I love HD-DVD, and I hate Sony. Sony are the most arrogant company I've ever had any dealings with, which is one reason to hate them. The fact that they endlessly produce over-priced, over-hyped goods that look great but break down the second the warranty expires is another. They appear to use the public as if they were their R&D department, and the public are the ones who end up paying the cost of Sony's expensive research and development which often leads to a dead-end product. They invented Blu-Ray, and persuaded other companies on board leaving just Universal, Microsoft and Toshiba fighting the HD-DVD corner that had originally had far more supporters and made far less promises but actually delivered on all its promises (admittedly LG have since jumped on board, with rumours that others will follow, but it's too little too late - the marketing war has been won by Sony supporters like Pioneer, Panasonic, Fox and Disney).
The first Blu-Ray titles were a joke, and the quality of the transfers was an insult to high-definition, with the high pricing being so outrageous it was farcical. But if the first discs were bad, the players were even worse. Over a thousand pounds for a very basic player. And for that you get clunky, buggy, malfunctioning hardware written to a specification that's not due to be finalised until June 2007. To quote hardware manufacturer Meridan (NOT an HD-DVD supporter) 'Anybody who buys a Blu-Ray player before June is buying a beta product' - and paying a ridiculously high price for it too!
But it doesn't take an idiot to realise that the Blu-Ray movie selection is already much improved in 2007 over HD-DVD, or that only Universal are exclusive to HD-DVD, while Fox and Disney are exclusive to Blu-Ray. Too many good films are being released on Blu-Ray to be ignored by any film fan, and Universal have not stepped up to the mark on HD-DVD, despite the advantages (much cheaper production costs for disks and players which have the same picture quality as Blu-Ray) that format offers. In spite of HD-DVD's much earlier launch the companies involved have failed to follow through and this week marks the first week there hasn't been even a single title released on HD-DVD (although production ramps up again next week) while Blu-Ray plays the marketing game of getting all the press column inches, and actually getting titles out on shelves.
Hence this blog! Because, despite owning over 100 HD-DVD disks and loving the format, I have succumbed to the Sony monster and ordered a PS3 so that I can watch good movies in high definition that I can't watch on HD-DVD. I am assuaging my not insignificant guilt with the knowledge that Sony apparently lose money on each unit sold. Did I already say that I hate Sony?
I wish Blu-Ray would die, really I do, and HD-DVD is my format of choice. When a title's available on both formats I go straight to the HD-DVD version. But I'm too impatient to wait for HD-DVD to get its act together on more titles, even when a film company is 'exclusive' to HD-DVD. The recent move to expensive 'combo-only' format for HD-DVD releases is the final nail in the coffin for me. I can't play Region 1 discs, so why would I want to pay more money for a 'standard' picture and inferior physical format just because some moron at a marketing company thinks it's a good idea? Plus I have to admit that the Blu-Ray camp are doing a far better job of releasing films day and date (at least in the States) with the standard DVD release than HD-DVD's supporters who insult us by giving us stupid 'combo' formats and then charging us a premium surcharge for having done so. I feel that money spent on standard DVDs today is money thrown away when high definition format versions are available, so I've made the switch to Blu-Ray to avoid buying into the inferior 'standard definition' DVD format, where there's a choice available.
HD-DVD is a region free format. Blu-Ray officially isn't - which is ridiculous and one reason nobody should buy a Blu-Ray player over an HD-DVD one. However many of the early Blu-Ray titles appear to be region free while they work out the logistics of implementing region-specific discs, and this site is doing a pretty good job of identifying which US Blu-Ray disks can be safely purchased to play on a UK player, so I'll be buying some Blu-Ray discs and reviewing them over the next few months, in much the same way I've been reviewing standard DVD discs on my UK DVD Review blog and HD-DVDs on my HD-DVD Review Blog.
The PS3 player hasn't been released in the UK yet, but advance reviews of the US version indicate it's the best Blu-Ray player on the market (not a difficult thing to achieve), and it's significantly less than the £1000 asking price of the other Blu-Ray players. So I've taken the plunge. Expect reviews to start appearing here shortly after its UK release on 23rd March.
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