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Paramount, Dreamworks back HD DVD, drop Blu-ray
jimjim:
Once again I'm talking about commercial/home use.
1975 Betamax had a 1 hour record time... nobody (referring to home movie renters) cared about which format would win because nobody rented or bought movies to watch at home because there were none available.
So I guess you're right, because in 1975 Betamax owned 100% of the market because VHS did not come out until 1976. From 1976 -79 they were too expensive for home use, and movie rentals had not saturated the home market yet.
In the case of home use, I'll defer to Wikpedia again.
"Betamax held an early lead in the format war, offering some technical advantages. By 1980, VHS was gaining marketshare due to its longer tape time (3 hours maximum, compared to just 1 hour for Betamax in USA) and JVC's less strict licensing program."
"By 1980, out of an estimated 100,000 homes with VCRs, 70% were rented, and the presence of two competing formats meant that renting was an even more attractive choice, since a small fortune (about £2000 or $2600 in today's prices) could be spent on a system which may become obsolete. "
In 1980 Betamax tapes could only run 1 hour in the U.S. and people wanted to start a library of movies, then the war was over before a shot was even fired. Nobody questions the superior video quality of Beta tapes. I believe that people who wanted a superior version of a movie for library or archival purposes, and those who had spent a ton of money on Beta players, kept Beta around longer than its commercial success warranted.
hypernova:
--- Quote ---At least the DVD vs. DIVX ("Digital Video Express" - not the codec) war was easy to choose sides for back in the late 90's.
--- End quote ---
I remember that. That was probably like the movie 300, except in this case, the 300 all got slaughtered without doing much, if any damage.
I wonder who the poor idiots were who jumped on that format.
patrickl:
--- Quote from: jimjim on August 20, 2007, 07:01:42 pm ---Once again I'm talking about commercial/home use.
--- End quote ---
My parents had a Video 2000 and we used it till it broke down many years later. By then there were still V2000 and Betamax tapes in the video rental. Just a little less copies than for VHS. So what? You could get every movie just fine.
There might have been a system with a bigger market share, but all three the systems (or two in the US) were in use for years and it was not clear that only one would remain right up until the point Sony and Philips abandoned their systems.
Either way, doesn't matter if it took 5 years or 10 years, that's still a pretty slow heart rate.
CheffoJeffo:
--- Quote from: hypernova on August 20, 2007, 09:44:29 pm ---I wonder who the poor idiots were who jumped on that format.
--- End quote ---
Disney.
Can you imagine the cost to parents when the kids get up at 6:00 on Saturday and play that DIVX copy of Aladdin 30 times .... I wrote to Disney about it and eventually received a response that they had reversed their decision.
ChadTower:
The main difference between beta/VHS and now is that back then movies in the home were a completely new technology. Everyone was adopting a technology, not a format, so the stakes and potential gains were much higher. Now, there are dozens of formats and choices, from HD-DVD to Blu Ray to DivX to WMV... you can watch on a projector, a TV, a laptop, an iPod... in your car, your home, your yard, on a train in the rain in spain with John McClain... it's not a two horse race, it's a 5 thousand entrant race with all sorts of contestants.
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