Goodnight, Sweet Prince: HD-DVD is dead
At last: revenge.
Some might argue that Red still has some fight left in him, but its clear from recent announcements that the entertainment industry has chosen Blu-ray as their champion, leaving HD-DVD on limited life support.
The first blow came on January 4th, when Warner Brothers announced that beginning later this year they would release titles exclusively on the Blu-ray format.
(January 4, 2008 Burbank, CA) In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
Then two more in rapid succession: both Netflix and Blockbuster will dump HD-DVD for Blu-ray, though they plan to keep HD-DVD on the shelves for around a year before those titles disappear all together.
In a huge blow to Toshiba, Universal, and the rest of the HD DVD devotees, rental giant Blockbuster has decided to stock only Blu-ray discs in the vast majority of its nationwide locations, although HD DVD titles will continue to be offered online and in the 250 (out of 1,450) stores that have been testing both formats since last year.
If that wasnt enough, both Best Buy and Wal-Mart kicked HD-DVD to the curb barely a week ago. And today Universal issued a press release announcing their side in the Hi-Def Format War.
"While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
"The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear. Universal will continue its aggressive efforts to broaden awareness for hi-def´s unparalleled offerings in interactivity and connectivity, at an increasingly affordable price. The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate."
Oh, God, do you still think theres a chance that HD-DVD might overcome? A small sliver of hope? Hope you have a hankie, because youre wrong. HD-DVDs most ardent supporter has also called it quits.
TOKYO--Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
We barely knew him. May he rest in peace.
punk feels sorry for those who couldnt wait to see who came out on top and bought an HD-DVD player. Really, he does. Hat-tip to Bennybum.
Digg.com revolt happening right now
Right now every single story on the front page of Digg.com is about the same topic. In fact it's been that way all night as you can see from this screenshot taken over an hour ago. Texyt has a pretty great wrap up of what's going on but basically HD-DVD was cracked and the hex code was posted on Digg. Digg pulled the story saying it violated their TOS as it was someone elses IP. Well HD-DVD is a sponsor of Diggnation which got people asking questions, but more importantly reposting the code. In as many ways as they could possibly think to do it. Now it's on MySpace and YouTube as well. Some of the stories people are posting are pretty amusing but from the looks of this, it's not stopping anytime soon. Everytime they delete a series of posts they are replaced by new ones also containing the code in second. As I mentioned on my own blog, this is the community revolting and you can't build a community to think for itself and then try and fight it when it does. Digg is holding up technically under this flood, but the best thing they can do right now is give up for the night, get some sleep, and hope some of the dust has settled by tomorrow and try to clean it up then.
UPDATE: Kevin speaks! In a post on the Digg Blog Kevin Rose has just posted the hex code himself and stated that they will no longer be removing the posts with the code. He writes:
...after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, youve made it clear. Youd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we wont delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.
If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
Chris Gores Footage Fetishes: Red VS. Blu The HD-DVD War
One day I imagine a world at peace. A day in which a small black box on top of my television comes armed with the ability to download and view any movie or TV show along with those accompanying extra features that we once found only on those silver platters we used to collect so long ago, way back at the turn of the century. Remember those things? Remember DVDs?
The battle for the next DVD format rages on and consumers have yet to pick a winner.
Were still a long way from downloadable content taking hold in numbers worth noting. (My estimate is five years.) However, the war raging now is a different kind of Red VS. Blue. Im not talking states in the US, of course, but the competing HD-DVD formats that have been thrust upon the public. A public that didnt even know that the current televisions or DVDs they were watching were in need of an upgrade.
While there have been countless articles quoting techno-babble and specs and stats comparing the two formats of HD-DVD, I want to add to the discussion by pointing out a few things that traditional tech writers may have missed. So, heres a few of the basic questions answered without a lot of techno-babble.
Do I really need an HD-TV?
I guess that depends on how good your eyesight is. I was at an electronics store once when I realized that the average person doesnt really care and the HD-TV format is being forced upon consumers. After staring for some time at an HD-TV a woman turned to me and asked, Is that HD or not? And this has happened on more than one occasion. While the differences in picture quality are clear, especially considering the rectangular shape of the widescreen, the general public still needs a side-by-side comparison to tell. Heres the deal
Regular TVs have 480 lines of resolution.
HD-TVs have 720 lines of resolution, nearly double. And many new HD-TVs support up to 1080 and there are newer HD-TVs coming that will go as high as 1350.
Whats the difference between the formats of HD-DVDs?
There are a lot of complicated specs thrown at consumers regarding the two formats of DVDsHD-DVD and Blu-Ray disc. And you can look at a great comparison of those tech specs here. The bottom line is that Blu-ray (blue packaging) can hold more data than regular HD-DVD (red packaging). And neither format is compatible with the other.
Do technical specs really matter?
In this battle, it really does not matter. So, while storage space on Blu-ray is higher, the other differences are negligible when you consider picture quality. On the quality of image, both are superior with no visible differences when viewed on the same television screens. In fact, if your TV is smaller than 32 inches, its probably not worth getting an HD-TV anyway, much less an HD-DVD player.
In glorious 1080 resolution, some movies are still unwatchable.
Do I have to choose a side, I mean, can I go both ways?
Yes. You can. A combo player that will accommodate both Blu-ray and regular HD-DVD is coming soon, but will cost about $1,000. In addition, some studios such as Warner Brothers, are releasing DVDs that are playable on both a regular DVD player and a standard HD-DVD player. So, if you were considering buying Superman Returns anyway, and you dont have an HD-TV or an HD-DVD player, you can purchase the film and get both. Once you do upgrade to HD, youll be ready for image quality that is both jaw-dropping (explosions) and disconcerting (bad skin on actors you may have previously found attractive). The combo DVD/HD-DVD format is really the only edge in the format war.
Im confused, just tell me what to do!
That is the reaction from most consumers, Just tell me which one is the best. In this battle, there is no best format. It really comes down to cost. Sonys PS3 (if you can find one) is also a Blu-ray player, and Microsofts Xbox 360 has an add-on that will allow one to play regular HD-DVDs. When you add them up, both cost the same (about $600), although, for $200, you can by the Xbox HD-DVD add-on and, with a USB and some technical ingenuity, connect it to your computer.
XBox 360 has an external HD-DVD drive available.
My advice is to wait. Just be patient. And before you even consider an HD-DVD format, its more important to choose an HD-TV. Next Christmas will see the real HD-DVD format battle when more and more people actually have HD televisions in which to view them. So, go ahead and buy that HD-TV (as long as its larger than 40 its well worth it) and, if you buy DVDs frequently, get those combo discs to build your library. Thats what Im going to do.
Gore gone.
Chris_Gore is an author, a filmmaker, the creator of Film Threat, and happens to own an XBox 360 with an HD-DVD drive.
