December 5, 2006

  • By now everybody are very familiar with the DVD format for movies and TV shows. Only recently with the surge of promotions, an aggressive push for HDTVs, as well as TV programing in high definition, people are starting to notice two extra words; HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The next-generation format for movies and TV shows are finally available to the public to buy and use concurrently with their new High Definition Television. But from there, two questions should pop up.

    1) Why two standards for the new HD disc format?
    2) Am I ready to re-start a new collection of movies and TV shows?

    Two very valid questions I would think, and those are questions I'm asking myself. I recognize that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are superior in quality as opposed to DVDs, but I'm annoyed at the fact that some movies / TV shows will only be released on one of the two formats. That means that we have to either buy two next-gen players (not cheap to do), or wait for the inevitable "2 in 1" player combo (that probably still won't be cheap). This next-gen DVD war reeks of the VHS versus Betamax situation a couple of decades ago. Not only that, but since DVDs are still very popular and prevalant to the public, HD-DVD / Blu-Ray might not even get that big a support from the people, which might cause this new format to go the way of the Laserdisc. Some people are even satisfied just upconverting their current library of DVDs for an HDTV, which is incentive not to bother with the new next-gen disc format.

    It'll be nice to have a high definition version of a favorite movie or TV show, but is the current situation in this format war worth jumping into? I say no it isn't, with a "wait and see" approach being the most reasonable form of action right now. Heck, maybe the future of high definition movies / TV shows lies in downloadable content.

Comments (3)

  • haha. interesting stuff but i'm still lost =)

    the thing with downloadable content, even with music, is that since we are expected to pay for it, we want it to be physically in our hands. or at least that's how i feel. if a harddrive crashes then it's all gone. then not only are you paying to download, you have to buy the bigger harddrives right?

    with music, i like having the cd insert with lyrics in front of me. the art is part of the entire package!

  • yeah, I love having the entire package of a CD. I just can't transition myself as a buyer of downloadable music just yet.

  • This whole HD-DVD and Blu-Ray thing is freakin' annoying for the exact reasons you listed. I hope neither of them take off. If it has to be one or the other, I hope it's not Sony's. Their products have always been excessively restricting, so I hope it goes the same way as the Beta's and MiniDiscs. (I've been riled up ever since you posted that link about Europe Sony shutting down that game store.

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