Community weekly poll: Who do you predict will win the HD format war?

We shall see ...

You made a very good and valid point. However, we see that as time goes by that the popularity of both types of HD DVD playeers/recorders is becoming increasingly mainstream. It's becoming more common place to buy them.

PS 3 is a reason why some are switching to the HD DVD formats, but many are not interested in playing video games. And who knows what will happen when Microsoft unveils their answer to the Sony PS3?

We shall see.

you must be crazy

I think you are crazy if you choose to buy a player based on whether that format will have porn. Porn DVD's are expensive and not worth the money. So how much will a porn on HD-DVD will cost? First it will drive the prices down for porn DVD's and this will encourage people to buy the DVD instead of the more expensive HD-DVD. Porn in HD? I can understand if you want to watch your favourite movie in HD, or a nature program and sport in HD, but I can't understand why anyone would want to watch a porn in HD especially when you watch them once, wak off to them and then discard them.
This is the reason why the porn industry is so big. Not becasue the majority of people are buying it, far from it. It's because porn movies are so expensive, some retailing up to $50 and you get bored of the porn so quickly making you buy another, then another, then another. So its the same crowd buying DVD's one after the other at high prices.
Ask yourself this question, could both formats survive on the porn industry alone? I think not because both formats will never become mainstream and will stay very expensive. Both formats can be around for a long time with the film industries backing and without the porn industry.
I just read an article about growth of porn movie sales and this is dated Dec 2005. There was a prediction that next year (2006) the porn industry could reach $12.8 billion. Now it didn't state whether this was including downloaded movies from the net which I would imagine that there are more bought downloads than there are people buying from retail. On another article titled 'DVD sales Reshaping Film Industry' It says that home DVD movie sales hit $25 billion and that was dated Oct 2003. I had a look but didn't find, but what do you think DVD movie sales would be at now? There are so many more DVD movie sales than there are DVD porn movie sales.

After saying all that I like to tell you that Vivid anounced a few weeks ago that 'Debbie Does Dallas … Again' will be released on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

For the poster who said Sony are the only ones who are making blu-ray players, you are so wrong. All the leading companies are making blu-ray players. If you were asked to wright down as many company names as you can who are the top brands (and yes Sony is one of them, just because of the Playstation success and your a fanboy of another console) you will find that nearly all the names you written down are suporting blu-ray and are making blu-ray players. We're talking Panasoic who are still the biggest electronic company in the world ahead of Sony who rank 2nd, we have Samsung, Pioneer, Philips another high quality company, Sharp, Hitatchi, Mitsubishi, I think LG do both and there are more. You anlso have Apple, Dell and HP. I only found the small list. With HD-DVD you have Toshiba, err LG. Unless your loyal to Toshiba I think you would be looking at other brands that make blu-ray.
What about the film studios? lets see New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros said they would support HD-DVD back in nov 2004. Since then New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros decidd to also to support blu-ray while Universal Studios remains the only studios to stay exclusive to HD-DVD (which will proove to be te wrong choice eventually, that's if they're not already thinking about jumping ship) While Sony Pictures, MGM, Disney and 20th Century Fox have all exclusively backed Blu-Ray. Don't forget that Sony, Disney and Fox are currently the biggest film studios in that order.

So with all the best electronic companies backing blu-ray, the best studios backing blu-ray with HD-DVD only having Universal Studios as an exclusive. Just think of all your favourite movies that will never be released on HD-DVD and think of all those future rentals that will never be on HD-DVD. We have people in the industry predicting blu-ray to be the winners, blu-ray is already winning and in the future there could be 100 million PS3's and I doubt HD-DVD will ever reach 10 million even with help from Microsofts HD-DVD add-on.
And you say HD-DVD will win because of porn? Crazy, or is it you know blu-ray will win but you don't want to accept it because Sony is backing it, its in the PS3 and your really just a 360 fanboy who doesn't want blu-ray to be successful because it will help PS3 to be successful.

So far with the blu-ray vs HD-DVD. Its like 2 football teams trying to win the championship. blu-ray football team has the best first 11 that money can buy and HD-DVD football teams first 11 are a bunch of drunken regects, which team do you think will win the championship?

(NT) Thanks for your debunking research!

you don't hit on the biggest point, Sony gets all the $$$

Good post, very detailed.

Two things:
1. I don't buy porn, but I still believe 1080 porn will be a big seller, and you cannot download that detail over the web. Consumers are always going to want higher quality, and they will pay -- porn included.

2. IF Blu-Ray wins, Sony gets mega-rich $$$$ , what is so good about that? Wouldn't you rather the movie companies not have to pay a portion to Sony?

And let us not overlook ...

And let us not overlook the HUGE elephant sitting in the corner. I have heard that the adult entertainment industry made anastounding $12 BILLION last year!!! It's hard to ignore an industry like that. If the industry definitely weighs in with HD-DVD, it may very well be the deciding factor. Porn is a legitimate industry nowadays. These companies are listed on the NYSE. Most of the investors are now from mainstream America (wherever that is). The companies are now legal and have very ordinary and legitimate sounding names. It's just business! It's all about the ROI.

Good point.

Actually, I haven't thought of it much before. However, I guess you must be correct! I know that some internet sites charge to access porn. Another reader pointed out that many are now downloading movies and video clips. I didn't know about that avenue of commerce. I guess I had not really thought out the various aspects of the porn industry. Thanks for stating your point.