Blu-ray Backlash

Let's look back for a second. When the format war began, we chose to remain neutral - even we we thought that Blu-ray did, in fact, look better at the CES 2005 show. We didn't even report that, to keep our own biases out of the debate. As part of that neutral stance we tried to hold out on buying a player until there was a clear winner. As time went on the high definition junkie in both of us did us in. Ara picked up an HD-DVD add on drive for his Xbox360 because it was very cost effective. Braden purchased a Toshiba HD-A2 and took the umpteen free movies that came with it to sweeten the deal. For only $299, at the time it seemed like a small add to get a really good upconverting DVD player that also played high def discs.

It was hard to remain neutral, but our stance stood firm that the Toshiba was a good deal as an upconverting DVD player that also played HD-DVDs, so in the event that HD-DVD lost the war, you weren't out the whole investment. Of course, eventually Ara picked up a dedicated Blu-ray player and Braden recently acquired a PS3 (more on that in a future episode), and we moved firmly back into the neutral position. All along it was our belief that content would decide the format war. When Warner made the move to Blu-ray only, we had a pretty good idea that the end was near. And it looks like the Blu-ray camp's assertion at CES 2007 that "the end is here" may not have been as bold as we thought it was. Perhaps they knew a little more than they let on.

But with the war behind us, we should all be ready to move on, right? There might be some of us who feel a little bit of sadness with the passing of HD-DVD. Braden wasn't shy about proclaiming how much he liked the format and thought that it was executed very well. Others might be a little bit upset about the HD-DVD player purchase they made that can now serve as a giant paperweight, which is understandable. Of course it's still a good upconverting DVD player, but that's not much consolation right now. So after we wipe our tears and lick our wounds, we can see that this war, this thing everyone from retailers to the media railed against, is finally over. All the confusion, the doubt, all gone. But for some reason there are those who still just hate Blu-ray.

For example, several emailers have sent in a few different blogs about why Blu-ray still isn't any good. One post dated Feb. 13, 2008 at ZDNet.com entitled Is Blu-ray worth it? lists the pros and cons of a Blu-ray player and concludes that, in fact, no, the Blu-ray player isn't worth it. If you're a fan of high definition movies like we are, how can it not be worth it? He argues that the players are flaky, they don't all support everything you'd want them too like audio codecs or Internet connectivity, and the content just isn't that much better than an upconverted DVD. While it's true that Blu-ray's market execution wasn't stellar, the content is much better. It isn't quite the leap we made from VHS to DVD or from standard def TV to HDTV, but it's certainly better. If you have an HDTV, it's worth it to watch movies in high definition.

Another post at USNews.com date Feb. 20, 2008 and titled 7 Reasons to Forget Blu-ray provides reason why consumers should just skip Blu-ray altogether. The reasons can be summed up as: 1. upconverting DVD players are close enough, or 2. you can get HD movies elsewhere, such as Vudu or AppleTV. All decent arguments, of course the quality isn't comparable, but the convenience factor is very high. The real question is "why now?" Why when Blu-ray has just won the war, we finally have one format we can get behind, is there so much backlash. We can understand backlash against dueling formats, that's just plain confusing to customers. But it's over now. There's one message to sell to the masses. Why hack it down now?

We'll close with the Top 11 Ways Sony Plans to Celebrate Their Blu-Ray Victory from BBSpot.com.

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