[astroglide]

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Speaking with FORTUNE magazine, Stringer confirmed that the PS3 will initially be sold at a significant loss in order to drive the Blu-Ray next-generation DVD standard out into the marketplace.


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Why should people cry about this?

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do you care about being able to fast forward through the commercials on a dvd you actually bought?

do you care about the ability for your media center system/dvr to store copies of your movies in the future for easy access?

do you care about how much storage space a dvd has so that more and/or higher quality stuff can fit on it?

do you want to be able to watch hd movies on any hd television, not just those with copy-protected dvi/hdmi inputs?

all of this stuff is determined by the standard. look at vhs and dvd. these things last a long time. if a bad one is selected, we're stuck with it.

people don't buy media players when they first come out, they wait for it to get cheap/popular. people buy consoles the minute they're released. if sony is able to make blu-ray the hd dvd disc standard by default as a result of this, the consumers lose. the standard should be ratified on its features and price, not by the ability to appear in a home for 'free'. the hd-dvd and blu-ray standards should have to fight so that they compromise and add the stuff people want.

patents are a big factor for industry too. the reason you have to buy a separate accessory to enable dvd functionality on modern consoles is because the manufacturers would have to pay a royalty for every system sold. sounds like an industry problem, but it affects consumers in a very real way. it would be a standard feature if it weren't for the patents, which are a part of the dvd standard and could be a part of the hd dvd standard depending on what happens.