Panasonic kicks off 50GB Blu-ray Disc production

[edDV]

I wouldn't bet against sony too often.

Bought any BetaMax tape lately?

yes -- lots of it ... it is used for beta sp , an industry standard tape for broadcast use

That is not the point I was making. Despite the fact that Sony's Betamax tape is better than VHS, it isn't a consumer product. They lost the market positioning game. VHS became the consumer "choice" by default. I realize there are some niche markets where the superiority of Betamax tape is demanded.

...

In the case of Betamax versus VHS, I feel the consumer lost. I blame Sony for this because they didn't do the rest of the job and lost the market positioning game. Just saying that a product is technically superior isn't enough.

I think that you are caught up in urban myth about Betamax being a superior format for the customer. VHS was the clear choice by the user and the main reasons were 2hr and 6hr record modes and wider manufacturer support.

Betamax was unable to record a complete movie without a tape change. It simply did not address the customer problem and deserved to fail. And fail it did.

Betamax was useless for broadcasters and industrial users as well. Sony was able salvage some of the Betamax plant tooling by developing the Betacam format around the same cassette dimensions but just about everything else about Betacam is different. It is a Y, U, V wideband analog component format (20min per tape), not color under Y/C like Betamax, VHS, U-Matic, 8mm, Hi8, and S-VHS.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/comment/story/0,12449,881780,00.html

[SCDVD]

What does Sony have to do with Panasonics production line? Sony is only one player in a large field that is Blu-ray.

As is often the case when product standards are at stake, companies organize themselves into groups and pool their knowledge, technology, manufacturing and market influence in an effort to collectively create enough influence and momentum to establish their product as the standard. It's a high stakes game where one company, even a large one, doesn't have enough clout to establish a standard. The Japanese name for these groups is Keiretsu.

Some of the companies behind the Blu-Ray standard include Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung and Sony.

More info here http://www.blu-ray.com/

[lordsmurf]

A lot of those companies double-dip too, they play for both sides. Not unusual to see people in both RW Alliance and DVD Forum. Or in this case, Blu-Ray Disc Assoc and DVD Forum. They don't really care who wins, they just want a share of it.

In any case, you always have an Alpha dog, in this case, HD-DVD is Toshiba and NEC, and Blu-ray is Sony. The Alphas go all-in, and when Sony is an alpha, it's not always a good thing.

[ROF]

Warner is the current fence sitter when it comes not choosing sides. They've given their support to Blu-ray yet plan to work with HD DVD. i hope more corporations do this as well. In that way the consumer will suffer less while the stalwarts battle it out.

[SCDVD]

A lot of those companies double-dip too, they play for both sides.

Sometimes you have wonder what the internal politics are in some of these companies. As I'm sure you know, Sony was a supporter of the DVD+R standard. Then one fine day their DVD burner group came out with a DVD burner that supported both +R and -R media. I wondered at the time what the reaction was in the Sony media group. The person who made the decision to offer a burner that support both +R and -R must have upset some people in the media group.

[edDV]

A lot of those companies double-dip too, they play for both sides.

Sometimes you have wonder what the internal politics are in some of these companies. As I'm sure you know, Sony was a suporter of the DVD+R standard. Then one fine day their DVD burner group came out with a DVD burner that supported both +R and -R media. I wondered at the time what the reaction was in the Sony media group. The person who made the decision to offer a burner that support both +R and -R must have upset some people in the media group.

Sony had to go to Lite-On to get a multi-format DVD writer that actually worked.

[Cornbuds]

Video games do not control the video market. I don't recall watching movies on cartridges or CD-ROMs. If anything, using a Blu-Ray drive instead of a mainstream DVD drive means that player is worthless for movies. So that's a negative, not a positive. The gaming nerd world is very small and very insignificant to the much larger video buy/rent scene.

Warren Lieberfarb, AKA The Father of the DVD, disagrees with you. See third paragraph

Several as a matter of fact. My Betamax has outlived all my VHS Recorders and still going strong.

Are you kidding me?! Either you work for Sony or you're the epitome of the word "antagonist". Betamax? Where in God's green earth do you buy/rent Betamax for consumers other than maybe a swap meet or Sony convention?

[shelbyGT]

In related news, TDK begins production of blu-ray consumer discs too:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/12/13/tdk/index.php

[ROF]

Several as a matter of fact. My Betamax has outlived all my VHS Recorders and still going strong.

Are you kidding me?! Either you work for Sony or you're the epitome of the word "antagonist". Betamax? Where in God's green earth do you buy/rent Betamax for consumers other than maybe a swap meet or Sony convention?

JR.COM is where I purchased my last bunch late this summer. I will probably make another purchase after the first of the year.

[terjeber]

Sony has decided to use MPEG2, yesterday's technology. There won't be any improved quality.

Why do you think there will be no improved quality? HD encoded MPEG-2 is vastly better than SD encoded MPEG-2. Resolution and color reproduction is both insanely better. There will be a huge improvement in quality, even when Sony Pictures (note, this is the movie distributor, not the drive manufacturerer, the drive manufacturer is required to support H.264) ships their HD movies encoded in MPEG-2.

So what, besides the movie and all the "extras" that no one watches, will be on the other 40GB of the disc? Biographies of the key grip and best boy?

The reason the industry moved towards higher capacity discs was that the compression technology, when they started working on this, wasn't good enough to fit an HD movie on a 9G disk. Today it basically is, so we don't really need HD-DVD or Blue Ray. On the other hand, both formats allows for even better quality distribution and also for distribution of a significant amount of footage on one disk. I can, for example, see TV producers distribute several seasons worth of episodes on one disk. Why not.

For the consumer, high capacity is always better, no matter what. It is more future proof and allows for more flexibility. That's why I hope Blue Ray wins the format war.

But then again, I will probably get a holographic disk burner soon...

[gadgetguy]

I can, for example, see TV producers distribute several seasons worth of episodes on one disk. Why not.

Because by breaking it into seperate seasons they can make several sales instead of just one.

[edDV]

In related news, TDK begins production of blu-ray consumer discs too:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/12/13/tdk/index.php

TDK has been in the game from very early on with BlueRay XDCAM.