Questions for those of you going neutral

[Chris Gerhard]

I bought both immediately to see first hand which format is better, not just technical specifications but actually better in the real world. Both are great in my opinion, but Blu-ray is better, although the Paramount and Warner releases are obviously identical in quality between formats. My reason to want Blu-ray to succeed and HD DVD to fail is my past experience watching format wars that result in consumer confusion and reluctance to get involved and usually both formats fail to gain a market that can result in profits. No profits soon means no format. I had hoped Blu-ray could prevail by sheer power with the lopsided nature of the support. Now, all Blu-ray can do is outsell HD DVD, but can no longer hope to vanquish the format so I just say everybody buy both and enjoy the run, something will be coming that will replace 5" shiny discs and these two formats can only exist as tiny niche products for their duration.

It isn't really a big deal, things would have been much better if only Blu-ray survived and all companies competed to build the best hardware and offer the best software, but it just wasn't to be. I have no idea why Toshiba and Microsoft want HD DVD to hang around and spoil the market for HD on disc, but they do and it can't be because HD DVD can actually prevail in this idiotic format war. Maybe the gigantic revenue stream for Toshiba from DVD is being protected, maybe the future of whatever Microsoft is developing is being protected, I could only speculate. I do know that I don't like it one bit.

The difference between DVD and HD DVD is worth it to me, but might not be worth it to others as the difference between DVD and Blu-ray might not be worth it to others. The margin is apparent with my 100" screen and 720p LCD projector and would be even more worthwhile if I had a 1080p display.

HD DVD is inferior to Blu-ray, but not so much that it would matter to the market. I am happy with DVD, so HD DVD is even better. Any money spent on this hobby if you have more important needs is money foolishly spent. I do without vacations and trips and prefer to spend money on this stuff and stay home and enjoy it and play golf with my leisure time.

We are screwed now, the format war can't be won and you can either enjoy the brief period these great formats exist or avoid HD DVD to indicate your displeasure. Low priced HD DVD players and exclusive Paramount, Universal, Dreamworks, and Weinstein software means too much is missing for Blu-ray to end this idiocy. Sad but true.

Chris