HD Disc Format War Not Over By a Long Shot

[prerich]

TIME TO KILL THIS TREAD is over.

[1shotstudios]

This news just came in today so I wanted to share the link with everyone out here!

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/2610.html

[Ken S]

From The New York Times, February 20,2008:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/te...20newdisc.html

More info.

[MoosePond]

however, for those of you who've already invested in HD-DVD hardware (or wish to do so at the bargain basement prices we're likely to be seeing) Amazon.com has 150 HD-DVD titles at 50% off (and the rest of their HD-DVD entire catalog at 30% off) and I'd suspect we'll soon see some similar deals from the folks at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc.

[goldear]

I was all set to jump on the BD bandwagon a couple weeks back when Warner decided to drop HD-DVD. I had been checking the price of players and decided I was finally going to go with the Panny BD30, which at the time, was listing between $360-$380 (Frys and Amazon). The next day when I went to order, I noticed the price jumped to $449. Deciding to wait a little longer--and as days turned into weeks, I realize that instead of the prices coming back down, they were still going up...now at $469 (and it wasn't just the Panasonics).

This really disappointed me since I thought with the Warner announcment, Blu-Ray might make a good business decision and lure prospective HD customers over by lowering some of the prices on their players. Instead, they did just the opposite, increasing their prices and forcing me to wait on the fence a little longer. Ironically, having picked up an Onkyo PR-SC885 with the new built-in decoders I just couldn't wait any longer and I had to get something so I could try out the new high-rez A/V features.

One last check at Amazon made me realize the price of BD wasn't going anywhere--but HD was dropping like a rock; and not just the hardware, but new/used titles were listing between $8-$15 (many from Half.com). While I have no particular allegiance to either format, I decided that a new Toshiba HD-A35 (with 5 free movies) for $231 was going to be hard to beat...especially with the price of software I was finding on the net. My only allegiance is to quality playback and while HD may not be around for the foreseeable future, there is still plenty of catalog titles available that I could never even dream of owning. Paired with my Onkyo 885, this Toshiba has given me flawless bitstream performance--something I hoped to be getting from similarily priced (if even a little more) BD player.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by goldear

One last check at Amazon made me realize the price of BD wasn't going anywhere--but HD was dropping like a rock; and not just the hardware, but new/used titles were listing between $8-$15 (many from Half.com). While I have no particular allegiance to either format, I decided that a new Toshiba HD-A35 (with 5 free movies) for $231 was going to be hard to beat...especially with the price of software I was finding on the net. My only allegiance is to quality playback and while HD may not be around for the foreseeable future, there is still plenty of catalog titles available that I could never even dream of owning. Paired with my Onkyo 885, this Toshiba has given me flawless bitstream performance--something I hoped to be getting from similarily priced (if even a little more) BD player.

goldear,

You have heard about spending good money after bad right?

I have had both formats since day one (well, maybe day 10 but not much more on either front) and even I have not bought any HD DVD's since Warner dropped out.

You are getting HD for a song, and that is good, but you are also buying an obsolete product and one that certainly will be non-existent in a year tops. All those cheap titles will be useless when your player dies, and if you've been following the forums, you know all these new format players are suspect at best.

While I am glad you got a HD disc player for your system, I seriously think you need to reconsider your logic.

Realize those HD DVD's will soon be the Beta's of the world and you won't be able to give them away soon. Add to that the fact all future titles will only be coming out on Blu-ray and you WILL end up buying a BLu-ray player in the future, only adding to your total cost.

Think about it, when Beta died, what did those who bought up all those cheap Beta players and tapes do with them??? DOes door stop sound familiar?

I really do not mean to sound rude, and I apologize if my reply has sounded that way, but you must be made to see the futility of your system and that frankly it just doesn't add up.

Five free HD DVD's and even as many as you might buy at 50% off will never keep you interested when you WANT to see any new releases in the future.