Sony and Toshiba fail to reach agreement on unified next-gen disc format

[BlackHitachi]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=9617

[BobMurdoch]

VHS vs. Beta.
Digital Audio Tape vs. Digital Compact Cassette
SACD vs. DVD-Audio.

All failures because the greedy f-ers couldn't agree on a united format.

Oh well, the good news is that all you DVD rippers will be able to continue unabated for a few more years now until someone gets sick of losing millions and gives up. The HD DVD/BluRay will be stillborn at launch unless Sony can convince people that 20 million PS3 owners gives them a leg up (although most of those units won't be used for watching movies on anything other than SD TVs if I'm guessing correctly).

[Mike123abc]

The whole industry will just suffer a year or so until the unified CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-Ray universal players come out. At least it is not like VHS/Beta where the media is a different size. In the long run it will probably add a buck or 2 to the price of the players to accomodate both formats.

[Cholly]

My guess is that Blu-Ray will emerge as the winner. Looking at the membership of the two camps, Blu-Ray has more heavyweights on its side. HD-DVD doesn't have an awful lot going for it, despite having Warner, Paramount and Universal movie studios supporting that format. The biggest argument in favor of HD-DVD is that disks for that format can be made on present day manufacturing lines with "minor modifications".
Time will tell.

[BlackHitachi]

At first i was so Gun ho about Blu-ray now i just want one to win. I know they wont and i will buy what ever comes first.

[Mike123abc]

Sony controls about 55% of the films ever made. A huge boost to Blu-Ray. It will be hard for HD-DVD to compete on content alone toshiba does not control any content, and the studios in the HD-DVD camp will find it hard to resist releasing films in Blu-Ray if they think they are missing out on sales.

HD-DVD would never have been adopted by the DVD steering group if it had not been for a manipulation of the voting rules to allow it to pass.

[BobMurdoch]

I heard the number was closer to 18%. Still formidable but not impossible to overcome. In my mind they are 0-4 though when setting industry standards....... Beta? bust. Their version of the CD? Bust... Phillips got "red book" approved. DAT and Digital Compact cassette? Bust bust. Their version of DVD. Uh uh. Toshiba and Warner Bros. got their version through.

SACD? Not dead yet, but with a smaller penetration than laserdisc in its heyday.

We'll see. I like their system better as it holds more, but I want a machine that is backwards compatible with all of my current DVDs, which the HD DVD is supposedly better able to do......