Every time I walk into a DVD shop I cannot help but go past the HD-DVD and BLU-RAY sections just to see the latest and greatest in uselessly overpriced media we don’t really want or need. It’s not like DVD was too damn grainy for us or these new formats allow us to see a plethora of special features we missed the first time around. On the contrary, more often than not the version which makes it to these newfangled formats can be bested by an earlier release of the same film in a previous DVD incarnation.
But, the TV’s and monitors are getting sexier and it may very well get to the point where what was once acceptable for our somewhat untrained eyes may no longer be as resolution reaches new heights.
Still, I don’t really find room for one new format, let alone two. I’m of the belief that it’s software and not hardware that ought to drive mediums like home video, audio, and video gaming. Programmers take time to learn their format and if you look at how DVDs were produced when we first started adopting as compared to now it’s like they’d been blindfolded before. The same goes for games. You try and tell me that they weren’t still cranking out relevant and increasingly robust games on the XBOX when the 360 came out. It’s in the software. Not the hardware. I believe it was Eric Clapton who said "It’s in the way that you use it", but then he got all boring and started doing generic emasculated songs so maybe I should have used a Joey Belladonna quote instead.
I think DVD has so much life still in it, it’s not even funny. If UMD media is pretty solid and the folks around you are all starting to feel more comfortable LEGALLY downloading their entertainment, isn’t the choice of media rather about storage and convinience rather than technology and format?
But the war wages on, and for a gamer like me it boils down to HD-DVD representing the XBOX side of my brain and BLU-RAY taking care of the PS3 side. The Wii side of my brain is in my knees, and therefore out of the running.
I don’t much care which format wins, for as long as regular old DVD is plentiful I’m loyal but I do think that Blu-Ray just stormed the Normandy Beach of the war.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit A: Why Blu-Ray Will Win