Blu Ray is officially dead

[orbital123]

Oh well, this is better in the long run format wars suck.

http://xbox.ign.com/articles/606/606549p1.html


Blu-ray and HD-DVD Join Forces
Sony and Toshiba to team up on a new, unified next-gen format. Where does PS3 fit in?
by Matt Casamassina

April 21, 2005 - According to a report by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the next-generation format war may be over before it ever starts. The Japanese newspaper on Thursday published with news that Sony and Toshiba are expected to make an announcement later this month that they have abandoned the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats respectively and are working on a new medium that will bring together both standards.

Sony, a leading member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, announced last year that it would include a Blu-ray drive in its forthcoming next-generation console, PlayStation 3. More than 100 companies, including Apple, Panasonic, HP, and Pioneer, support Blu-ray, which promises up to 50 gigabytes of storage on a single disc side. Toshiba leads the opposing format, HD-DVD.

While it is commonly accepted that Blu-ray discs offer more storage space than HD-DVDs, electronics companies and Hollywood studios have remained divided over the two formats due in large to the manufacturing processes. In short, the DVD infrastructures already in place would serve HD-DVD manufacturers. However, costly new facilities and operations would need to be created in order to support the Blu-ray format.

Sony and Toshiba have remained in negotiations on the subject for weeks, with key company executives from each camp dropping hints that a unified standard would be optimal.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that, having reached an agreement that a new, unified standard would be the best thing for the industry, Sony and Toshiba are now in the process of designing the new standard, which seeks to take the strengths from each medium and combine them.

Sony has reportedly suggested using Blu-ray's disc structure and HD-DVD's software technology while Toshiba has suggested keeping HD-DVD's disc structure and applying Sony's multi-layer data-recording technology.

The Japanese paper reports that both companies are eager to reach an agreement in order to avoid the format wars that initially confused consumers and hindered both the VHS and DVD eras. The two electronics giants have already briefed major Hollywood studios including Disney and AOL Time Warner on the idea of a new, unified standard, according to the paper.

The big question is, what does this news mean for PlayStation 3, which is scheduled to release sometime next year? The very probable answer is that the next-generation machine will drop Sony's announced Blu-ray drive in favor of hardware that instead plays this new, still-announced format compromise.

[straightballin]

The format should be better then both blu-ray and hd-dvd because they are combining the strengths of both formats. Hopefully they keep the abillity to use old dvd manufaturing lines to create the new format like the hd-dvd so costs are down.

[vg132]

As long as its one format I dont care what format it is. But I hope thay can get as much of blu ray's space on to the new format, we need to take big steps, not baby steps between the generation switches so that the generations can live longer.

/Viktor

[bustabusta196]

So is blue-ray not being put into PS3.. or are they releasing PS3 with the current blu-ray format.

[vg132]

I cant see this as a big problem for PS3, the media must be one of the things that thay can change in the last minute and I would expect this new format to take shape prity quickly as both old formats was about to be released (Blu-ray already out in Japan?), no one wants a big delay.
Not to put there next generation media into the PS3 would be a big mistake for Sony and one that I dont think thay will make.

/Viktor

[Thegamingdwarf]

I dont see how they can change the format in such a small space in time before the next generation consoles enter the shops, so im guessing that yes sony will still use Blu-ray but dont take my word for it because it is only and educated guess that is dictated by time.

Its a shame though because so many people where backing the format and it would have been given critical acclaim with the amount of big names about to use it, like the quote mentioed above. The whole media industry would have benefited and it would have made sony an awful lot richer, yet they still percist in uniting things for the good of something or another. Lets just hope they made the right descision and can unite things successfully while encorperating all the good elements of bothe formats.

Fingers crossed for the future of media formats.

[siren]

Changing the format last minute can cause substantial problems.

Developers code their games in part on how quickly they can get the data off the disc. If the disc format changes, it will change the rate that can get the data off the disc.

Since it is sounding like the new format will be a hybrid, more than likely it will have at least minorly slower read speeds than Blu-Ray.

Being that their are not many Dev kits out for the PS3 yet, I don't see this causing a huge impact, unless the decision isn't made until just a couple of months prior to the PS3's release.

[straightballin]

Well it can be slower or faster and if its slower cant they just add a higher disc read to the drive like 12x to 24x or sumthing like that.

[Makaveli_786]

Interesting IGN should post Sony are to ANNOUNCE theyr dumping blu-ray when just yesterday a Sony spokesman said screw HD-DVD Blu-ray is the future!

