Posted by lorincantrell on 10/14/05 08:02

So very hard to say. If they get this silly format war out of the way,
it could be sooner than you would think. The prices on HD sets keep
coming down. HD OTA seems to really be taking off, from an
availability standpoint. As more and more people buy HD sets, they're
going to want to take advantage of them.

Still, DVD has a lot of advantages:

1. Extreme market penetration. The most popular, most quickly accepted
media format of all time.
2. Reliability. The discs will likely last decades.
3. They look great on HDTV sets.
4. They will most certainly be cheaper than whichever HD format wins.
Part of DVD's quick acceptance was that the pricing was good right out
of the box. Maybe a little higher than VHS in the beginning, but
nowhere near the princely sums paid for Laserdiscs. I don't think the
studios will be that smart this time. And after being an LD owner, I
ain't anxious to pony up $40 for a movie with no extras just because
it's in HD, and I'm certainly not willing to pony up $125 or more for a
season set of a TV show. I ain't bought the X-Files on DVD yet because
the pricing sucks. I have, however, bought a lot of $14 movies and $40
TV seasons.

-beaumon

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