I don’t usually cheer the death of a product or a technology but I’m glad to see the demise of HD DVD. After years of contentious battle between two competing high-definition DVD standards, Toshiba, the primary backer of HD DVD, conceded defeat last week. HD DVD is dead. Long live Blu-ray.
It’s not as if Toshiba had much choice. HD DVD was already in a coma. Warner Bros. Studios – the largest purveyor of DVD movies – put a big nail in HD DVD’s coffin in January when it announced it would no longer produce movies in that format but standardize on Blu-ray. That left only Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios in the HD DVD camp. The vast majority of new high-definition movies would come out only in Blu-ray.
Another couple of nails came from Netflix and Wal-Mart, both of whom recently announced they would no longer distribute HD DVD. Blockbuster earlier decided to carry only Blu-ray.
It’s not that I really cared who won. From where I sit (a few feet from a 52-inch high-definition TV), I can’t tell the difference between the two formats. But the mere existence of competing formats made it impossible for me to recommend either type of player.
I’m all for competition, but not when it comes to standards. Imagine if certain books were compatible only with certain reading glasses or if the car you were thinking of buying could be driven only on certain types of roads.
Standards define almost every successful technology. It was safe back in the old days to buy any vinyl album because people knew it would work on any record player. And standards explain why the CD was able to quickly take over – people knew that all CDs worked on all CD players. The initial lack of a single standard stalled the deployment of video recorders back in the ’80s because Sony was pushing its Beta format while most other companies were selling VHS players. Some studios initially issued movies in both VHS and Beta, but ultimately VHS won out, causing Sony to eventually stop making the format. Standards are also important in the computer industry. They’re one reason Microsoft has done so well, although Apple has been able to buck this trend to a degree with computers that run different programs. But software isn’t the same as movies. People buy software and use it until a new version comes out – often two or three years later. When it comes to entertainment products, people buy or rent on a regular basis. You want a steady stream of programs to work with whatever hardware you happen to own.
It can be argued that the departure of HD DVD is a blow to competition. But I think the opposite will be true. With a single standard, it’s now more practical for hardware manufacturers to invest in development of new players and increased production capacity. That should mean more players on the market and, ultimately, better prices. If the prices of standard DVD players are any example, we should see a dramatic price drop within the year. A couple of years ago I bought a standard DVD player for $29 at a drug store.
Before you go out and buy a Blu-ray player, let me share my experience with the one I have. Movies in Blu-ray look and sound great but, truth be told, so do movies recorded on standard DVDs. That’s because most Blu-ray (and HD DVD) players, along with some higher-end standard players, convert the signal from a standard DVD so it looks great on a high-definition TV. It’s not as good as a Blu-ray disc but it’s still quite good.
But when it comes to signals on broadcast, cable or satellite TV, I’m now spoiled and feel I’m having an inferior experience if I have to watch a standard definition show on a high-definition TV.
Eventually none of this will matter because we’ll be downloading our movies via the Internet. There will come a time when buying media on plastic discs seems quaint.
Thanks to Apple TV, Microsoft Media Center extensions, TiVo and other products, that’s already starting to happen. But the full transition from disc to download will take several years and won’t be complete until we get faster broadband service than most American homes currently have. It would also help if the studios adopted less idiotic rules. Most video download rental services today disable the movie 24 hours after you start watching it, which is one reason I still prefer to get my movies on DVD from Netflix. I can watch them at my leisure.