This is a re-post of an article I did for my old blog. Seeing the recent lack of sales and continued soaring prices of Blu-Ray discs (Beowulf is only 34.99 at Best Buy!) and Blu-Ray players has lead me to say only one thing, I told ya so. It’s an inferior technology will never hold a substantial place in the market share.
Screw you Sony. Seriously. Screw you.
(Reprinted from February 28, 2008
So it finally comes to this.
Toshiba announced last week that it would be discontinuing their HD-DVD players. This signals the end of the new format wars (HD-DVD as opposed to Blu-Ray). While this is not a surprise it still caused this early adopter and supporter of the technology to groan in disgust.
Maybe I was naive, thinking that the SUPERIOR technology would win. I mean it is:
1. Cheaper
2. Higher Quality
3. Virtually Bug Free (as compared to the eternally fucking up Blu-Ray)
4. More Technologically Advanced
But just because it is better didn’t mean it was going to win as we all see now. Being the bitter man that I am, I can point to several factors which caused the new format to fail:
1. Microsoft’s lack luster support
2. Losing support of both Blockbuster and Netflick
3. Being supported by only two major Hollywood studios
4. Marketing
You see friends, HD was better. Hell, it still is better and will be until the next generation of Blu-Ray players arrives later this year. The problem was that HD was never marketed correctly. You never saw commercials (we were constantly being bombarded with Blu), you never saw huge displays at electronic stores and the big titles which were only being released on the format were never pushed (Matrix, Transforms, ect..) as were the Blu exclusives.
Maybe I am playing Monday morning quarterback here but I can’t help but point out the reasons that this budding and excellent technology has now been thrown into an early grave. On the plus, I and other fans of the technology will now be able to pick up dozens of HD-DVDs on the cheap. This is a small consolation but hey, it’s something.
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