Warner Chose the Blu Pill

Yesterday was a pretty big deal. As the techies out there read this, we all knew something had to give. And yesterday it happened. There were rumblings from industry insiders, early adopters, and just about anybody. But those who took the red pill still wanted to believe that their camp had a chance. They urged one another to continue purchasing Warner Brothers HD DVD titles to show Warner that HD DVD was the way to go.

But that didn't happen.

How could Warner have possibly continued supporting both formats when it was clear that Blu-ray was emerging as the preferred choice by consumers? They couldn't. And they didn't. As of May 2008, Warner Brothers will be Blu-ray exclusive.

That's right, Warner will be Blu-ray exclusive.

But what does that mean for the industry? For you regular people out there with your DVD's, and your downloaded torrents, it means absolutely nothing for you. You can continue to watch movies with complete disregard to video quality and sound fidelity.

I, on the other hand, am a bit remorseful about purchasing an onslaught of HD DVD's over the past few months. But that is the price we pay. And when I say "we", I mean early adopters. I've had my HD DVD add-on for my Xbox 360 since about October of 2006. I needed to see high definition. I wanted to experience it. My own hype for the PlayStation 3 caused me to buy the competing brand just to have a taste.

But shortly after the PS3 was released, I was all about Blu-ray. I looked at my HD DVD add-on, and was almost disgusted by it. It seemed inferior to me. Just because the connection to my LCD HDTV from the Xbox 360 was "only" component, and not HDMI like the one used to connect my PS3 to my HDTV. It was pure prejudice. I was a Blu-ray fanboy for utterly no reason.

That happened about a year ago.

Then, something crazy happened. I gave HD DVD a chance. I bought rock solid titles such as "Batman Begins" and "The Matrix Ultimate Collection", both of which were Warner Brothers. I never really wondered why they hadn't come out on Blu-ray as well, but I guess it never phased me. Both titles were AAA titles, amazing video and thundering audio.

Then I stopped caring about HDM (high definition movies) altogether. This happened during the summer of 2007. It was as all a blur, much like a DVD or downloaded torrent video file.

But in the fall, I took advantages of HD DVD sales that Best Buy had. In fact, I guess you could say I hustled Best Buy. I snaked 'em. I got 'em! In one day, I managed to get 6 FREE HD DVD's ... in Best Buy. And I'm still set to get 10 FREE HD DVD's in the mail.

My HD DVD collection skyrocketed. My Blu-ray and HD DVD collections were even at one point, but as of now, HD DVD is clearly the format I have "invested" in the most. I quote invested because I didn't really pay for all my HD DVD's. So it isn't that big of a deal.


But in the grand scheme of things, none of this really matters. Only a small portion of the public even knows about the high definition disc format war. Everyone's still going to Best Buy and Walmart and picking up their favorite DVD's. People go into Best Buy and Circuit City, and they wonder why the hell they'd ever need to upgrade. They think that DVD's on their HDTV look "just fine."

Listen, playing a DVD at 480p on your $5000 1080p plasma is not "just fine."

Neither is hooking up basic cable to said TV set.

Like the old saying goes, "garbage in, garbage out."

Your picture quality is only as good as its source. Yes, BD and HD DVD players can upscale. It's not the same, and don't you dare try to even imagine that it's close to being the same.

720 x 480 DOES NOT EQUAL 1920 x 1080

Is that clear? It better be. Because we'll soon move out of this DVD phase. Yes, we all know that the next big thing could just be downloadable video (a la On Demand), but what about the quality? Do I really want to stream something that is inferior to what Blu-ray offers me? I don't think so.

But where does this leave me? I have a boatload of HD DVD's, and I haven't opened some of them. Do I really want to sell the first two Bourne titles just because they're still sealed? Does it really make sense to purchase the same titles later on if/when Universal decides to get their heads out of their asses and stop being HD DVD exclusive?

I don't know what I'll do. I won't be making any immediate moves. My HD DVD collection isn't going up on eBay soon. I'm not going to panic and run to half.com to dump my babies. Yes, they're still my babies. Blue or red, these discs have been my babies for over a year.

So, it is clear that there will finally be a winner in this "war." It's not a war because it's pennies compared to the juggernaut known as DVD. The next war will probably be Blu-ray trying to take over DVD, which I don't see happening for another decade or so.

However, we must congratulate Sony for this mini victory. All those years of failed attempts to make their own format (Betamax, MiniDisc, Memory Stick, UMD), this could be the one. This will be sweeter than anything else. Analysts thought that putting a BD player inside the PS3 was a mistake. I guess not.

And I feel sorry for anyone who recently jumped onto the HD DVD bandwagon. Today, two of the wheels came off your ride.

Okay, let's not get carried away.

Today is the beginning of a new era. Not the HDM (high definition movie) era. This is the Blu-ray era.

1080p video, up to 7.1 channels of uncompressed audio, discs ranging from 25GB-50GB with 200GB on the horizon, and backed a majority of CE companies and major movie studios.

This is a big day for early adopters. I just wanted to share with you my thoughts on this matter. Because not everyone has a clear picture on what it's like being an early adopter. It can be a big gamble. It can be a complete waste of time and money. But obviously, well to me, this shit is fucking exciting.

Blu-ray for the win!