July 6, 2006
Common Sense on HD-DVD v. Blu Ray
Mike Gartenberg blogged some common sense on the HD-DVD v. Blu Ray. Bottom line: like SACD and DVD Audio, these formats might never catch on and thus the format “war” may be entirely irrelevant. As Michael points out, HD and Blu Ray don’t offer significant added value compared to typical DVDs. With hardly any content available that can make the quality difference noticeable, consumers have no reason to shell out for new hardware. The heightened DRM restrictions certainly don’t help matters.
A good friend of mine is a wholesale AV dealer, and he offered much the same conclusions. He pointed out that older movies look downright crappy on an HD or Blu Ray player — it makes imperfections far more apparent. With that in mind, why are “Goodfellas” and “Blazing Saddles” among early releases on HD-DVD?
Filed by Derek Slater at 12:04 am under General news
1 Comment
That was an interesting article, although I wonder if Gartenberg missed one bit: the next gen video game consoles will offer HD or Blu-Ray support (assuming the PS3 ever gets to the store shelves).
This means that everyone who buys the new console (or the add-on for Xbox 360) will have High Def disc players. Thus there is a very fast market penetration that may significantly increase usage without the problem of how to convince customers to upgrade.
Just my 2 cents on this. 🙂