I was hanging out on the AVSForum the other day and saw several posts from people who said that in their comparisons HD-DVD is far superior to BlueRay tests.
Today those posts are getting reported in CentreDaily.
See how the grassroots could be changing popular opinion?
This is why I told Steve Ballmer to come to the grassroots and explain his leadership there first before heading to the mainstream press and analysts.
He didn’t take my advice, which is OK. But neither did Sony (or Google) and this isn’t the last article you’ll see like the one in CentreDaily.
One fun aside. Last night at my party I got a lot of questions about my HD-DVD. So I put on a movie. The consensus? One guy said it looked better than the movie theater did.
I agree. But first we need to see a second-generation player so I can recommend everyone get it (the Toshiba has a couple of deep flaws including a slow startup time and a huge-ass remote control that I can’t read in the dark).
Scoble, shame on you for being a MS lackey even after leaving MS. Or are you getting some kind of “deferred settlements”.
Ballmer’s leadership, grassroots. WTF?
I can say I have seen both BD and HD-DVD and BD looks way better. Of course, I am not the self appointed Bill O’ Reilly of tech news.
What is this grassroots you are talking about? The only people who “like” MS are people who make their living off of it. Business suits, .Net kiddies included. Out here in the real world, real techies sill hate MS.
Scoble, shame on you for being a MS lackey even after leaving MS. Or are you getting some kind of “deferred settlements”.
Ballmer’s leadership, grassroots. WTF?
I can say I have seen both BD and HD-DVD and BD looks way better. Of course, I am not the self appointed Bill O’ Reilly of tech news.
What is this grassroots you are talking about? The only people who “like” MS are people who make their living off of it. Business suits, .Net kiddies included. Out here in the real world, real techies sill hate MS.
Scoble, shame on you for being a MS lackey even after leaving MS. Or are you getting some kind of “deferred settlements”.
Ballmer’s leadership, grassroots. WTF?
I can say I have seen both BD and HD-DVD and BD looks way better. Of course, I am not the self appointed Bill O’ Reilly of tech news.
What is this grassroots you are talking about? The only people who “like” MS are people who make their living off of it. Business suits, .Net kiddies included. Out here in the real world, real techies sill hate MS.
Lemme get this straight. Some lazy AVS columnist in a no name newspaper is surfing the AVS boards one night and sees some nerds discussing the differences HD and BlueRay.. then suddenly realizes that… “shit! I’m on deadline! Well, guess I could make this a column so I can go to bed”, and you see this as an indication of a grassroots movement?
Lemme get this straight. Some lazy AVS columnist in a no name newspaper is surfing the AVS boards one night and sees some nerds discussing the differences HD and BlueRay.. then suddenly realizes that… “shit! I’m on deadline! Well, guess I could make this a column so I can go to bed”, and you see this as an indication of a grassroots movement?
Lemme get this straight. Some lazy AVS columnist in a no name newspaper is surfing the AVS boards one night and sees some nerds discussing the differences HD and BlueRay.. then suddenly realizes that… “shit! I’m on deadline! Well, guess I could make this a column so I can go to bed”, and you see this as an indication of a grassroots movement?
[...] Scoble wonder if the grassroots [is] picking HD-DVD over BlueRay?. I wonder if anyone cares about HD-DVD. Ok. Maybe it looks better, but I have a Mac Mini on the Plasma downstairs which just refuses to pick a sane resolution, generally doesn’t play DVD’s full screen, and often chooses the wrong resolution to sync up with the TV. The sound is an iPod HiFi hooked up to the TV. Point being — its nothing fancy, and I use it all the time. [...]
@HC, cheap ass “real techie” like you will have to wait few more years to get a hand on Bluray player. So before that please keep all these nonsense to yourself.
@HC, cheap ass “real techie” like you will have to wait few more years to get a hand on Bluray player. So before that please keep all these nonsense to yourself.
@HC, cheap ass “real techie” like you will have to wait few more years to get a hand on Bluray player. So before that please keep all these nonsense to yourself.
BTW, I always knock on MS and MS products. Well, I got to try MS Streets and Trips 2006 with the GPS. I have to say its a good product. I did see some usability issues, hopefully they get resolved by November. I think that’s when an upgrade is due.
The satellite acquisition time was impressive, better than more expensive GPS units. I hope MS stops trying to expand in every nook and cranny and puts out solid products which are a pleasure to use.
Drop out of the media space, drop out of the gadget space, drop out of the DRM business. Play nice with other technoligies.
