Blu-Ray Support

[James]

Originally Posted by Bathrone

You assume James that it is a consumers market. It is not. Its about content and supply. Bluray has the major share of all the studios on their side.

Only as long as you are stupid enough to buy it. If Disney & Fox sit on piles of unsold Blu-ray discs and they have to watch how Warner, Paramount & Universal make a lot of money with their HD DVD sales... they will reconsider. They want to make money, too. Trust me, they will.

Originally Posted by Bathrone

It would be a regreatble business strategy to only support one of the two new formats, and especially the one which is not leading the sales.

This can change rather quickly with the help of AnyDVD HD.

Originally Posted by Bathrone

Perhaps slysoft could consider just a simple region free bluray product, then tackle the harder BD+ down the road. There is major demand for region free bluray now.

Decrypting AACS might be much easier than making it region free (AACS is basically the same on HD DVD and Blu-ray), especially as most Blu-ray drives are made by Matsushita/Panasonic.

Originally Posted by Bathrone

Someone is going to start selling such a product inevitably and slysoft is uniqely positioned with brand identification and reputation to win the market quickly. That is, unless slysoft is getting kickbacks from bluray not to do so

Maybe it is just the other way round, and the HD DVD folks give us kickbacks *not* to support Blu-ray?
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=23568

[Bathrone]

Thankyou for your thoughts James.

The notion that piracy will turn around the lack lustre HD-DVD sales is wishful thinking at best. According to which research group you listen too, you get a claimed 2 to 4 way lead over HD-DVD sales. With BRD having a 2 to 4 way lead over HD-DVD sales I dont see that turning around anytime soon.

And, BRD has region coding, the BDROM mark and BD+. So using the wishful logic that the weakest DRM / strongest pirate format will win clearly isnt reflected in what is happening with the marketplace.

With a 2 to four fold increase in sales over HD-DVD, it's hardly the case that BRD is sitting on shelves. Its actually HD-DVD that selling not so well.

One of the primary reasons for studios preferring BRD is it's seen as the stronger security platform. Again, its a suppliers market not a consumers market.

Im sure you and the other skilled staff at SlySoft can meet the challenge of region coding on BRD.

[James]

Originally Posted by Bathrone

Thankyou for your thoughts James.

The notion that piracy will turn around the lack lustre HD-DVD sales is wishful thinking at best.

Not piracy. Fair use. Where do you want to back up a 30GB movie to anyway? You can store it on your terrabyte media server for easy access. Sweet!
Consumers (yes, it isn't a consumer market per your definition, but somebody must pay for the crap, right?) aren't stupid (you could argue that, of course).
They want to use HD content the way they did with DVDs. They don't want to buy HDMI/HDCP displays. They want to make a DVD copy for the car. Maybe even a file for their portable player. A copy for the childrens room. They will very soon realise that BR won't allow this, but HD DVD does.
And the sales aren't that lack lustre as you say. If you compare titles available in both formats, HD DVD is close to Blu-ray or is even in the lead ("The Departed" on Blu-ray has sales rank 154 on amazon.com at the moment of this writing, the HD DVD version 144, so it is selling slightly better). I can only imagine how the sales rank of "Casino Royale" would be on HD DVD.
I can't see Blu-ray outselling HD DVD 2-4 at all.
The time will come where Fox & Co. won't walk away from the money any longer. DVDs are cracked for years now. This hasn't stopped the industry to make billions with them.

[James]

But this is all hypothetical, if my boss tells me "Do Blu-ray, now!" I'll obey. Or take my overdue vacation.

[skourip]

Well then lets hope that your boss does tell you to do just that James!!! Were can I reach him! ha ha Its funny I don’t seem to get it I guess I am new to the forum. The moderator Webslinger is trying to be unbiased but James who is if I understand it correctly also a Slysoft employee is clearly favoring HD-DVD. This bias is alienating a lot of slysofts customers who refrain from even using this forum because the feel that they will not be heard. You are also keeping new customers away. It certainly isn’t the best business practice a company like slysoft should not be taking sides in a war that is much much bigger than itself but should rather try to take advantage of both formats in order to attract as many customers as possible. Which format is better and which company deserves to win or loose should be irrelevant. You have a customer base which before this split was valuable to you and now you obviously choose to either force one format on them or disregard their needs if they choose different!! In any case I am buying a mix of both formats and the idea of conversion from one to other seems like a good one. I do agree with James that Slysofts software is about fair use rather than piracy. I have copied over 100 DVD´s but have not kept a single copy. It was always on RW discs to be able to watch at my convenience.

[James]

Originally Posted by skourip

Well then lets hope that your boss does tell you to do just that James!!! Were can I reach him! ha ha Its funny I don’t seem to get it I guess I am new to the forum. The moderator Webslinger is trying to be unbiased but James who is if I understand it correctly also a Slysoft employee is clearly favoring HD-DVD.

Yes, and I am also an individual and entitled to my own opinion.

[Webslinger]

Originally Posted by skourip

The moderator Webslinger is trying to be unbiased but James who is if I understand it correctly also a Slysoft employee is clearly favoring HD-DVD.

I don't work for Slysoft actually (well, I help moderate, and I try to help people if I can), but I'm not a Slysoft employee. I was basing my opinion on
this:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=1542

"Tom Xiang, Marketing Director: "When we considered Blu-Ray, our strategy
was simply to initially support HD-DVD and await further developments
in the marketplace. Already during the beta phase we got many
inquiries about Blu-Ray so we decided to go ahead and also provide
support for this as soon as possible. Blu-Ray employs the same
AACS process as HD-DVD. An implementation was really just a matter
of form. A beta version is planned for availability this quarter."

This bias is alienating a lot of slysofts customers who refrain from even using this forum because the feel that they will not be heard.

You're being heard. You don't need to worry about posting. James is just expressing his personal opinion. He is not trying to offend anyone.

[skourip]

Originally Posted by James

Yes, and I am also an individual and entitled to my own opinion.

Well James yes you are an individual and you are most certainly entitled to your own opinion, however you are posting on your employers forum and your opinions carry the weight they do because on your username it states SlySoft Team Member. As such you should, in my humble opinion, first and foremost represent the company’s views and interests. You could very well have created another username where your affiliation is not indicated if you feel the urgent need to express your personal views especially if these views may hurt the company or upset users. In any case I agree with many of the points you make and my comments are not meant to insult you. Nor was I offended by your comments(as Webslinger may have thought) even though others may not be as forgiving especially when they are called stupid ¨Only as long as you are stupid enough to buy it¨!!
Webslinger thank you for your response lets see if BR support does actually materialize.

[DetroitBaseball]

Blu-Ray's region coding isn't as bad as DVD's.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s_with_key.png

[James]

Originally Posted by DetroitBaseball

Blu-Ray's region coding isn't as bad as DVD's.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s_with_key.png

Every region coding is bad.