Damn You HD-DVD and Your Siren Call

[DouglasMcc]

Okay, I bet most of you though this was going to be a rant ... lol. I went to Best Buy today with the intention of buying BioShock with a 40 dollar Reward Zone certificate and possible Season 10 of South Park. Well, I get there and figured I would check out the HD-DVD drive for the 360. I still like the Blu-Ray selection better for my PS3 ... but the Paramount/ Dreamworks exclusive deal announced yesterday had me intrigued. I HAVE to own Transformers in High Definition. One of the sales people came up and told me if I knew about their special - free copy of 300 on HD-DVD with purchase of the drive. He then pointed out I could mail away for 5 free movies. Okay, with King Kong, 300, plus 5 other movies ... I was tittering on the fence. I guess he could tell, so he brought out his "big guns." "I have an open box returned version. It's been checked and works perfectly. You get 15% off plus the other free movies." My will was broken. I ended up leaving the store with:

South Park Season 10 DVD
Bioshock
360 HD-DVD Drive
King Kong HD-DVD (with drive)
300 HD-DVD
Serenity HD-DVD (put back the regular 2 disc SE for this one)
Coupon of 5 more HD-DVD movies (and there are 4 on the list I really want)

All for the grand total of 255. My Best Buy Credit Card is still smoking. But over-all, not a bad day of shopping. Now, to eliminate a few SSC pre-purchases so I can pay off my card in the near future. The Sci-Fi nerds "Circle of Life" so to speak. Sorry Drago and Clubber ... I hardly knew ya'

 

[hairlesswookiee]

good call my friend, good call.

 

[DouglasMcc]

Now, now Wook. Blu-Ray still has them beat in terms of selection ... for now. And, I like to look on the bright side of things ... no one ever rents HD-DVD titles at my Blockbuster. I can rent them online and exchange out at the store for HD-DVD titles. It will be like my own personal HD-DVD library for 24 dollars a month

I decided to treat my HD movies like I treat my game systems ... buy them all and don't worry about what goes where!

 

[darthviper107]

I was lucky as well, when they did the price cut for the HD-DVD drive to $180 Best Buy had it at $150 that morning, so I got the 5 movies deal, along with King Kong and bought 300, Serenity, and Batman Begins. With those movies it ameks it much more worth the deal.

 

[tomandshell]

Sounds like a good deal! For people who already have a 360, the add on drive is a pretty reasonable way to go. Factor in all those free movies and you are practically getting the player for free.

 

[dekadentdave]

Just wait until you have to re-buy all those movies again as Special Editions in a few years. That's why I'm sitting this format war out. I'll let the rest of you suckas choose the format for me while I save some dough for the good stuff.

 

[darthviper107]

It's actually not a big deal. I doubt they'll be releasing any new versions of the movies already out. And if Blu-Ray wins there's still no loss since the value of the free movies is almost the cost of the drive anyways. And it's not like you have to get rid of them if you end up going Blu-Ray.

 

[tomandshell]

I bought Troy on HD DVD last fall and it is already coming out again this fall in a director's cut edition. It could potentially be my first high def double dip--I'm a sucker for director's cuts...

 

[dekadentdave]

HD has a shelf life of 5 years before 2k and soon afterwards 4k will make HD and Blu-Ray obsolete.

 

[darthviper107]

Well, there might be one more step up in video image size, then there will be a small amount of movie that can go higher. Current HD video is about half the size of what you get from a movie theater and the only thing above that is Imax, and not all movies are shot with that film so the selection at that resolution will be less. But I will like to have the 4k video on my 9mm OLED display.

 

[DouglasMcc]

HD has a shelf life of 5 years before 2k and soon afterwards 4k will make HD and Blu-Ray obsolete.

I get both concepts Dave - limited life span of the HD generation as well as the double dip mentality (however, lets be honest, that's a major part of regular DVD as it is now). However, I do not buy HD-DVD or Blu-Ray films like I used to buy regular DVDs. Due to their cost, I only buy films I love:

To date, I have bought:

Blu-Ray-
Casino Royale
Curse of the Black Pearl
Deadman's Chest
The Departed
Mission Impossible 3 (this was a gift actually)
Ricky Bobby (Will Farrell movie that came with the PS3)
300
Superman Returns

HD-DVD
300
Serenity
Army of Darkness (order off Amazon Marketplace for 14.99)
Heroes (going to buy it next week)
5 Free Movies


So, it's not like I am going crazy here. However, I will have the opportunity to rent both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray through Blockbuster Online for 24 bucks a month (3 movies from online out at a time, and 3 from the store when you return the online rentals - so really like 6 at a time). Blu Ray was free (I was getting a PS3 anyway) and the HD-DVD player only cost like 145 bucks. So, in the end, the expense will be worth it.

 

[King Darkness]

thats not a bad haul for $250.

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

HD has a shelf life of 5 years before 2k and soon afterwards 4k will make HD and Blu-Ray obsolete.

What exactly do you mean by this?

 

[darthviper107]

He's saying that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will soon be replaced by a new format that has even better quality.

Current High-Def formats are only half the quality of what you get at the theater. And once OLED displays come out we'll have the ability to watch stuff in 4x the resolution of current displays.

 

[DouglasMcc]

He's saying that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will soon be replaced by a new format that has even better quality.

Current High-Def formats are only half the quality of what you get at the theater. And once OLED displays come out we'll have the ability to watch stuff in 4x the resolution of current displays.

Screw higher resolution ... I want the friggin' hologram-based TV projection that they have been promising us since the Jetsons ... bring on HoloTV ....

 

[hairlesswookiee]

dude im not saying that HD has won.... yet. im just saying that right now is the time to buy. or even around christmas. people keep saying that magic 2:1 number... thats because of thePS3. if it wasn't for that it would be almost the same. wait until the $200 HD DVD player hits the market and then check the numbers the following quarter.

 

[DouglasMcc]

HD has a shelf life of 5 years before 2k and soon afterwards 4k will make HD and Blu-Ray obsolete.

Yeah, but only about 10% (and that's being generous) of the population will have TVs that are capable of that resolution. Hell, they keep projecting that it will be 2011 before digital televisions outnumber tube and other standard definition TVs. And, lets be honest, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, etc. have a long way to go to entice Joe Consumer and his tight wallet. People always want to credit Standard DVD's increased picture resolution as the reason the general public gave up on VHS and turned to DVD. That sounds good ... but it's a lie. The average consumer embraced DVD over its more practical advantages - no rewinding, no VHS tape degeneration, etc. Picture quality was near the bottom of the list. Hell, I have relatives who play their DVDs on 6 to 10 year old standard definition TVs through RCA connectors (I have owned 6 televisions in the last 10 years ... my family still thinks I am crazy for that fact alone ... ). They don't care about how much better the DVDs look on my 1080P television. And that's how the majority of Americans feel. So, HD and beyond have their work cut out for them. Outside of studios stopping the manufacture of regular DVDs, it's going to be a steep climb ... even with OLED tech.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

call me cheap but im gonna wait until i can go buy a 27" 1080p tv for $400 before i make the jump.

 

[darthviper107]

Well, Sony is going to be coming out with a 27" OLED TV probably sometime next year, and those can display 4x the resolution of HD, and they are around 10mm thick, and they've got a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.

 

[Boba Fett]

And here I am with a library of VHS tapes still in my basement..