Hey dude–

Do you know anything about the forthcoming HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray systems? Specifically, I’m assuming that normal DVDs don’t play in HD or Blu Ray players. Am I right? Do you know? I can’t really say I’m all that eager to switch to a new thing if all the shit that i currently own is gonna be unplayable. Of course, the players won’t probably be in my price range for a while, but still. It isn’t VHS we’re talking about here – HD might be better, but I’m perfectly happy with my DVDs for now. Stupid technology. Anyway… You being the go-to guy on things like this, the question falls to you, sir.

Toodles!

Josh

OK, first things first: Don’t worry about HD DVD or Blu Ray. At least, not yet. I’d say it’ll probably be a good five years before you have to worry about them. Until then, let me explain why you shouldn’t worry.

First to answer your question–Will my DVDs play in HD or Blu Ray players?–I actually did a little research on this, because I thought I knew the answer but wasn’t sure. Information on Blu Ray is still pretty hard to come by since those players are still on the horizon (at first I was guessing no, because it’s Sony, but then I thought that because the PS3 is going to have Blu Ray, and most people use their PS2’s as DVD players it would only make sense to make them backwards compatible) but what I learned today about HD DVD is that the answer is yes. And no. Actually it’s going to depend on the player. Most should have the backwards compatibility feature, but some will not. That’s just something you are going to have to look at before actually purchasing the player. I’m assuming the same is going to be true with Blu Ray.

But anyway, why shouldn’t you worry yet about High Definition DVDs? Well, for starters, do you own a HDTV? If the answer is no, then who gives a fuck about HD DVD? You won’t notice any difference between a DVD and a HD DVD on a normal TV. So the first thing you have to worry about getting is a High Definition Television. (I can help in that department too.)

Second reason why not to worry, and this is a big one: FORMAT WAR. This is probably the stupidest thing these companies could do. They were actually somewhere last summer talking about coming out with a universal format, but then the two sides like children refused to give an inch to the other side (with some justification. Both sides (Sony and Toshiba) have spent a lot of money on creating these formats). Apparently Samsung is going to come out with a universal player. (Keep an eye on that.) Another problem is that the studios early on took sides as to what format they were going to side with. It looked like they were unshaken on that until recently when it looked like there would be no agreement between the two sides, and no studio wants to be left in the cold should their format fall on its face.

[There are no HD DVDs available as of yet, and by the end of the year there should be no more than 100 titles available, so you don’t have to worry for a little while yet.]

If history has proven anything, it is that consumers HATE format wars. Do you all remember SACD and DVD-Audio? No? Never heard of them? Exactly. And there are several reasons why consumers are going to avoid this format war. I, frankly, think they came out with these new formats too quickly.

People not having HDTV’s is a big reason why not to jump out of the gate so quickly. The House just made it law that 100% of TV broadcasts need to be digital (that doesn’t mean High Def) by 2009. I probably would have waited until closer to that time to bring out a new format. I’m sure they thought of that too. Why didn’t they? Competition. If one company waits and the other comes out with their product now, the waiter is the loser. Thus they rushed it out too quick.

Another reason is the DVD format. It’s really not that old a format. People have just started getting used to DVDs, and in a big way. People aren’t going to replace those DVDs like they did with the VHS. Why? Because no one is going to immediately see the value in it. Let’s face it: the majority of the population did not jump onto DVDs because they wanted better picture and sound quality (although that is definitely a smaller factor for them). Extras are the number one reason for DVDs popularity. If most people don’t have surround sound systems and don’t have HDTV’s, they aren’t going to care how good a DVD looks or sounds. Until home theater becomes more of a norm (and this will take a couple years) people are going to greet HD DVD and Blu Ray with a yawn. You have to add value to home theater first.

Quality is also an issue though, when it comes to people buying into the new formats. For instance, I’ve seen old movies remastered on HDTV. They look sweet. But when you compare them to all of these new High Definition remastered DVDs, well, most people aren’t really going to see a difference if you’ve got good hardware (HDTV and a progressive scan DVD player). Do you really need to upgrade your remastered High Definition transfer DVD for a High Def DVD of an old movie? No, not really. The benefit is only slight. Again, time is going to be the great equalizer here. As more new movies get shot in HD formats, you’ll start to notice a much bigger difference in the gap of quality.

So, my advice? Sit on the idea of High Definition DVD players for a while (I’m guessing a good five years). Let technology and society catch up. The first batch of HD DVD players are going to start in the thousand dollar range and maybe dip down to a “cheap” five hundred dollars. Until one format catches on, don’t expect that price to go down.

Things to watch: that Samsung DVD player for one. A universal player might cause some agreement to come about amongst the two warring factions. What I’m really going to keep my eye on is the PS3 when that comes out. It is probably going to be a huge system that will get Blu Ray players into a lot of people’s houses (giving Sony an edge in the war). Once people have the technology in their homes I’d really pay attention to the Blu Ray disk sales. That’s where you are going to see pretty quickly if this thing is going to take off or not.

Well, that’s my two cents. Let me know if you have any more questions!

Ben