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Posted by Doug Jacobs on 10/16/07 01:01
Interesting article, but didn't hit the points I was looking for.
Why no one wins in the high-def format war:
* Current players are "broken" as they can't play all movies. Why should
consumers have to choose which studios they want to watch? And buying 2
separate players that do the same thing, only in an incompatible way, is
equally stupid.
* More likely than not, we'll see hybrid or combo players before too
long. While this solves the consumer's conndrum of choosing between, say,
Transformers and Pirates, it basically turns the HD video market into the
same mess that is today's burnable DVD market.
The article also doesn't seem to raise enough ire against the stupidity of
messing with standards. If I'd bought a blu-ray player, only to find out
that later discs wouldn't play on it, I'd be mighty pissed. I shouldn't
have to worry about my appliances' upgrade paths. I deal with updates and
upgrades enough in the computer world. As a consumer appliance, I want it
to work. Always work. No ifs, ands, or "go burn the update to a disc and
upgrade your device" about it! Does this sound unreasonable? I mean, can
you imagine if you had to upgrade your oven because this year's turkey
dinner has some new features that are incompatible with older ovens?
Sure, you could argue that this is what being an early adopter is all
about - but think about this - if blu-ray is still in its early adopter
phase, why are they even trying to sell to folks at Walmart? Sure, sales
mean superiority, but getting 1000s of angry support calls on Christmas
day isn't going to help anyone in the long run. I'm sure most of us here
have the experience of working as the extended family's tech support
person for computers. Now imagine having to explain why their movie
player needs an upgrade like their computer. Much less, how to find,
download, and burn the upgrade to a disc for their player to use... Oh
yeah, that sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon to me.
At the rate this "war" is going, there's a good chance that the blu-ray
and HD-DVD will just become the next laserdisc, or even DVD-audio/SACD.
The majority of the market will continue on with DVD, until something
clearly better and easier to deal with comes along.
--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.
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