Thursday, August 21, 2008

Who needs Blu-ray when you have DVD?

I am one of the somewhat early adopters in the HD race. My wife had the opportunity to purchase a Toshiba HD-DVD player in the US when she was there. It came with seven free, decent movies so basically for the prices of the movies, we got a free player; or vice-versa. Regardless, we got a nice unit and some movies that also plays DVDs (but sadly not Divx or MP3s). Shortly after that, the boom dropped, the studios wilted and Toshiba folded shop. Was I pissed? Actually, not really because I wanted a smaller DVD player anyhow, got free movies to boot, a nice looking and capable unit, and sent no money to Sony's greedy, sniveling, weasly coffers. OK, I admit I am a tad bitter than Sony (hello people, hidden rootkit on audio CDs, remember?) basically won the hi-def wars but I also knew they were getting their premier Blu-ray player, the venerable Playstation PS3, kicked around the sandlot by the Xbox 360 and most favourably by the Nintendo Wii (two or three to one in Japan I believe). People are not readily adopting the new standard for the simple reason that it will cost them far too much to enjoy it.

When we first stepped up from cable TV, we bought a Pioneer DVD player (which we still have and use because the damn thing is built like a tank) to connect to our JVC 32" television. If that is your average family scenario today (which it is), then that means buying a $500 Blu-ray player, plus a $1500 HDTV 46" televison, plus a $1000 surround sound stereo, PLUS a replacement for the 300 DVDs in the collection. At $20 each, the Blu-ray replacement cost would be $6000. Everyone knows that the Blu-ray discs typically cost $25-50 so I am being very conservative for this comparison. So, $9000 later, the average family will be able to enjoy all the hype of high definition viewing?!?!?!? And they continue to wonder why it is not adopted faster?

Our collection, insanely yes, amounts to over 1500 DVD titles at the moment. Yes, yes, I know; I have an illness. We mainly stick to boxed sets nowadays to keep costs down. Anyhow, this isn't about my hobby/illness. The point is, there is no %&$*^% way I am paying to replace all those DVDs. Further, legal/moral or not, I have the option to back up all those DVDs so that I can keep my originals in a safe spot. While I technically can do so with Blu-ray (YES, both high-def, secure standards were broken within months of their release), the cost of storage, time, media and hardware is greatly prohibitive. So, we are back to if you break it, buy a new one. Hmmmm. How about "nooooo"?

So, is this new Toshiba unit, promising HD-like quality from your lowly DVD stash a big scam? No, I think the writer has nailed it on the head. This is a big "screw you" to Sony and all the Blu-ray backers and bandwagon jumpers. Toshiba may have stumbled and screwed their HD-DVD standard but they have definitely got a grasp on us DVD collectors. We like our DVDs and we are not even close to being ready to part with it or cough up the coin to replace it with a new standard/medium. So, any technology to help us reduce the cost of playing in the high-def arena is very welcome. We can buy the TV and stereo and this new player and be able to enjoy our DVDs while showing off to our friends at a much lower price point. Anyone that thinks that won't fly with the consumer has never been to a Boxing Day sale or does not work for a living to earn their keep. Will it kill the forward march towards Blu-ray or some other high-def system? Absolutely not. Will it royally crimp the current crop's style? Oh hell yeah and I will gladly pony up some ducats to help in that cause.

Peace.

Toshiba's XDE DVD Player: A Threat to Blu-ray?

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