"Blu-ray Disc" vs. "HD DVD": Neither Is Winning

[Jerry Jones]

I'm skeptical that a sub-$200 price point is going to save either high definition format.

Perhaps a sub-$100 price point would guarantee that people who have a clue about the difference between HD and SD would be willing to upgrade within six months.

But I just don't see anything happening until then and the two sides are dug in for the long haul with asking prices that are just crazy.

Every sales figure on high definition discs just makes it clear that this stuff isn't moving at all.

The general public simply doesn't care.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

Also (and take this on faith):

Walmart is preparing to offer an HD DVD deck for <$200 USD, to go on sale for the holiday season.

This goes with their recently added $50 multiformat DVD recorder.

But if they were acting in the interest of the consumer the companies involved in the 'war' would agree to disagree and support the production of HD_Multi decks.

[Jerry Jones]

There's a good 802.11n Wi-Fi article here:

http://www.macworld.com/2007/01/features/80211n/index.php

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Yes, I posted that link a few posts ago.

It's absolutely a significant announcement.

It's going to change everything inside of two years, but the last statement is not accurate.

The current and newest Wi-Fi standard -- 802.11n and not 802.11.g -- supports a reasonably fast transfer of data.

http://80211n.com/80211n-speed.html

* With an 802.11n client and router you will find a wireless experience that outpaces all previous wireless technologies. It has real world throughput that clocks in at 160 Mbps or faster—seven times faster than older 802.11g networks.
* At 300 feet, 802.11g performance plummets to 1 Mbps. 802.11n networks operate at up to 70 Mbps—70 times faster than 802.11g.
* The key to this speed is MIMO (multiple input/multiple output) which uses multiple antennas to send and receive digital data in multiple simultaneous radio streams, thus multiplying total performance.
* The bottom line: with 802.11n, you can share data, photos and music among multiple devices in the home faster and at greater distances than ever before.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.tvpredictions.com/ibmhd102207.htm

BM to Develop Wireless HDTV Chip

Company will join effort with MediaTek
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (October 22, 2007) -- IBM and MediaTek today said they are developing ultra fast chipsets that will wirelessly send a HDTV movie from a PC to a TV.

The companies said one device will be able to transfer high-def content to another with the same speed as a viewer flipping a remote control.

The technology, which will also work with hand-held devices, is designed to allow consumers to use PC-TV set-tops without installing wires and reorganizing furniture.

In today's announcement, the companies did not say when the chipset technology would be available in retail products.

IBM and MediaTek, a wireless semiconductor company, said they will use the highest frequency portion of the radio spectrum and digital chipsets to create the wireless products.

They said a viewer could send a 10 gigabyte file in five seconds with the new technology compared to 10 minutes using today's Wi-Fi technology.

When offered, the new technology could break the current logjam for high-def content online. Today's HD files are too large for current wireless technologies, sometimes requiring viewers to spend hours to download a single movie.

[Jerry Jones]

LIMELIGHT NETWORKS to offer HD programming for the Internet:

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQTU13823102007-1.htm

http://www.limelightnetworks.com/

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Tjalfe]

Bell Canada, one of the bigger ISP's around has introduced a 2GB/Month cap on downloads on all but their most expensive package. Rogers, the other big one in the greater Toronto area has a similar cap. Does not bode well for downloading 30GB HDTV movies, or even recompressed movies at 5-10GB.

[Jerry Jones]

SONY to launch new digital downloads:

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=17780

Sony chief executive Sir Howard Stringer is getting his company ready to turn the PlayStation Network into a full-fledged video and music downloads service. The PlayStation Network is expected to extend beyond PlayStation platforms...

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

doubt it.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=926698

Microsoft seems to toy with the idea of a new X box with build in HD DVD drive as standard.

Sure looks to me like Microsoft is selling a lot of online HD content here now:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/moviestv/

File-based.

Digital downloading.

High definition.

Love it.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Hulk]

Ouch! 740x480 resolution on that Star Trek episode. Worse than DVD actually.

How's it look on your family room TV? Oh wait you have no way to play it on your family room TV! I bet you're only playing it on your computer.

[Hulk]

My "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Star Trek episode from APPLE has the following file properties:

Protected MPEG-4 Video File (Video Codec H.264)
640 x 480 (resolution)
502.4MB (size)
1384 kbps (total bitrate)
Stereo, 44.100 kHz

The H.264 compression does a remarkable job.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

Jerry,

So how much Apple gear do you own? Must be quite a bit for you to have such faith in it. For it would be quite naive to believe everything you read without first hand experience

I'm interested to hear about your first hand experience. Please do tell...

[Tjalfe]

doubt it.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=926698

Microsoft seems to toy with the idea of a new X box with build in HD DVD drive as standard.

[Jerry Jones]

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34501/98/

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 11:50

Redmond (WA) - After several months of scant updates to the Xbox 360's video download store, Microsoft announced today it has increased its selection with more than 100 new shows.

The update includes family-friendly programming as a complement to the same-day release of a new Xbox 360 bundle targeted at mainstream, casual gamers. The new selection comes entirely from Warner Bros and Viacom's Nickelodeon division.

More than 50 episodes of classic Looney Tunes episodes are available on a download-to-own basis, according to Microsoft. The cartoons are available in HD. This is the first time that such a big selection has been made available on a digital download platform, and it is also the debut of Looney Tunes in a high definition format.

So... is it possible that even Microsoft knows that "Blu-ray Disc" and "HD DVD" are as dead as disco?

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Mehen]

you keep bolding "apple" "star trek" and "dead as disco"
is this one of those tri-bond things? Cuz I definitely see the connection there.
I think your unconscious is working against you.

[Jerry Jones]

There are some disco tracks that I like quite a bit. "Boogie Oogie Oogie" "That's the Way I Like It" "Car Wash"

Well, when it comes to the high definition DVD formats, the disco tune that comes to my mind is "Everybody was kung fu fighting."

The day is coming when all will acknowledge that "HD DVD" and "Blu-ray Disc" are as dead as disco.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net