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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
squiggleslash @ Oct 30th 2008 9:15AM
In fairness, HD DVD "failed" because Warner pulled its support, and Warner pulled its support because it decided to go with the format that had the most exclusive studio support. With both formats at that point having relatively few sales in terms of standalone players, the consumer was pretty much out of the loop as far as that decision went.
But I do agree that "good enough" is what's going to be the decider here. HD DVRs + HD cable, coupled with numerous download services that are getting better all the time, is where people are heading and likely to spend their money. The choice right now is not between SD and HD video discs. It's between convenience and higher quality. And, really, honestly, I think as long as the more convenient option is "good enough" quality, it'll win over high quality, especially if it feels like it's free.
I now have more HD movies on the hard drive bolted onto my Dish Network DVR than I have HD DVDs. I still buy the occasional HD DVD, but over-all my DVD and HD video disc purchasing habits have gone from "two-to-four a month" to "once in a blue moon".
And I haven't even bought a streaming media box yet. Hulu et al hasn't announced a way to stream to standalone media boxes. The options that aren't Blu-ray are growing by the day.