A Battle Won, War In Question...Blu-ray vs. HD DVD

[regman]

I don't think that 2 releases in a year constitute an efficacious format.

You are certainly welcome to have whatever opinion you want. The facts are that most of the DVD rental houses are gone, CD/DVD sellers are gone (Wherehouse, Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, Tower, etc. Netflix wants to use an stb for content. The internet, now, has tons of video content. Virtually evryone I know with sat DVD uses a DVR and large portable memory devices have become very cheap. And new bluray players can access content directly from the web This pulls the distributors out of the mix allows the studios more control over their content and is a natural and logical progression.

I am sure that there are people out there who bemoan the demise of 4 & 8 tracks, mini-discs and cassettes too. Doesn't mean they are coming back. The vinyl anomoly should sort out now they have devices that mimic scratching for DJ's that use CD's but there is no technological reason why the same effect couldn't be accomplished from a HD as well. Vinyl has an an audiophile following that is based on mythology. I am a DJ and I used to purchase around 300 cd's a year at my peak. Starting with Napster and now iTunes, 99.9% of all the new material I get is from iTunes. Would I ever go back to shuffling peices of plastic again - hell no.

The statistics for vinyl have them equal to the sales amount in 1992 when CD's were released. There is no comparison to when vinyl was king...

[film11]

I was never trying to say that HD-DVD is still an efficacious format. Just stating that,occasionally, there is still a random release.

Nor am I trying to say that vinyl is anywhere near the level of what even CDs are today...only that sales are good and continue to rise annually. So much so that even Best Buy (at least in my area) now carries vinyl.

I too was a DJ (back in the vinyl days..you think carrying CDs around was inconvenient? Try lugging crates of records! Still, when I am out and see the "DJ" with nothing more than a laptop, I laugh. Takes all the fun outof it. And requires no skill. Thing is, even with the best sound system, I can tell when I'm hearing the inferior, compressed sound of something downloaded from iTunes or Rhapsody. I'm no audiophile, either. Naturally, most people don't notice becase downloading is how they get their music as well. If they are used to hearing lesser quality, then lesser qulity over a great sound system is just awesome to most.
(Fortunately, the best, top DJs still use vinyl, and rightly so).

With movies, the difference is even more pronounced. If streaming becomes the norm then we can say good-bye to 1080p, uncompressed audio, and OAR.
"Well, it's good enough" may suit the majority, but I will never be one of them.

[stevekaden]

I find that I really like what hard plastic has to offer.

Good video - not some hack job done by some untrained person who maps letter box into 4x3 then stretches it out again turning it to mush (FiOS and others). I like good audio not Pro Logic, but lossless. I like extras - not the lowest common denominator.

I like that my choices will not be filtered by a deregulated corporation that is scared into hysteria by 5 religious nuts into censoring everything. Or simply just cheaping out and only listing the most popular items of the week. 9 out of 10 being incredible drivel.

I like that by buying my movies I am now off the deal on having to pay for downloads-streaming that once the industry crushes plastic they will surely begin to gouge on the price.

And finally when there is only about 2 or 3 big corporations runing all media, I don't want to be a victim of their extortion.
Hell at the point I'll read again - similar to the death of viable news anymore.