BTW, I always knock on MS and MS products. Well, I got to try MS Streets and Trips 2006 with the GPS. I have to say its a good product. I did see some usability issues, hopefully they get resolved by November. I think that’s when an upgrade is due.
The satellite acquisition time was impressive, better than more expensive GPS units. I hope MS stops trying to expand in every nook and cranny and puts out solid products which are a pleasure to use.
Drop out of the media space, drop out of the gadget space, drop out of the DRM business. Play nice with other technoligies.
BTW, I always knock on MS and MS products. Well, I got to try MS Streets and Trips 2006 with the GPS. I have to say its a good product. I did see some usability issues, hopefully they get resolved by November. I think that’s when an upgrade is due.
The satellite acquisition time was impressive, better than more expensive GPS units. I hope MS stops trying to expand in every nook and cranny and puts out solid products which are a pleasure to use.
Drop out of the media space, drop out of the gadget space, drop out of the DRM business. Play nice with other technoligies.
The Digg thread has some interesting comments on this article as well.
http://www.digg.com/hardware/HD-DVD_clearly_outshines_Blu-ray
The Digg thread has some interesting comments on this article as well.
http://www.digg.com/hardware/HD-DVD_clearly_outshines_Blu-ray
The Digg thread has some interesting comments on this article as well.
http://www.digg.com/hardware/HD-DVD_clearly_outshines_Blu-ray
HC: if you thought I was “acting” before, you’re sorely gonna be disappointed.
Anyway, Buzz Bruggeman and I just went to the local Best Buy. We talked with several salespeople. (He’s looking to buy an HDTV). They said they liked HD-DVD better too cause the BlueRay that they received in their store isn’t giving as good a picture quality as the HD-DVD player (despite it being twice the price).
I looked at the BlueRay picture too and it didn’t measure up to my HD-DVD picture either but I didn’t have time to talk them into doing a side-by-side comparison so I’ll just have to go with what they told me.
By the way, they are pushing BlueRay to other customers (I overheard them doing that) but since I bought a Sony TV there they tell me a different story than they are telling people off the street. Makes me wonder if they are getting spiffs to sell a BlueRay deck.
HC: if you thought I was “acting” before, you’re sorely gonna be disappointed.
Anyway, Buzz Bruggeman and I just went to the local Best Buy. We talked with several salespeople. (He’s looking to buy an HDTV). They said they liked HD-DVD better too cause the BlueRay that they received in their store isn’t giving as good a picture quality as the HD-DVD player (despite it being twice the price).
I looked at the BlueRay picture too and it didn’t measure up to my HD-DVD picture either but I didn’t have time to talk them into doing a side-by-side comparison so I’ll just have to go with what they told me.
By the way, they are pushing BlueRay to other customers (I overheard them doing that) but since I bought a Sony TV there they tell me a different story than they are telling people off the street. Makes me wonder if they are getting spiffs to sell a BlueRay deck.
HC: if you thought I was “acting” before, you’re sorely gonna be disappointed.
Anyway, Buzz Bruggeman and I just went to the local Best Buy. We talked with several salespeople. (He’s looking to buy an HDTV). They said they liked HD-DVD better too cause the BlueRay that they received in their store isn’t giving as good a picture quality as the HD-DVD player (despite it being twice the price).
I looked at the BlueRay picture too and it didn’t measure up to my HD-DVD picture either but I didn’t have time to talk them into doing a side-by-side comparison so I’ll just have to go with what they told me.
By the way, they are pushing BlueRay to other customers (I overheard them doing that) but since I bought a Sony TV there they tell me a different story than they are telling people off the street. Makes me wonder if they are getting spiffs to sell a BlueRay deck.
I’m a pretty voracious videophile, and I’m at a loss to notice any significant difference in quality between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Which isn’t too surprising – everything is still getting encoded in MPEG-2.
Not to knock the AVSForum, but they’re to media what general tech sites are to operating systems – a bunch of loud fanboys drowning out practical advice born from experience.
I’m a pretty voracious videophile, and I’m at a loss to notice any significant difference in quality between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Which isn’t too surprising – everything is still getting encoded in MPEG-2.
Not to knock the AVSForum, but they’re to media what general tech sites are to operating systems – a bunch of loud fanboys drowning out practical advice born from experience.
I’m a pretty voracious videophile, and I’m at a loss to notice any significant difference in quality between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Which isn’t too surprising – everything is still getting encoded in MPEG-2.
Not to knock the AVSForum, but they’re to media what general tech sites are to operating systems – a bunch of loud fanboys drowning out practical advice born from experience.
