Who has been here since the format war, and are you surprised by how heated it got?

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by krinkle

I remember friends of many years over on another AV forum who quit talking over the format war.

There were also the "lost cause" or "Baghdad bob" types who kept insisting HD-DVD would win, even after Universal announced support?

What are your best and worst memories of the format war period?

I've been here from the beginning of the Format Wars, and the worst memories were watching Toshiba pay flat-out bribes to studios to get them to go HD-DVD. It was absolutely pitiful to see; I knew the studios were just playing along to get the cash, and so did everyone else. Sony already owned a studio. Toshiba couldn't buy anyone in installments.


Some of the best memories are also the worst. As studios dropped out of HD-DVD, or half-heartedly "renewed their commitment" to both formats, or offered crazy support for dual format players (vaporware of a particularly pungent kind), the HD-DVD faithful did the same thing I saw three years later with 3-D:

• Insult the companies that didn't go their way as greedy
• Insult the companies that didn't go their way as stupid
• Insult the user base that didn't make the same choice they did as both greedy and stupid.
• Predict that one way or another, HD-DVD was "here to stay"
• Set up an "in or out" clubhouse for HD-DVD, and if you didn't belong, any member could shout "HD-DVD is here to stay!" and order others out of the clubhouse, as a troll
• Start the "show me your papers" tradition, asking how many HD-DVD's did you pick up this week/this month (not "if you" but "how many")
• Equated "support" with "vote with your money"

Yet the format died, for many reasons, primarily that is simply offered less storage. It was so obvious.


4K really has to have plenty of storage to make it, and it needn't be expensive, either. The Format War, along with the 3-D Fizzle, are cautionary tales about trying to base a complete change on the support of unrealistic fanatics to support technology. It has to be simple, obvious, and not require a complete reboot of all technology in the home.


I am not sure if this will occur...