[MiThRaZoR]

Hmm, you think they could make something like th HVD? If not then what happens when HVD actually comes out. Can't do anything to that, but that'll be for companies and stuff I guess.

[Makaveli_786]

This was on Engadget a couple of days ago:

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000520040641/

[PS|Xero]

After reading this, I honestly don't know what to believe.

However, say Sony and Toshiba were to unify the disks, what good would it really do for the PS3?

Obviously it would avoid the format war, and give Sony some definite income if this format were to hit big as the Next Gen Media Format.

But if this disk is slower or holds a less amount of space then Blu-Ray, why use it in the PS3?

I don't think it's a bad move by Sony, however, I think it'd be a bad idea to implement this new disk into the PS3. Especially with E³ right around the corner.

[james3579]

on gamespot they said that sony and toshiba arent even close to an understanding, so to speak, on what to do with it. i heard they plan to take the best of both formats and go with that

[Cody]

I don't like this... If I were Sony I would just offer Toshiba a large part in Blu-ray it has much higher date transfer rates and more storage.. I hope it at least leaves the data transfer rates alone.

[Epsilon-Zero]

i trust IGN over some lower news group. Ofcourse its not going to be easy to work out a compromise but in no way have both sides declared WW3 yet.

If i was japanese and bought a bluRay player/recorder already i would be really pissed right now. Those things are not cheap! :cry:

I would say sony has 2 choices for the PS3 if they make a compromise with HDDVD.

A. They redesign the drives to read the new format which will cost a lil bit to them but all the Devs may have to rethink how their game is going to load like Siren pointed out.

B. They stick with the old Blu-Ray plans for PS3 and crossout High Definition movie playback as part of the PS3, to keep the original specs the same for the devs. Doing this will ofcourse make the PS3 nothing more than a game machine like the PSOne before it but the old Blu-Ray standard may have many benefits for games over the BD/HD hybrid.

[TheSpinningCube]

Blu-ray isn't soley owned by Sony. There are a lot of other companies that a stake in the format in the format as well, so naturally they are going to support blu-ray.

I think it's in their best interests though to merge the formats.

[Makaveli_786]

Blu-ray have the upper hand due to Sony owning 40% of Hollywood and having like 60% of Hollywood on the bandwagon, if Toshiba leaves the HD-DVD stand then HD-DVD won't last overnight but Toshiba left Blu-ray camp to start HD-DVD so that probably won't happen, Blu-ray has the upper hand like I said already but you never know it could spin either way

[MaxVT103]

Ok from a logical point of view, blue ray can still be able to read standard dvd's, so if they make hd-dvd's using the same technology as dvd why wouldn't a blueray drive be able to read it? I don't think Sony is worried about putting hd-dvd in ps3 because its a gaming machine, they should keep the blueray for their games and just make it so it can play hd-dvd's anyway. I know they want to make it an all in one media center, but I don't think that this is to much of an issue unless hd-dvd wants to be uncooperative and not allow sony to license it to their bluray drives so they can read hd-dvd.

[Makaveli_786]

All blu-ray drives to date come with the ability to record onto CD and DVD, they can obviously play them as well, all formats apart from DVD-RAM, Blu-ray drives can play the original HD-DVD's which came with 15GB of storage and were red laser, they can also play the violet laser HD-DVD discs with about 30GB of storage, Blu-ray is far superior and has a lot more potential, HD-DVD can't be dual layered as of yet so its peak is 30GB with about 36MBPs transfer rate, Blu-ray discs can handle upto 50GB per layer and have gone upto 4 layers, they can theoretically handle 100GB per layer with upto 8 layers or 800GB, they have a maximum speed of 16x, at 1x they have a transfer rate of 56MBPs or so(comapred to DVD's 11MBPs or HD-DVD's 36MBPs), the transfer rate of a maximum 16x drive is a theoretical 896MBPs, at the forefront of Blu-ray technology is a prototype disc which can store 1024 Gigabytes or a Terabyte and has a transfer rate of 1GBPs, compare that to a DVD its got 200 times more storage and can transfer 100 times as much data per second...

I don't see what the debate is about man, what's HD-DVD got to offer?

[MiThRaZoR]

1/3 of what Blu-Ray got to offer. But yeah, where the hell are you getting all those numbers? Last time I checked, the transfer rate doesn't go up per layer.

