22/01: Still 'round
… just busy/distracted by other whimsy. News lately… let’s see…
None, really.
It’s snowing today. Heavily. That count?
Further bulletins as events warrant.
None, really.
It’s snowing today. Heavily. That count?
Further bulletins as events warrant.
… so the news in da format war is Warner has announced they’re switching to Blu-Ray releases exclusively, phasing out their HD DVD stuff over the next five months. This seriously tips the balance of power, with most of the Hollywood muscle now solidly behind Blu-Ray. There’ve been rumours that Paramount will bail out of its exclusive deal, too (so far denied… though not very vehemently), which really would be a death blow. Or, hell, the coup de grāce. Warner alone is a pretty big thing, and pretty much finishes this.
I’m not terribly upset about this. Mildly annoyed that the HD DVD player I now own will not age gracefully, sure, but I’d rather the format war were over, and people were getting into the new players en masse—something that’s only going to happen when said war is over. Because until that happens, prices aren’t gonna fall, neither format is gonna get wide adoption by viewers or studios, and the back catalogue stuff I really want to see in HD (like, as previously mentioned, early Zhang Yimou) isn’t going to get onto any HD format. Since that kinda rescan work on films with relatively niche audiences is gonna need a sizeable market of players out there before it’ll become financially viable.
So I, for one, welcome our new Blu-Ray overlords. I want to see beautiful old films in 1080p HD. I don’t really care which mega-conglomerate gets to say how far the pits are apart on the disk, or what colour the clamshell is. Let’s get this over with, already.
I’m not terribly upset about this. Mildly annoyed that the HD DVD player I now own will not age gracefully, sure, but I’d rather the format war were over, and people were getting into the new players en masse—something that’s only going to happen when said war is over. Because until that happens, prices aren’t gonna fall, neither format is gonna get wide adoption by viewers or studios, and the back catalogue stuff I really want to see in HD (like, as previously mentioned, early Zhang Yimou) isn’t going to get onto any HD format. Since that kinda rescan work on films with relatively niche audiences is gonna need a sizeable market of players out there before it’ll become financially viable.
So I, for one, welcome our new Blu-Ray overlords. I want to see beautiful old films in 1080p HD. I don’t really care which mega-conglomerate gets to say how far the pits are apart on the disk, or what colour the clamshell is. Let’s get this over with, already.