[...] I have not seen Blu-Ray nor HD-DVD videos, so I have nothing to say yes or no to this, but Robert Scoble is seeing techies suggest HD-DVD as the better format. What he has seen in the AVSForum apparently is making it to bigger tech news sites now. I should point out that at least a couple of comments in response to Scoble’s post suggest “WTF? Are you on crack” response from proclaimed techies. I’m just pointing out that if what Scoble says is true, then Sony may have just found an added hurdle to getting the PS3 as game console and center-of-your-AV-world device accepted. I was hanging out on the AVSForum the other day and saw several posts from people who said that in their comparisons HD-DVD is far superior to BlueRay tests. [...]
The superior picture quality is given by the fact that HD DVD use an advanced codec (VC-1, derived from mpeg-4), and Blu-Ray use the old MPEG2 instead.
Why sony decided to use an old codec is beyond me, anyway…
The superior picture quality is given by the fact that HD DVD use an advanced codec (VC-1, derived from mpeg-4), and Blu-Ray use the old MPEG2 instead.
Why sony decided to use an old codec is beyond me, anyway…
The superior picture quality is given by the fact that HD DVD use an advanced codec (VC-1, derived from mpeg-4), and Blu-Ray use the old MPEG2 instead.
Why sony decided to use an old codec is beyond me, anyway…
Scoble, here’s why I called you the Bill O’ Reilly of blogs. You pass out anecdotes as facts. The only story you quote is the AVS Forums one.
Which one is better depends on who you ask? I have seen many forums which say BD is better, many that say HD-DVD is better. Personally, I like none. The format war means slow adaptation while it is being fought. At the end of the war, the only one who wins is the corporations supporting DRM, MS and Sony. What’s up with the idea that I don’t actually own what I paid for? What’s next, will we see MS billboards outside gulags?
So these corps will take our money but not give us what we paid for? That’s rich.
Thousands of people read your blog everyday. You should be concerned with telling people about the pros and cons of both techs and not evangalizing a MS technology and passing off a forum discussion as expert opinion in its forum. Frankly, it feels like you still work for MS.
Do that and they might even take your name out of the bastards of the blogs list.
BTW, honest to God, I talked to an employee at my local Best Buy and they are more excited about BD. And I did not get the first line of your comment too.
Scoble, here’s why I called you the Bill O’ Reilly of blogs. You pass out anecdotes as facts. The only story you quote is the AVS Forums one.
Which one is better depends on who you ask? I have seen many forums which say BD is better, many that say HD-DVD is better. Personally, I like none. The format war means slow adaptation while it is being fought. At the end of the war, the only one who wins is the corporations supporting DRM, MS and Sony. What’s up with the idea that I don’t actually own what I paid for? What’s next, will we see MS billboards outside gulags?
So these corps will take our money but not give us what we paid for? That’s rich.
Thousands of people read your blog everyday. You should be concerned with telling people about the pros and cons of both techs and not evangalizing a MS technology and passing off a forum discussion as expert opinion in its forum. Frankly, it feels like you still work for MS.
Do that and they might even take your name out of the bastards of the blogs list.
BTW, honest to God, I talked to an employee at my local Best Buy and they are more excited about BD. And I did not get the first line of your comment too.
Scoble, here’s why I called you the Bill O’ Reilly of blogs. You pass out anecdotes as facts. The only story you quote is the AVS Forums one.
Which one is better depends on who you ask? I have seen many forums which say BD is better, many that say HD-DVD is better. Personally, I like none. The format war means slow adaptation while it is being fought. At the end of the war, the only one who wins is the corporations supporting DRM, MS and Sony. What’s up with the idea that I don’t actually own what I paid for? What’s next, will we see MS billboards outside gulags?
So these corps will take our money but not give us what we paid for? That’s rich.
Thousands of people read your blog everyday. You should be concerned with telling people about the pros and cons of both techs and not evangalizing a MS technology and passing off a forum discussion as expert opinion in its forum. Frankly, it feels like you still work for MS.
Do that and they might even take your name out of the bastards of the blogs list.
BTW, honest to God, I talked to an employee at my local Best Buy and they are more excited about BD. And I did not get the first line of your comment too.
HC: I thought I made it pretty clear about the Best Buy employees. They are being spiffed (compensated) for pushing the BlueRay player. Makes sense. At $1,000 I’m sure the profit is better than at $499 for the Toshiba. Plus, they didn’t have a Toshiba in stock.
