Feeling Blu

Warner Bros recently announced that they are becoming Blu-ray exclusive as of this June. New Line is apparently doing the same. And now, there are rumors that Paramount will follow suit, due to a clause in their HD DVD exclusivity contract. This perturbs me a bit, and not just because I bought 3 HD DVD players (2 as gifts) over the holidays that may soon become paperweights. Everything that perturbs me is pretty much summed up in this article.

A few "highlights":

Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group,
acknowledged in an interview that the HD DVD format had some advantages.

"The interactivity is more advanced on the HD DVD side, but I'm
confident that we're going to get there" with Blu-ray, he said.

"There were cost advantages on the HD DVD side," Tsujihara said. However, "even with that price advantage, you weren't seeing the consumer move toward that format."

That's what really bugs me right there...Warner admits that HD DVD is currently the better of the two - both in cost and features - but they are still siding with Blu-ray. Ugh. Why? Because more people are buying Blu-ray. So basically they are endorsing the loser of a race just because more people are cheering for him.

But why, if the studio support was until now more or less cut in half, were more people choosing Blu-ray anyway? Cooler name? Maybe...but I think the real culprits are the gaming systems. The video game industry is on the rise and I have heard rumors that sales of video games surpassed movies this holiday season. This turns Sony's gamble of including a Blu-ray player in each and every PS3 into a genius move. Looking across the pond, at Microsoft's Xbox 360 (the other high-def console), they have an HD DVD player - but it's an $180 add-on! That's the same price as most stand-alone HD DVD players. Blu-ray players on the other hand go for about the same price of an entire PS3. So a consumer interested in HD was left with the following purchase options:

1. Standalone HD DVD Player - $100 - $500 (No gaming capabilities)


2. Xbox 360 - $350 (No HD movie viewing capability, except for downloads from the Xbox Live Marketplace)


3. Xbox 360 + HD DVD Add-on - $530


4. Xbox 360 + Standalone HD DVD Player - $450 - $850 (same as above, without needing to be hooked to each other)


5. PS3 - $500 (Built-in Blu-ray)


6. Standalone Blu-ray Player - $350 - $1,000 (No gaming capabilities)

So, as you can see, if you or anyone in your family is remotely interested in gaming, your best bet for Hi-Def movie viewing is in fact a PS3. The fact that the PS3 is trailing both the Xbox and the Wii in sales doesn't matter because neither of those have built in HD movie players. If Microsoft had made an Xbox with a built in HD player for $500 or less, Warner probably would've either continued making both, or chose HD DVD. Microsoft's unwillingness to take the risk that Sony did is ultimately what is doing HD DVD in.

The one benefit in the HD DVD drive not being built-in is that now Microsoft has the option of adding a Blu-ray add-on, once it becomes the standard format. This would be a smart move if they want to keep people from going over and just getting a PS3. In the meantime, hey, HD DVDs should be cheaper now, right?