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July 25, 2007
Dear CNET members,
Back in January, CNET Executive Editor David Carnoy gave his seven tech predictions for the new year. Of all the predictions he made, the one that created the most buzz not to mention a lot of backlash from HD DVD enthusiasts, was "HD DVD surrenders by September", in which he foretold that HD DVD would bow out to Blu-ray and lose the format war. That sure was a bold prediction from David! And as September nears, there isn't slightest hint of the format war letting down between Blu-ray and HD DVD; rather, it's only intensifying! And this time around, in David Carnoy's latest Fully Equipped column, David comes clean with us and tells us why he is wrong about HD DVD.
You know, in my book, it takes a lot of guts to own up publicly to being wrong, so let's give it up for David. Read what he has to say about HD DVD--as HD DVD manufacturers continue to drop prices on their DVD players and offer up interactive features to entice consumers to buy into HD DVD. And when you're done reading, step up and give your two cents on this format war. Do you want to see this conflict over with? Or are you, like David, saying format wars are good--for the consumers? The bottom line is, what will it take to win you over to one format? Is it price? Or is it special features and more bells and whistles? What will make the difference? Whatever your flavor--HD DVD, Blu-ray or neither, we want to hear what's on your mind. The comments area is all yours to speak freely--so get on with it! Express your opinions--and be sure check out what others have to say.
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This week's hot topic:
HD DVD isn't going anywhere just yet
In his latest Fully Equipped column, David Carnoy writes about how he was wrong about HD DVD, and how the format wars are a good thing. When he asked if they thought special features are a game-changer or is price the most important factor in the next-gen DVD format war, many members were quick to jump on the soap box to tell us what they thought.
"Finally you've come to your senses, Carnoy"
"Despite the pretty pictures, despite the vaunted "extra features," despite the gigabytes of extra storage...it's always been about the basic content of the movie itself and how cheap it is to watch it. That's why DVD is still king. Doesn't matter if there's all these HDTVs being sold; regular DVD quality isn't all that bad. No, the picture isn't the best there is, but it's good enough and it doesn't cost significantly more, either. For a whole lot of people..." (Read more)
"HD DVD is not superior"
"HD DVD wants people to think they are offering a superior product, but the fact remains it is not a superior product, and I'll explain why. First both discs support the same codecs, because of this the majority of the picture-quality war comes down to which codec the studio decides to encode with, not the actual capability of each format. Thus if a studio chose the same codec for each format, then the one that would produce the superior picture is..." (Read more)
"Agreed--the format war is a good thing"
"You can already get an HD DVD player for $250, and the two formats have only been out for about a year and a half--that's an amazingly fast price drop for a cutting-edge product! But this is a trade-off: the format war is, in the short term, causing mass consumer confusion and apprehension--I'm a tech-head and don't own either format--which is bad and is suffocating sales. However, this is now causing manufacturers to panic as well, like they have done with..." (Read more)
"Yeah, it's the money!"
"First off, it's really weird how many people are saying it's memory lane with the Betamax and VHS. It's really, really not. Why? Because DVD is incredibly common. No other format has ever been so popular, and replacing it is so optional. I think that since HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs are very, very difficult to pirate, that they should be cheaper than DVDs or exactly the same price. This business of charging a premium for them is outrageous..." (Read more)
"Extras? Puh-lease!"
"Don't get me wrong--extras are cool on some DVD's, but they're
mainly on the disc as a time-killer for me. And killing time isn't something positive, anyway. Do I really want to play some classic arcade rip off minigame while hearing Frank Miller ranting about how great he is while watching 300? No, thanks, we've become enough ADD as it is..."
(Read more)
Speak up!
Now it's your turn to speak up! What do you think of David Carnoy's latest article? Are you in agreement that format wars are good for all of us? Which one do you think will win the format war--the party that has the most special features, or does it really boil down to price as the most important factor? Don't hold back, we're all listening!
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