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

[Interdimensional]

I watched with some interest in the early days, but it was basically over by the time I bought into blu-ray. In the meantime, I'd essentially stopped buying dvds altogether, because I knew I'd be strongly tempted into upgrading down the line. I remember seeing all the red cases sitting next to the blue cases appearing in a small section of HMV. Seemed like a ridiculous situation, and I didn't expect it to last.

Blu-ray was my preferred winner, so I was happy with the outcome.

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

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...

You can't equate 3D Blu-ray to HD-DVD. For one thing 3D Blu-ray players can play blu-rays. It's not an either/or format war. And the format has already outlasted HD-DVD's brief run.

HD-DVD and Blu-ray's were essentially offering the same thing in a different case. HD video. 3D Blu-ray offers something substantially different, something that may not be for everyone, but something that no competing format can offer.

With your ongoing posts in the 3D forum, you seem to treat it like HD-DVD, some rival format that must be down-talked out of existence. I don't understand this.