Odds & Ends
Sunday, June 03, 2007
RIP HD-DVD; We Hardly Knew You
I'm a long way off making the leap to a high definition DVD format, but I've been watching the format war between the two rival formats (Blu Ray and HD-DVD) with some interest. It has seemed obvious to me for some time that Blu-Ray would be the last format standing; once all but one major studio was releasing disks in the format (while several don't release disks on HD-DVD) it seemed inevitable to me. I'm not the only one who felt this way: JB Hi-Fi, for example, aren't stocking HD-DVD titles at all on the basis that they see the death of the format as pretty much a foregone conclusion. Yet the hub of DVD news on the internet, The Digital Bits, has generally held back from saying this in quite such strong language. Now, though, prompted by some idiotic comments by Harry Knowles over at Ain't It Cool endorsing HD-DVD, they've come out and said what was becoming increasingly obvious, in a clear, well-reasoned piece (here). If you're thinking of trying out this whole high definition DVD thing and are wondering about the two formats, I strongly suggest you read it. Some samples: HD-DVD is not going to win this format war. In fact, one of two things is possible right now: Either Blu-ray will win, or neither format will win. But the best HD-DVD can hope for is to just keep hanging in the game as long as possible. If Harry Knowles' original comments were a paid endorsement by HD-DVD as many of his commenters suggested, then it seems to have backfired. Labels: commentary, dvd, hd-dvd Posted by Stephen Rowley @ 3.6.07  
Comments:
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I bought our HDDVD player for under $300 with 5 free discs.. I have hundreds of rentals in my queue. If the BlueRay players which are still in the $800 range drop into a similar price range I will buy one of those. I will have many years of enjoyment while you are waiting. Life is short. By the way, the HDDVD player upconverts Standard DVD just beautifully. I really don't care who wins.. as long as the players are inexpensive and there are plenty of rentals.
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posted by
 :
4/6/07 10:15 AM
Well, yes, if you're renting the equations are somewhat different. But for those whom (HD)DVD is a collecting medium, it makes sense to stick with collecting regular DVDs until Blu Ray hits an attractive price, as high def players will be backward compatible for the foreseeable future, while if (when) HD-DVD falls over, you won't be able to buy a player to buy those disks in future.
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It's also worth noting that if you're into console gaming, the Play Station 3 is a very cost effective Blu Ray player. |
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