[Makaveli_786]

Not per layer the transfer rate goes up depending on how fast the disc spins, 1-16 times

[MiThRaZoR]

Oh, I see. I was confused. But I don't think Blu-Ray's layers would go that high. If they could then why didn't they just do that to DVDs? And plus, We don't even need that much space.

[Makaveli_786]

http://www.blu-ray.com/

You can find nearly everything about blu-ray there, the reason we can't dop it with DVD's is because of the limitations of the laser and the wavelenght, blu-ray has a smaller wavelenght and a more intelligent laser thats why it can be done on blu-ray discs, we don't need this tech yet but that Sony were trying to show is Blu-ray is ready for the future, its a pretty cool idea because if some games come on 25GB dics then some take more space we won't have to use two discs we can use a 50GB disc and so on.

[SessDMC]

Blu-ray could also have more potential for archiveing, is i learned in collage a few days ago, some banks and other buisnesses use a small tape that can store up to 2GB of data, and the tape was tiny, but the only downside was that you had to forward and rewind to find a record, and that took ages, now they can use a secure system to find out a copy from a blu ray disk alot more efficantly and use a cypher to encrypt the data. So blu-ray also has that potential, and can i ask admin/mods to consolidate all these threads into the blu-ray thread sticky, i mean c'mon i have to scroll though 3 or 4 threads to find out the same info and give a diffrent answer.

[Se7enwolf]

Ign is bad for info. Sony offically announced they are IN DEALS with Joining Blu-ray and HD-DVD www.bluray.com

Resistance: Fall of Man has been patched to celebrate the holidays! This patch contains many updates, bug fixes, and goodies that will further enhance the Resistance experience. With the release of comprehensive patches such as these, Insomniac is proving they are dedicated to keeping Resistance up to date and the multiplayer fan base happy.

Here are the official notes:

Ranked Games

Map size determined by the number of players in the game
All maps available for ranked games
Score limits for team deathmatch adjusted based on the number of players in a match
Time limits added for all game types that were missing them

General

Various bug fixes and formatting issues
Fixed a rare issue where a player would become invisible to all other players in a match
In Human vs Human or Chimera vs Chimera team games, all players on a team will show up as the same model to help distinguish between the teams.
Added a barrier on Manchester, which was previously left out, to prevent players from leaving the playable area.

Character Sheet

“Return a Flag” ribbon now displays properly. All “Return a Flag” ribbons earned prior to this patch will be restored.
“Multi Kill” ribbon will now be tracked. Unfortunately, no “Multi Kill” ribbons earned before this patch can be restored.
“Target Bomber” ribbon can now be achieved with the frag grenade as well as the hedgehog grenade
You will now receive a system message when you earn a new rank.
A player’s rank will not be sometimes misrepresented as lower than it actually is.
Wins/Losses are now displayed on the player stats.
Changed the requirements to earn some of the medals on the character sheet.
We have replaced the Skeleton skin with a new skin, the Mechanic. We've determined that the Skeleton is much smaller and more difficult to see on many levels than any of the other skins. The skins were never meant to give a gameplay advantage, but to offer you the chance to customize your character as you see fit, and we don't want people to be at a disadvantage because they didn't pick any one particular skin. Never fear, the skeleton may make a return at some later date, in some form or other.

Lobby

You can now accept a party invite if you are in a game and the party you are joining is in the same game.
The results screen will now automatically rejoin the game after 30 seconds instead of disconnecting from the game as it previously did.
There is now an option to enabled “Map Vote” for custom games. If this option is enabled, players may press triangle when they are on the results screen to vote on what map they wish to play next. This option is enabled by default.
You can now create a deathmatch game with a time limit as the only end game condition.
Fixed a bug where players joining a game in progress would sometimes be placed on the team that had more players instead of the team with less players.

Voice Chat

Voice chat is now “push-to-talk” by default in team games as well as free-for-all games. The standard button is L3 and it can be remapped. Open mic is active only for squad chat when you choose to join a named squad. In that case you still use the push-to-talk button to broadcast to your entire team. Other places where open mic is active are when observing in a limited lives game and when you are in a party
There is now an indicator in the lower right hand corner to let you know when you are transmitting on the microphone

Interface

Players in a squad will now be given an additional option to spawn near their squad in CTF, Meltdown, and Breach.
Player names that are longer than 11 characters will no longer be truncated if they have a clan tag enabled.
The flag taken message will stay on the screen longer in CTF games
Enemies are now represented as triangles on the radar and map.
Buddies on your team will show up as green dots on the map and radar (if it is enabled)
Squad members will show up as yellow dots on the map and radar (if it is enabled)

