01.11.08 5:00 AM CST
• TV & DVDs
• Robert DeSalvo
“With our combined strength we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.”—Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes BackThat could have been Warner Bros. addressing the other members of the Blu-ray Disc Association. This week, in a bold announcement right before CES in Las Vegas, the studio said that it would stop supporting rival format HD DVD and focus solely on Blu-ray. “A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Kevin Tsujihara, the president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience.”
Within a day, sister company New Line also dropped HD DVD support, and rumors are swirling that the two remaining major studios that still release titles on HD DVD—Paramount and Universal—could soon switch to the Blu side. It is essentially game over for the Toshiba-backed HD DVD format, which will soon join the ranks of Betamax and the MiniDisc in the Museum of Forgotten Technology. Warner Bros.’s ballsy decision brought down the hammer on the high-definition format war that has been dragging out for over a year now, dividing studios and confusing customers who have been waiting for this all to play out before buying a high-def player for their HDTVs.
But now Blu-ray must face a far tougher competitor—the good ol’ DVD. Even though all Blu-ray machines can also play standard DVDs, many people with HDTVs are satisfied with upconverting DVD players that cost far less than a typical Blu-ray player, which also upconverts standard DVDs to near HD quality. DVDs can look nice on an HDTV, and for many people that is good enough. But when you see a Blu-ray in full 1080p the difference in picture quality is crystal clear—literally.
Also, don’t believe the hogwash about digital movie downloads being commonplace anytime soon, making Blu-ray unnecessary. Do you know how long it would take to download a 50 GB movie? And where would you store 10 of them, let alone an entire movie collection? I can see downloads eclipsing rentals in about five years when the technology is perfected, but even then people will still want to own an optical format so they can easily transport movies and sell them if they wish. A downloaded file has no monetary value when you are done with it, plus it has restrictions as to how many times you can view it and how you can archive it. This is one of many reasons the CD still exists despite the popularity of services like iTunes, and why Blu-ray discs will likely be hanging out at the party for longer than some realize. It’s just a question of how quickly Blu-ray takes off now that HD DVD has been left in the dust.
RSS 2.0
Comments on this entry:
mmmmbuhbye!