had SONY submitted BR to the DVD Forum, we wouldn't have this format war.

You seem to be under the impression that HD DVD is akin to the DVD forum of the DVD generation, when it's BDA that's the closer to the DVD forum and HD DVD is something closer to DIVX which went on in spite of the rest of the industry. Of course, those examples aren't perfect, but they are somewhat close.

You seem to be distorting reality. The DVD Forum is alive a well continuing to refine add specifications to the HD DVD format.

It's odd to see people whine about Sony's greed and not support them because of it, while opening their arms to Toshiba, who's display of greed in this format war might end up costing us a thriving HD optical disc format in the end.

It's odd to see people whine about Toshiba's greed when in fact as a result of SONY's own greed they needed to resort to dirty tactics like sandbagging HD DVD voting procedures while developing a competing format outside the DVD Forum using an outdated codec.