Now that Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema have "chosen a side," does that mean this whole high definition war-thing can finally be over? I get that competition usually helps the consumer- driving down prices and creating a desire to provide a truly superior product between competitors- but in the case of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, the race was too close to call from the get-go.
Ignoring all the technical mumbo-jumbo, both products provided more or less the exact same experience. They even cost the same. Their players may have had a different price point (with HD being slightly cheaper at the moment), but even those would stabilize and even out if given just a bit more time. This being the case, why should I, the consumer, have to decide what movies I want to watch based off which studios support which player?
Personally, I think Warner Bros. had the right idea. Knowing a window to make high def discs would only be so big, they realized different studios choosing sides and forcing consumers to make a bunk decision was only costing themselves and said consumers mucho bucks. It's gotten to the point where I don't care which way it goes so long as I can rest easy knowing my money isn't being wasted on a soon-to-die-off format.
Despite the fact most studios have made their decision (Blu-Ray), I'm shocked to see the continuing efforts to keep HD-DVD around, especially when the argument being made by Toshiba execs is they don't want those who purchased their products to feel like they wasted their money. The decision to milk it as long as possible is only going to force uninformed individuals to keep on spending money until they're finally left in the cold at a slightly later date. The only difference then will be, instead of buying a player and a handful of HD-DVDs for a few hundred bucks, they've now spent a grand or more. Way to save them some cash.
I say Toshiba should cut their losses, accept Blu-Ray has won this round and move on. It's less about pride at this point and more about not scamming the moms and pops who have no idea there's a "format war" going on and their money is being wasted.
Personally, I think Warner Bros. had the right idea. Knowing a window to make high def discs would only be so big, they realized different studios choosing sides and forcing consumers to make a bunk decision was only costing themselves and said consumers mucho bucks. It's gotten to the point where I don't care which way it goes so long as I can rest easy knowing my money isn't being wasted on a soon-to-die-off format.
Despite the fact most studios have made their decision (Blu-Ray), I'm shocked to see the continuing efforts to keep HD-DVD around, especially when the argument being made by Toshiba execs is they don't want those who purchased their products to feel like they wasted their money. The decision to milk it as long as possible is only going to force uninformed individuals to keep on spending money until they're finally left in the cold at a slightly later date. The only difference then will be, instead of buying a player and a handful of HD-DVDs for a few hundred bucks, they've now spent a grand or more. Way to save them some cash.
I say Toshiba should cut their losses, accept Blu-Ray has won this round and move on. It's less about pride at this point and more about not scamming the moms and pops who have no idea there's a "format war" going on and their money is being wasted.
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