So I recently decided, it’s not so much that I want HDDVD to win, but I want Sony to lose.  Sony consistently insists on releasing proprietary technology and it is frustrating.  Rather than contributing to the overall progress of the industries, they dig in their heels and bray long and loud hoping that someone will listen. 

I’m amazed also at the seemingly bottomless fund they keep dipping into to supply their marketing efforts with ammunition.  They must be throwing an unbelievable amount of money at the movie studios to ensure exclusivity, and they are still piling ads on thicker and deeper for blu-ray movies and the PS3.  All of course at the expense of the consumer.  Their players are still, I think, prohibitively priced and the media is expensive.

I was really dissapointed when Netflix turned this week.

I really enjoyed getting HDDVDs from them.  It might be enough to get me to switch over to Blockbuster online.   The more I think about it though, the more I realize that if the price was equal, or comparable, I would be much more indifferent.  HDDVD was reaching really hard for the under $100 player.  Blu-ray is still in the $400 range which is way out there.   The actual format superiority I still think is arguable,  Blu-ray does have about 10 more gigs per layer, but HDDVD’s more powerful menus etc I think still gave it a fighting chance.  And since they actually are making some dual format readers, it would be nice if they could have eventually converged and let the producers/consumers decide disc by disc.  Maybe release the directors cut on HD with lots of features, and the extended cut on Blu-Ray with the rootkit extra capacity.   Ah well.  Sadly it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 5:32 am and is filed under Technical Marks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.