The spy who came in from the cold trailer

The spy who came in from the cold trailer I just sold my XBOX 360 HD-DVD add on because unfortunatelly, its over. Amazon is selling and lowering their HD-DVDs because they are getting rid of their stock. I am surprised nobody mentioned this. The only movie I want thats coming to HD-DVD is Beowulf. I hope they release it on Blu-ray. I think has it for pre-order but I am not sure. Good bye HD-DVD. I think everyone understimated how many consumers were waiting on the sidelines, waiting for some indication that the format war was ending but eager to jump in. Thats what were seeing here. I was one of them. Two days after the Warner announcement I ordered Plaent Earth on Blu-Ray even though I dont have a player. Picking up a PS3, probably. I preferred the HDDVD format but lets face it, the video/quality is the same same codecs, similar enough storage capacity. This format war was the most pointless ever. I preferred the HDDVD format but lets face it, the video/quality is the same same codecs, similar enough storage capacity. This format war was the most pointless ever. To say that the format war was pointless is extremely short-sighted. The end goal here is just to have EITHER Blu-ray or HD DVD take over the DVD market. The reason I was behind HD DVD all along is because I feel that they have a much better chance of doing it than Blu-ray. Consider the following: HD DVDs entry cost is much cheaper than Blu-rays. Granted, when either one became mainstream their prices would fall to what DVD players cost today. The problem is that they have to GET to that point first. If Blu-ray players werent dropping below 400 the spy who came in from the cold trailer an equal competitor in HD DVD driving the price down, why do we expect them to drop further? Already weve seen Blu-rays software sales fall off a cliff. Whereas a month ago we were getting constant BOGOs on already cheap movies, picking up 2 movies for as cheap as 15 bucks, now the best we get is buy 2 get 1 free via mail in rebate and an extra 3 shipping. The new sales cost more for 3 movies than the old ones cost for 4 movies. Blu-ray is extremely anti-consumer. You buy a blu-ray player, and you buy a blu-ray disc, everything should work, right? Nope, that disc may or the spy who came in from the cold trailer not be compatible with that player. And what does Sonys president come out and say about it a couple weeks ago? Too bad, deal with it. That is the kind of crap that the average consumer that currently buys DVDs does not want to put up with. Spend 400 bucks on a player that wont even play everything on the 25 disc when instead they could just buy the same disc for 15 bucks and have everything work with no additional costs? Please, theyll pick the latter. Furthering the anti-consumer line, prepare for DRM hell. Want to copy that movie that you just dropped 30 bucks on to your hardrive or mp3 player? Too bad, because Sony says you paid 30 bucks for the round piece of plastic, not the content on it, so the round piece of plastic is all you get. Toshiba has a huge stake in DVD. Were HD DVD to win out, it would be a natural progression to see DVD move to HD DVD. Toshiba DVD is not going to fight Toshiba HD DVD because theyre not losing the spy who came in from the cold trailer royalties. However, you can bet your ass that Toshiba DVD is going to fight tooth and nail with Blu-ray so they dont lose everything. So, the audio and video is basically the same on both. But if 5 years from now if were all sitting here watching the crappy audio and video on our DVDs because Blu-rays high entry costs and all-around consumer unfriendliness caused the format to die out next to DVD, you will sure as hell care then, and perhaps realize how shortsighted you were.