Transformers Movie Info

Why do we have a format war?

I am completely amazed at the stupidity of this DVD format war. Today Paramount dropped Blu-ray and further complicated the issue. People do not care about the technology behind each only the movies. The problem is that in terms of content you have the good movies split 50/50 between. Paramount will have Transformers, Sony will have Spiderman 3. DVD was the most successful because everybody used it an consumers loved it and now people are looking and not having to choose between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD but having to have both. Each format basically cuts off basically 50% of the content. I have an HD TV and an upscaling DVD player and to be honest for the amount of difference I see I will hold onto my DVD player for quite some time. How can we resolve this dilemma yet not force people to choose and pray their format wins?

Public Comments

1. Just wait for the dust to settle, can anyone say sony beta cassette. Sony studios account for a very small portion of the video market even with there exploding expansion, my only guess is that Paramount is doing this to protect itself from Sony's suicide marketing strategy, sooner or later a dual mode equivelent is bound to pop up and making a choice will be unneeded.


2. companies got greedy because the licensing rights for a standard format means BIG $$$ for 10 years or so. Both formats are going to be around for several years now.


3. We have a format war because:

   Consortium 1 comes up with a format and Consortium 2 comes up with a format. Consortium 1 does not want to pay a licensing fee to Consortium 2 and vice versa. So we end up with two formats. The way around this is to wait and buy the LG dual format machine and buy whatever DVDs you want.

   Or just be cheap like most people and keep the plain DVD-Video until they stop making those.



4. Dual Format machines. They currently exist and more are being manufacture. Simple answer.