Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems BR Is the King OF HD.

Fanboys make me sick. It's like they can't be satisfied with their own purchase. Oh no. They have to convince themselves of their wisdom by promoting their decision at each and every opportunity. No matter how shallow the article, they'll link it. Biased polls are the gopel truth. Press releases are faithful doctrine of the believer. You can't tell the difference between them and a viral marketer no matter how hard you try. Ugh, it steams me up!

Here is precisely why I want Sony to fail:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3155931

That`s nothing Sony haven`t tried before either. On similar grounds, some years ago Columbia`s marketing people conjured up names for fake critics and proceeded to slap made up quotes praising their movies on the posters and DVD covers (A Knights Tale was one of them if memory serves).

I know. The company is just disgusting. It milks the market for every penny, preying on ignorant consumers, or flat out lying.

Aren't you doing the same thing?

George:

Humor

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Cheers,

How am I doing the same? I haven't promoted HD-DVD. I'm not a fan of anything other than good value for money. I've merely stated that claims of BD being way better are pure nonesense. Further to that I'm commenting on how much integrity Sony lacks with their marketing tactics. If their products are so superior, then why to they engage in such practices?

You're posting negative links to justify to yourself and others why you did something. In this case, you are not buying Sony. I'm not saying you meant to do this, but that's how it comes across.

By the way I don't think there is anything wrong with it, as long as you don't go overboard. We often do things then share our justifications with the public forums to test our assertions. How often has folks gone off and read every review on something after they bought it. Same thing.

P.S. The link you did post I found extremely difficult to read. It must be an age gap thing because it read mostly as gibberish.

I don't think you know what fanboyism is. I didn't post a negative link to justify my purchase. I am quite satisfied with my decision and don't feel the least bit insecure about BD. Faboyism is just spewing mindless propaganda to support one's own, insecure purchase decision. Or in the case of viral marketing, getting paid to share an opinion ad-nausem. I posted a link not from some anti-Sony, Toshiba campaign, and I'm not a fan of Toshiba. I am against Sony because of its business model, and the link is a story about Sony's unethical behaviour. If Sony didn't do it, then there wouldn't be anything to post or be angry about.

The translation of the article is that Sony paid two guys to act like huge Sony PSP fans who created a website - a poor one at that. Sony is well known for stuff like this, like their old graffiti campaign from last summer. This is all in addition to how they hire people to post pro-Sony comments on internet message boards. If that doesn't get you angry, then nothing will. Dishonest companies like this should fail.

It's always worth remembering that Bluray does not absolutely equal Sony Corp, though certainly they have been the most bullish and outspoken in promoting the format. As a film fan, and a fan of high definition, I can only go where the content goes. I'm certainly concerned about added layers of regional coding and copy protection on Bluray, but I'm also attracted by its higher bandwidth rates. At the same time, I am also hugely taken by the effort HD DVDs backers have been putting into their product from day one. In that respect alone they deserve all the success and attention the format has received these past few months, and more. I can't dismiss a format on grounds of the involvement of a single company I might not look upon favourably however (especially when said company owns Lawrence of Arabia ).

Fact is whilst I can cringe over Sony's arrogance and marketing tactics, as a gamer I'd still want a PS3, I like their SXRD products and again, there's that blasted factor of a batch of superb David Lean films under their control (beyond those and a few other exceptions Columbia's catalogue I find to be rather poor quite honestly). By the same token I absolutely despise 20th Century Fox at the moment in regards to the way they have exploited the DVD market for shameful re-issues in recent years, and now with Bluray, beating their chests and practically dictating what buyers will do. This isn't going to make me ignore releases of the many superb classics in their catalogue though as l like I say, I'm a film fan, I want the content, and provided the best effort is put into the release of that content I won't ignore it.

What Bluray must do is put that effort into justifying its claims and premium price tag (that latter of which will drop in 2007 anyway). This is all certainly possible. I do think Sony/Columbia are learning, and they learnt the hard way in not even anticipating HD DVD taking a lead in sales and consumer interest this year. So insignificant is the optical HD media market right now though, it's nothing they can't turn around, and if they and the format's other backers are going to finally get serious at CES next month, then I'll welcome it. The format's exclusive backers can bully their way to success knowing they have vast quantities of content that they can use to lure the consumer. I don't mind them doing this, so long as they're not all trading off the draw of the names of certain big catalogue titles alone, and still making a half arsed job out of the actual disc content and mastering. That would be an awful scenario. Thankfully, one of the only real things we can be grateful of having two formats for is the fact one can apply pressure on the other to buck their ideas and be competitive.

Don't worry. It's modern games journalism. It's never been very pretty.

Heres my take on the PS3 BRD thing. I think it was a big mistake by Sony. And I think they have not learned their history. Yes, Beta, MiniDisc, UMD, you name it.

