An HD-DVD Story

By Glenn Farr

I first became acquainted with high definition TV a little more than two years ago when I impulsively bought a small flat-panel television and added a high definition converter and channels to my satellite package. To put it mildly, it was love at first sight. I had never seen televised images look so lustrous, deep and just plain gorgeous.

HD-DVD/Blu-ray Early Awareness

A month or two later, the first consumer HD-DVD and Blu-ray players began to hit the Best Buys and Circuit Cities of the land and I admit that during my lunch hours, I hit them both (the NACA Office is little farther than walking distance to a store from each chain) to see what the fuss was about.

Well, at that time, most of the fuss was about the high prices of the decks and some of their still buggy functions. Initially, a Blu-ray player sold for about $1,000 and HD-DVD, while cheaper, was still at about the $500 mark. Far too celestial for my wallet, which seems to have a magic price point of $150 to $200 when it comes to anything resembling a DVD player.

So, I waited.

Learning About the Formats

In the meantime, I read about the emerging format war, what each format offered and which studios supported which format. Even for a moderate technophile like me, it was sometimes confusing. The things I learned came down to some basic points.
•    HD DVD players came to market more fully featured than the first Blu-ray players.
•    HD DVD players were obviously more affordable.
•    The Blu-ray format could hold larger amounts of data per disc, which might be important when it came to putting several episodes of a given television series and loads of special features on a single disc.
•    More movies studios supported the Blu-ray format.
•    If you sat before a TV watching a movie on either of the discs, with the naked eye, you really couldn’t tell the difference. They BOTH looked gorgeous.
•    And the reason the format war emerged probably had a lot to do with corporate greed keeping the developers from reaching any kind of compromise that would keep consumers from wasting money on whichever format ultimately lost the war.

Still Not Ready

In spite of everything I read, I was still not ready to make a choice. Regular DVDs still looked awfully good. I could let the war get as financially bloody as the corporate powers that be might want to make it before spilling any of my own cash.

Things Began to Happen

However, early this year, things began to happen—and fast. On Jan. 4, Warner Brothers, which had previously supported both formats, announced it would  stop releasing HD-DVD titles in June 2008. That left only Paramount and Universal in the HD-DVD camp. Toshiba, the principal developer of the HD-DVD format and manufacturer of the format’s players, began to drop prices on HD units, and drop them dramatically.
In early February, when I began to find HD-DVD players through online outlets at prices of $150 and below, I took the plunge. I found a unit with 1080i output for about $130 and within days, it was joined to my flat-panel LCD via HDMI connection. While I was awaiting its arrival, I joined Netflix so episodes of Season One of the new Battlestar Galactica were ready to load once I had everything hooked up.

Truly Droolicious Picture Quality

I was not prepared for the improvement in picture quality. It was truly outstanding, and the pop-up menus at the bottom of the screen, which could be accessed without stopping the movie, were a pleasant and useful surprise, as was the ability to run a director’s commentary in a picture-in-picture feature.

In addition, I finally had the chance to experience the upconversion feature as it applied to regular DVDs. I had read about that, but I was astounded at how good an upconverter the Toshiba HD-DVD unit was. Ultimately, I was able to compare HD and regular DVD versions of the same films. Yes, the HD version had an edge, but who would have thought regular DVD could be improved to the point that it was almost indistinguishable from the high definition variant?

Two Are as Good as One

I was so happy with the purchase, I bought a second, identical unit to pair with my second HDTV in another room, and that techno-marriage was equally as satisfying.

Worthwhile Rationalizations

I knew in my gut that HD-DVD’s days were numbered. And I rationalized buying the Toshiba units because they were excellent DVD upconverters and I already had a couple hundred DVDs.

I also rationalized that I could rent as many HD-DVD discs from Netflix as long as they might be available. That rationalization backfired on me—shortly after my second Toshiba unit arrived, Netflix announced they would get out of the HD-DVD format by year’s end.

A Sad Demise

In spite of taking the HD-DVD plunge with my eyes open, its demise made me a little sad. I remember telling a friend that HD-DVD was “the little format that could,” meaning it was remarkably user friendly and came to market with its players’ interactive features being fully functional. (This was not the case with Blu-ray units—it is my understanding that with the recent release of Profile 2.0 units, they are just now reaching a comparative state.)

No Regrets

Do I regret getting into HD-DVD just as it was dying?

No, not really. As I said, the two players I acquired are better as DVD players than any unit I previously owned, and due to plummeting prices, were also among the most affordable.

And I’ve acquired a few favorite titles, such as Blade Runner and Serenity, among others, on HD DVD and I do enjoy the quality and special menu features. I still haunt the online DVD sellers, where prices on discs continue to drop. Yesterday, for example, I found A Christmas Story in HD-DVD for only $9. (And I do love watching Ralphie yearn for that Red Rider BB rifle.)

Is My Future Blu?

So, is Blu-ray in my future?

Oh yes, but not quite yet. My Internet scavenging has found the latest Panasonic and LG units dropping to only about $300 each.

And you know what I said about my magic price point?

I’ve got $100 to go.