It was only a matter of time, but Toshiba’s announcement that it will officially stop production of HD DVD discs and players still brought tears to my eyes. Well, not really, but it still sucks so much ass.Just a few months ago, back in October, everything was fine. Paramount had announced they would go HD DVD exclusive and the Blu-ray crowd cried as they would not be getting an HD version of Transformers. HD DVD players were all the rage.
But the cheese started to stink when Warner Bros. joined Sony Pictures (Columbia/Tristar) Fox, Disney and went Blu-ray exclusive. That started a snowball effect that ultimately led to the HD DVD format’s demise. It was just too much. On top of that, big name retailers like Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, Target and Netflix also turned their backs on HD DVD, putting the final nails in HD DVD’s coffin. It was a brutal gang up.
So Sony’s more expensive HD format finally won. Will Universal Studios and Paramount/DreamWorks, the only studios to remain HD DVD-exclusive, go Blu-ray? Of course they will, there is no other option. We’ll also be seeing a Blu-ray adapter for the Xbox 360, and a big spike in stand-alone Blu-ray players as well as PlayStation 3 consoles.
I’m glad there’s a definite winner in the high definition format war, but it’s always sad to see a serious contender lose, and one that I was in favor of. I have yet to see a live action movie on Blu-ray that looks better than King Kong on HD DVD. I’ll be keeping my Planet Earth, Complete Matrix Trilogy and Transformers HD DVD’s as collector’s items, even after I have no HD DVD player to watch them on. I congratulate Sony for the win, and thank Toshiba for trying to lower the price of HD content.
3 Comments:
Yeah, it just seemed inevitable. HD sales were really falling behind BR, although BR players seem to often give people a lot more problems....BR overall just seemed to be the overall most useful format, so I had predicted some time ago that BR would probably climb its way to the top. :I
there have got to be SOME BR movies that look great. I refuse to believe that there's nothing out there that doesn't look good. I know you haven't had any luck, and that's a shame, but still, there has to be, somewhere.
Universal actually did come out today and said this: "The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear. The emergence of a single, high-definition format is cause for consumers, as well as the entire entertainment industry, to celebrate. 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." [source: dvdfile.com]
I don't really have an opinion about this, since this isn't something I...really cared about. I don't have either format, one of the reasons being that I can't afford it, but even I could, I don't know if I would have bothered. Again, I did see BR as eventually being the winner, but...for different reasons than we are seeing here.
So. It ended, and that was actually....very fast.
Enemy of the State on Blu-ray looked pretty good, as well as some scenes in American Psycho, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Shooter, Mr. Brooks and Spider-Man 3. Blu-ray isn't horrible, but besides animated movies like Ratatouille and Open Season I haven't seen anything truly spectacular. HD DVD is dead, so I'm basically fucked now. I have yet to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy on Blu-ray, and I hear they look amazing. We’ll see.
That's just...really weird that you haven't many great-looking BR movies. I'm bumfuzzled. :I
Oh yes, the 'Pirates movies. Yeah, those are supposed to look superb on BR. Also, the last Harry Potter movie (Order of the Phoenix). Although all the HP movies probably look great, but I read a particular review about the last one. Blade Runner also looks good, I heard. Alexi has that; I'll ask him.
Hopefully things will....really start looking better. :I
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