Has Sony Already Won The Hd Format War With The Release Of The

Author: Gary Ruplinger

Article:
Can the Playstation 3 Help Sony and Friends Win The HD Format
War?

Quiet as things have been, it'd actually be hard to tell that
there is a format war going on right now for high definition
discs. There's Toshiba (among others) on one side with its
HD-DVD format and then there's Sony (among others) with its
Blu-ray format. Both offer far higher disc capacity than
standard DVD players and much high quality images and sound.

So far neither HD-DVD nor Blu-ray has made much progress making
it into consumers' homes.

However, that's all about to change.

With the release of Sony's third generation gaming system, the
Playstation 3, millions of homes will have a Blu-ray player in
them. Sony made the decision to include its new Blu-ray player
in the Playstation 3 rather than go with a PS3 proprietary
format or a DVD player that it included with the PS2. Although
Sony's decision to include a Blu-ray player in their new PS3 has
caused them many problems, including forcing the company to take
a much higher loss on each unit than expected* and with
production problems due to shortages of the blue diodes needed
to make the players, this strategy will likely pay off in the
long run for Sony.

In fact, one would have to wonder how Toshiba could even compete
with Sony's ability to get Blu-ray players into the homes of
millions of Americans. Toshiba has no game system that people
will line up to buy.

Given what's likely to happen, it would seem that the answer is
no. So far neither format has really shown to be leaps and
bounds better than the other. In fact, both are about
equivalent. Are consumers who already have a Blu-ray player with
their PS3 really going to go out and buy an HD-DVD player from
Toshiba? Not likely. However, many owners of one of Toshiba's
players will likely go out and buy a Playstation 3 to keep up
with the latest gaming technology. It would seem as if Toshiba's
HD-DVD format is destined to be another technology relic like
betamax and DVD-Audio.

Also, it appears likely that the PS3 will help to drive
increased sales of Blu-ray movies since PS3 owners will have a
Blu-ray player and will likely want to own their movies in a
higher quality format since they have the player. Even those who
don't have the high definition equipment will likely buy some in
the hopes that in the future they will have the equipment to
fully take advantage of the new technology or even merely for
bragging rights.

*It is customary for game system manufacturers to take a loss on
the sales of the gaming units when they're first released in
order to allow more people to purchase the system. The companies
know they can make there money back when consumers purchase
games for these systems. Also, over time, the prices of the
components to make the systems come down so that eventually the
manufacturers do make a profit on each system sold.

About the author:
Gary Ruplinger is the editor of PS3ASAP.com and Bluraytips.com.
If you want to learn how to get
a PS3 before Christmas without having to pay $2,000 on eBay
or camp out for 2 days at a store, then be sure to visit
PS3ASAP.com right away.