I am normally an early adopter. I jump on things probably before I should. I bought my HDTV way before LCD. It is a CRT monster that takes several grown men to move. I bought one of the first TiVo DirectTV units (which I had a great time hacking and is still running!). However, I have not purchased either a HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray player. I lived through the Betamax vs.VHS video player war and this sure looked to be the same scenario—Sony being the a player in bother of these and they lost the first round.
So, after the pre-CES announcements about Warner moving to Blu-Ray http://tinyurl.com/3aud74 , did Sony win this one? Is HD-DVD still kicking? http://tinyurl.com/2kx73j
I want this to be over. I want one High definition DVD format. Everyone should. Look at the DVD-Video format. Although there are plenty of flavors with the recordable/RW (+, -), almost every player will play every format nowdays. The result: I bought a DVD Video player over the holidays at Meijer for $17.99. Granted it’s not much, but compared to $499 Blu-Ray player, I’ll take it. We need one format, one standard.
I also don’t want to have to buy a movie in two different formats. My library of movies is large enough as is. Take a look at digital audio. iTunes can’t play DRM WMA files and Windows Media Player cannot play DRM AAC files. I don’t want to have to break laws and crack audio files to have a library I can play on multiple platforms and devices.
Please tell me there is a winner here. I really don’t care who it is, but as Highlander says “There can be only ONE!”
2 comments
todd brakke
February 8, 2008 at 9:07 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I’m partisan on this one, but hell yes Blu-Ray won. Looks like Toshiba and company are going to drag this out as long as they can, but my bet is we see both Universal and Paramount go blu by year’s end. (Assuming the rumors of them having opt-outs in their exclusive HD-DVD contract are true.) At that point, it’s officially over for HD-DVD. Jump on the bandwagon, Greg. Join us!
Rick Kughen
February 8, 2008 at 10:55 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I’m waiting for the bell to officially ding before I plunk down anymore money on HD equipment. That said, I hope Blu-Ray wins because it’s more fun to say than HD-DVD. I mean, say it out loud – Blu-Ray. Now say HD-DVD. It’s hard to say without pausing. For that reason and that reason alone, I am declaring Blu-Ray the winner