Balance and Tuning

Chimeran rage damage multiplier has been reduced.
Chimera at max heat will now only lose health until they are at 50% health instead of going all the way down to 1% health.
Humans will now spawn with 1 frag grenade as well as the M5A2 Carbine
Enemies will now show up on the Human map/radar if they are within radar range of ANYONE ON YOUR TEAM and only in the following circumstances: They are sprinting or in rage mode, they are firing/attacking, they are jumping, or they are within range of node radar (Breach)
The L11-2 Dragon will now do extra damage to Chimeran players as was originally intended
Most weapon damage values have been tweaked in the interest of balance. In general, weapons have been tweaked to deal slightly less damage.
The spawn selection algorithm has been modified to make players spawn next to enemies less often, and to spawn near teammates and squadmates more often
Moved the location of the flag in several CTF maps to help prevent stalemating
Suicide will now increase the waiting time until a player respawns by 10 seconds in team games.

[JDawg5000]

Ah, a much needed patch I think :)

[ps3 Wanna be]

Insomniac is a company, and so you should refer to it as "it" instead of "they".

Other than that this is a great update!

Live

[THEREALNEXTGEN]

I can't believe you think Blu Ray is dead. It's out performing HD-DVD right now.

[PXG S3]

What is the deal with this thread bumping? Stop it!...Are people drinking and posting again?

[Qbanj69]

the blu-ray player(s) will support the new format. no need to worry.

[Echfactor]

Hopefully he'll be banned soon.... one cause its annoying and two because I feel bad for the guy.

[Breed]

What is it with people and love for old threads. Do people look at dates when they search?

[softtack]

I can't believe you think Blu Ray is dead. It's out performing HD-DVD right now.
How did you find this topic? :lol:

[sprintnasty]

The big question is, what does this news mean for PlayStation 3, which is scheduled to release sometime next year?

doesnt this alone tell you that this is old and has no reason for being here. YOU MY BOY BLU!

[seebs]

I can't believe you think Blu Ray is dead. It's out performing HD-DVD right now.

Maybe if you'd noticed the date (2005) on the post, you wouldn't have been as surprised.

[Nstriker20]

WTF aren't we in 2007. What the heck is up with this old topic that keeps bring people back to post on it.

[shadow26]

i doubt we will be stuck with a format we cannot use. SOny's invested too much in blu-ray. most likely if this does happen- which i doubt -our ps3's will be able to play the new format.
edit: who brought back this old topic? who was it? god.....thats annoying.

[Beemer]

wow how did you even find this thread?

[majinvegeta]

This article is from 2005, it is useless now. Obviously those negotiations did not help, and so Sony and HD-DVD are still in the war. There is no unified system being talked about, I doubt Sony would have included an expensive Blu-Ray in the PS3 and then to say forget it?

Trust me, Blu-Ray is winning, for them to give up now is like walking up 75 of the 100 stairs and giving up to walk back down. Its useless and will cost them twice as much to do.

[Callo]

This article is from 2005, it is useless now. Obviously those negotiations did not help, and so Sony and HD-DVD are still in the war. There is no unified system being talked about, I doubt Sony would have included an expensive Blu-Ray in the PS3 and then to say forget it?

Trust me, Blu-Ray is winning, for them to give up now is like walking up 75 of the 100 stairs and giving up to walk back down. Its useless and will cost them twice as much to do.

Thank you!

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Why are people bumping old threads anyways?:confused:

[Fekz]

THEREALNEXTGEN needs to be banned for bringing this thread back to life.

[dead_zen]

And the anti-PS3 propaganda begins.

Gee, I wonder, just before the release of PAL territories launch, maybe MS is afraid of the 3-4 million Sony's about to sell, while they struggle with their 10 million.

Imagine that, MS is on the ropes, for the next three years as Sony and Nintendo beat the Xbox.

Great stuff.

[THEBLAKWALSTREET]

haha wtf is up with this, ppl have been doing this the last couple of days, stop doing crack and posting!!

[poematik14]

Great well that kinds screws over the people who bought hd dvd players, like i did.

[Ixion]

Wow, this thread got me really worried before I noticed the date lol.

THEREALNEXTGEN is most likely just drunk. Let him be.

[THEREALNEXTGEN]

Request immediate lock and trash disposal of thread.