But, when you earn those employees’ trust like I have (I spent $5,000 there in the past few months) they tell you what they really think.
As far as my opening line you keep bringing up my Microsoft employment. You think that I’m a shill. I was writing this way before I was a Microsoft employee and I’ll keep doing so after. This wasn’t an “act” that Microsoft got by giving me money.
As to my responsibility. That’s for my readers to decide. If I mislead them then I’ll lose credibility. If I mislead them I’ll get lots of “Scoble sucks” comments and links and I’ll see lots of people demonstrating how my writing is incorrect.
I also assume I have smart readers here, not idiots. If anyone goes out and buys anything just based on my opinion then I really don’t want them as a reader. I expect you to do a weeee bit more homework than that!
HC: I thought I made it pretty clear about the Best Buy employees. They are being spiffed (compensated) for pushing the BlueRay player. Makes sense. At $1,000 I’m sure the profit is better than at $499 for the Toshiba. Plus, they didn’t have a Toshiba in stock.
But, when you earn those employees’ trust like I have (I spent $5,000 there in the past few months) they tell you what they really think.
As far as my opening line you keep bringing up my Microsoft employment. You think that I’m a shill. I was writing this way before I was a Microsoft employee and I’ll keep doing so after. This wasn’t an “act” that Microsoft got by giving me money.
As to my responsibility. That’s for my readers to decide. If I mislead them then I’ll lose credibility. If I mislead them I’ll get lots of “Scoble sucks” comments and links and I’ll see lots of people demonstrating how my writing is incorrect.
I also assume I have smart readers here, not idiots. If anyone goes out and buys anything just based on my opinion then I really don’t want them as a reader. I expect you to do a weeee bit more homework than that!
HC: I thought I made it pretty clear about the Best Buy employees. They are being spiffed (compensated) for pushing the BlueRay player. Makes sense. At $1,000 I’m sure the profit is better than at $499 for the Toshiba. Plus, they didn’t have a Toshiba in stock.
But, when you earn those employees’ trust like I have (I spent $5,000 there in the past few months) they tell you what they really think.
As far as my opening line you keep bringing up my Microsoft employment. You think that I’m a shill. I was writing this way before I was a Microsoft employee and I’ll keep doing so after. This wasn’t an “act” that Microsoft got by giving me money.
As to my responsibility. That’s for my readers to decide. If I mislead them then I’ll lose credibility. If I mislead them I’ll get lots of “Scoble sucks” comments and links and I’ll see lots of people demonstrating how my writing is incorrect.
I also assume I have smart readers here, not idiots. If anyone goes out and buys anything just based on my opinion then I really don’t want them as a reader. I expect you to do a weeee bit more homework than that!
Michael, so you have dropped $1,500 to buy both players and compare them at home? What kind of screen do you have? Tell us about what kind of methodology you’ve used.
Francesco: that’s what the Best Buy employees in Bellevue told me too. I didn’t bring that up cause I wasn’t sure if that’s due to the player not supporting the latest codecs or due to the content not being delivered with them. In other words, will newer CDs look better or will we need to wait for second-generation BlueRay players?
Michael, so you have dropped $1,500 to buy both players and compare them at home? What kind of screen do you have? Tell us about what kind of methodology you’ve used.
Francesco: that’s what the Best Buy employees in Bellevue told me too. I didn’t bring that up cause I wasn’t sure if that’s due to the player not supporting the latest codecs or due to the content not being delivered with them. In other words, will newer CDs look better or will we need to wait for second-generation BlueRay players?
Michael, so you have dropped $1,500 to buy both players and compare them at home? What kind of screen do you have? Tell us about what kind of methodology you’ve used.
Francesco: that’s what the Best Buy employees in Bellevue told me too. I didn’t bring that up cause I wasn’t sure if that’s due to the player not supporting the latest codecs or due to the content not being delivered with them. In other words, will newer CDs look better or will we need to wait for second-generation BlueRay players?
Hey, you wanna call it ‘grassroots’ go right ahead, but BluRay has been doomed from the day the first DRM warnings came out, and after Sony’s little rootkit debacle it’s fate was sealed.
Much like the PS3, really, that is going to bomb too.
Hey, you wanna call it ‘grassroots’ go right ahead, but BluRay has been doomed from the day the first DRM warnings came out, and after Sony’s little rootkit debacle it’s fate was sealed.
Much like the PS3, really, that is going to bomb too.
Hey, you wanna call it ‘grassroots’ go right ahead, but BluRay has been doomed from the day the first DRM warnings came out, and after Sony’s little rootkit debacle it’s fate was sealed.
