Steve’s Stuff

Lets hope BluRay and HD-DVD are forgotten as quickly as the mid-90s Digital Compact Cassette (DCC). There’s nothing we need less than over-priced “premium” formats that offer such a small advantage over existing formats. The difference between LPs and CDs is pretty great: size, portability, longevity, price, etc. The difference between high def DVDs is . . . storage capacity??? Sure, this allows better video quality, but not *drastically* better video quality. Why should anyone start rebuilding their DVD collection just for an increase in video quality on a TV they probably can’t afford?

And don’t think for a minute that the larger storage capacity will change anything about extra features. There are still plenty of DVDs released with nothing but trailers and hilariously stupid DVD recommendations (e.g. Did you enjoy Titanic? You might also enjoy The Abyss, Evil Dead, Last Action Hero, and many other titles that happen to be from the same DVD studio!).

The worst aspect that nobody seems to be talking about is the DRM involved. If you try to play a BluRay or HD-DVD in a conventional play, it automatically downgrades its quality to “worse than broadcast”. This isn’t even about copy protection anymore - this is about forcing pointless hardware sales. What a shame. But, I would expect no less from the greedy entertainment industry.

This is an interesting piece on why HD formats have already failed.