Posted on 02/28/2008 3:04:11 PM PST by Las Vegas Dave
Toshiba finally mercy-killed its HD-DVD format last week, ending a drawn-out fight with Sony's Blu-ray for high-definition disc supremacy. The format's demise has brought HD-DVD owners untold humiliation: reams of newspaper stories comparing them to the losers of yore who bought into Betamax and LaserDisc, the sad sight of desperate early adopters peddling brand-new players on Craigslist, and, worst of all, a Web site celebrating the similarities between HD-DVD and Hillary Clinton. I'm sick of the mockery and abuse. You see, I'm one of the morons who bought an HD-DVD player.
While I freely admit my moronitude, I still believe the HD-DVD owner is an unfairly maligned creature. It wasn't dumb to jump on the HD-DVD bandwagon: Toshiba's technology was cheaper and more consumer-friendly than Sony's. It was dumb, though, to assume that the forces of good would triumph. In the end, the fight between Sony and Toshiba played out like some kind of bizarro sports movie: The bad guy won at the end by clocking the lovable underdog in the crotch with a baseball bat.
In retrospect, it might've been smarter not to buy either player. But alas, I have a strange affliction that left me susceptible to HD-DVD's limited charms: I'm a gadget-loving cheapskate. The typical early adopter opens his wallet first and asks questions later; he doesn't care how many gigs of RAM are inside the MacBook Air, just that it slides into a Manila envelope. The HD-DVD player, however, appealed to a different group, electronics fetishists too imprudent to wait out a format war yet stingy enough to base their purchasing decisions entirely on price. Of course, this is an irrational position, like signing up for the inaugural commercial flight to the moon but only paying for a coach-class ticket.
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Las Vegas Dave
At least we know who bought it now. One mystery solved.
Keep it...in 20 years it will be a collectors item:)
HA!HA!HA!
Sony has dual layer 50 GB capacity now, but has demonstrated 200 GB 8 layer disks in the laboratory. Toshiba was going to develop a lame 3 layer 51 GB version of HD-DVD that's just a little bigger than the 50 GB Blu-Ray. As manufacturing costs decline, Blu-ray will become cheaper just as have all the previous new mass market formats.
“Keep it...in 20 years it will be a collectors item:)”
Would you like to buy a rare bata max?
In the same boat. Saving for a new system.
That’s no fun....
Does this mean that the dvd player built into the back of the HDTV I bought won’t work with any dvd’s made after 2008?
HD-DVD is almost half the capacity per layer as BluRay. How did HDDVD even stand a chance?
I’ve got about 1000 of the best movies of all time in Video Laser Disks. They still play great!
There’s a reason why it’s called “Bleeding Edge Technology.”
All but the most rabid “gotta have it NOW” stayed on the sidelines until the format wars were over.
You’re just a casualty, buddy, but a willing volunteer.
The fire sale at Amazon.com for HD DVD players has a new in box A3 for $83.
It's a good upscaling DVD player at that price.
At least the Sony Blu-Ray player I bought will be good for a while, unless it won't be upgradeable to the upcoming 2.0 format :-(.
I am curious how long the Blu-Ray player will last. My original "top of the line" Sony DVD player that I purchased back in 1998 or 1999 still works fine and I think I paid more than $500 for it back then.
This is the best time for robot enthusiasts to buy up cheap equipment for complex parts like blue lasers and motor assemblies.
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