Hummmm...


Am I leaving out a format? oh yeah, something about SACD... I almost forgot.......

I appreciate Sony's motivation for the Big Prize: Royalty Stream. It must be very tempting when you feel like you put yourself in a position to capitalize on your prize acquisitions (content ownership). I admit that Sony is not going it alone with BR but its like with SACD that they seem to be the ring leader, and I bet if we look at the business arrangements they are the ones who profit most from a format success.

The way I see Sony behaving, it reminds me of Microsoft tying the browser and other features to windows. They had the power to do it and they did. I think Sony's behavior is similar. Though Sony does have a lot of power in the marketplace, they don't have the kind of power that MS had (has). I think Sony is making a mistake of hubris. Again. IMHO not learning from your mistakes is a very bad thing!

I can just see the meetings when discussing PS3. Lots of graphic power, cutting edge design and engineering for a console. Extremely strong brand in Playstation. All these games will need a lot of storage. And the computer division wants a larger storage carrier too. How can we tie everything together? If we can integrate our computer, video game, content and engineering prowess we could have something special that will turn our brand around and we can maximize revenues. IMHO, this is the kind of thinking that sounds good in meetings and works on spreadhseets but falls apart in the "real world".

First off, once again they have caused a format war. When you hear the word "Sony" many people remember Beta and they remember the format war. This is a terrible association for their brand and they keep behaving in a way that reinforces it! As a learned member of the American culture would say: DOH! So this is killer to their brand at a time when their brand is already suffering.

Second, it appears that while the PS3 does deliver on the gaming level, the BRD adds a horrible price penalty to the unit. I read an article comparing the cost to build an XBox 360 vs the PS3 and it was dramatic. The business model for these consoles is the companies lose money during the first year or so. During that time they figure out how to lower component costs and then the consoles actually turn a profit. From what I remember reading, the cost of the BRD was way over what Sony initially thought. This makes competing with the XBox on price a very expensive proposition. And Sony is apparently going to eat a lot of this cost- but some must be passed on.

So you have a product to sell that cannot be sold at a price advantage and then what happens? You give up a years worth of market share to your mega funded competitor who has shown a history of willing to take losses. When you come to market while the perception is that your product is a little better in performance the fact is it is vastly more expensive for consumers. And the reason for this price differential? A drive that is really more necessary for other non core (non gaming) reasons (eg becoming the living room hub) that you have passed the price on to your customers.

I do not believe people buy these video game consoles to watch movies- I am not talking about the early adopters here, I am talking about the typical consumer. The people who moaned when they switched from their VHS to DVD. Yes, we celebrated- they moaned. We have different priorities than the mass market. I truly believe that the mass market will not care about the PS3 engineering beauty- which apparently is like comparing a Porsche to a pick up in the case of the XBox. What people care about is doing the job- in which case the pick up works just fine. And how many people really have the ability to see the graphic difference between these two consoles? I doubt many do or care. They want to play the hot games. As a non gamer I dont know what they are anymore.

Microsoft also wants a piece of the living room action, but they do not force consumers to buy the drive as a condition for playing the games. This was a smart move by them IMHO. And I have read that the XBox 360 is much easier to develop for than the PS3. Another smart move. People criticize MS all the time for things, in this regard I think its kind of like the people who like to criticize the Yankees. I actually MS does a lot of things right, but they are big and wealthy and therefore a fun target for criticism.

So to wrap up my long winded blabble on this- its really just my opinion. I think in the end the PS3 will do very little to promote BR as a movie format and that Sony will have lost some market share to MS in the video game wars.

I also wonder why the PS3 undercuts just about every other BR player out there. What I am implying is illegal but what if Sony is taking enough of a bath on the PS3 so it becomes the most attractive playback method- this is my conspiracy theory that they are trying to push this format as hard as they can, but IMHO they have gone about it all wrong because I think the world does not want another home movie format. For games, sure, whatever, people dont care since they know they are buying a new console.

I wish I had more time to organize these thoughts better, but heres my thoughts. Take them for what they are wroth- probably very little.

To come back to the thread- so I do not think any format now out will win the war to be the successor to DVD. I think DVD is the last optical format that will be a market place success. JMHO YMMV

best regards,
Jerry

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do believe that Sony has the most to lose by a very wide margin. If BD fails, then the Playstation line takes a massive hit as well. Sony would essentially be looking destitute if BD was to fail.

I fail to see how anyone can take the company seriously after its launch of Qualia (remember that line that was supposed to be so superior to everything else, but was then beaten by Sony's own lower-end products 12 months later? ); Bug-ridden SXRD sets, forced subsidy of BD in the obsenely-priced PS3 and it's grossly-unethical marketing practices. As a consumer who used to love Sony, I am now simply disgusted.