Much like the PS3, really, that is going to bomb too.
How do you know they are being spiffed? I don’t know what you have against BD OR for HD-DVD.
I think all of your points are moot. As for more profit from $1000 vs $500, well it depends on what the cost to stores is. If the BD costs 900 and the HD players cost 400, well guess which ones make more profit as unit of shelf space and inventory cost. Also, stands to reason the cheaper HD players will sell more and will bring more benefit more from economies of scale. If Best Buy really is scamming its customers, I would like to see some proof.
You say you have earnt their “trust” by spending 5000 in that store. What does that even mean? I know a couple of fellas there and I always consult them when I make a purchase. Because they know I am no Joe Sixpack and I know what I am talking about. I am not making stuff here. They really told me to get a BD.
That’s beside the point. The point is that the Best Buy employee is not an expert. He has opinions like everyone else and you are passing them on as expert opinion. If that guy was an expert at anything, he would not be selling TV’s.
As for the readers, there’s something called preaching to the choir. You keep telling people what they want to hear, they will keep coming back. Heck, Ann Coulter’s No.2 on Amazon’s best sellers and McDonalds sells the most burgers in the world.
How do you know they are being spiffed? I don’t know what you have against BD OR for HD-DVD.
I think all of your points are moot. As for more profit from $1000 vs $500, well it depends on what the cost to stores is. If the BD costs 900 and the HD players cost 400, well guess which ones make more profit as unit of shelf space and inventory cost. Also, stands to reason the cheaper HD players will sell more and will bring more benefit more from economies of scale. If Best Buy really is scamming its customers, I would like to see some proof.
You say you have earnt their “trust” by spending 5000 in that store. What does that even mean? I know a couple of fellas there and I always consult them when I make a purchase. Because they know I am no Joe Sixpack and I know what I am talking about. I am not making stuff here. They really told me to get a BD.
That’s beside the point. The point is that the Best Buy employee is not an expert. He has opinions like everyone else and you are passing them on as expert opinion. If that guy was an expert at anything, he would not be selling TV’s.
As for the readers, there’s something called preaching to the choir. You keep telling people what they want to hear, they will keep coming back. Heck, Ann Coulter’s No.2 on Amazon’s best sellers and McDonalds sells the most burgers in the world.
How do you know they are being spiffed? I don’t know what you have against BD OR for HD-DVD.
I think all of your points are moot. As for more profit from $1000 vs $500, well it depends on what the cost to stores is. If the BD costs 900 and the HD players cost 400, well guess which ones make more profit as unit of shelf space and inventory cost. Also, stands to reason the cheaper HD players will sell more and will bring more benefit more from economies of scale. If Best Buy really is scamming its customers, I would like to see some proof.
You say you have earnt their “trust” by spending 5000 in that store. What does that even mean? I know a couple of fellas there and I always consult them when I make a purchase. Because they know I am no Joe Sixpack and I know what I am talking about. I am not making stuff here. They really told me to get a BD.
That’s beside the point. The point is that the Best Buy employee is not an expert. He has opinions like everyone else and you are passing them on as expert opinion. If that guy was an expert at anything, he would not be selling TV’s.
As for the readers, there’s something called preaching to the choir. You keep telling people what they want to hear, they will keep coming back. Heck, Ann Coulter’s No.2 on Amazon’s best sellers and McDonalds sells the most burgers in the world.
i must say that i am thinking like you
i must say that i am thinking like you
i must say that i am thinking like you
Even if this is true, history tells us the superior technology will not necessarily win.
And to leap from this to “See how the grassroots could be changing popular opinion?” is I would suggest ridiculous.
The key drivers will be the content (as dictated by the various studios signed up to each format), price and delivery to market.
Even if this is true, history tells us the superior technology will not necessarily win.
And to leap from this to “See how the grassroots could be changing popular opinion?” is I would suggest ridiculous.
The key drivers will be the content (as dictated by the various studios signed up to each format), price and delivery to market.
Even if this is true, history tells us the superior technology will not necessarily win.
And to leap from this to “See how the grassroots could be changing popular opinion?” is I would suggest ridiculous.
The key drivers will be the content (as dictated by the various studios signed up to each format), price and delivery to market.
One thing I have noticed is that people at Best Buy always first recommend the things they have trouble to sell to educated customers.
One thing I have noticed is that people at Best Buy always first recommend the things they have trouble to sell to educated customers.
One thing I have noticed is that people at Best Buy always first recommend the things they have trouble to sell to educated customers.