Blu-Ray has won the high-definition DVD war. Honestly both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray offered high-quality HD movies and it was a total shame that the war had to occur in the first place. The animosity of consumers in online forums was unprecedented as they argued for whichever format they “invested” in.

I was on neither side as I was willing to buy both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. About five times in the last year I was really close to buying a standalone Sony Blu-Ray player. I did get an HD-DVD player, but I got it on the cheap at $150 (at the time the cheapest player was $299) as an X-Box 360 add-on.

The reason to jump aboard the HD movie train is to get absolutely flawless picture quality and superior sound. For TV programs shot in HD (think Heroes, Lost, and Sporting Events) nothing will do them justice except an high-definition image. Sound quality gets a huge bump on HD discs since there more room and new audio codecs that offer better sound. In short, the HD disc medium presents an absolutely perfect format that in most cases will offer higher quality than what you see anywhere else.

Some critics argue that the picture quality from an upconverting DVD player can compete and with some movies and they’re correct to a point. The best DVD transfers out there such as any Pixar movie, Training Day, etc. can look quite good when upconverted and almost HD like. The big thing is that it only applies to the best DVDs out there. Not every movie is transferred the same way nor on the same budget. Upconverted DVD is great and can be awesome. HD is flawless with more detail, better sound, and more color.

In the end, the big rub came with new HD movie releases costing twice as much as a standard-definition DVD. I did buy favorites that I know I will watch over and over, but for normal movies I simply purchased the much cheaper standard-def DVD.

Due to the high price of HD movies I only purchased about 20 HD-DVDs. Otherwise, I would’ve bought about 30-40. Movie pricing also held me off from purchasing a $400 standalone Blu-Ray player or a PlayStation 3. If movies we’re the same price, or even just $3 more I might have pulled the trigger.

Tossing HD-DVD Aside… No Way!
With the death of the HD-DVD format, the mass media articles that have been written about HD-DVD angerS me. Many make statements along the lines of “throw away your HD-DVD players”, “HD-DVD drives are useless” or that they just stopped using them.

For those who have an HD-DVD player and handful of movies, these players and discs will work for the next 5-10 years or more. Why would anyone simply toss the format aside and not use the HD content they’ve already paid for? The disposable nature and the “can’t-use-a-dead-format” mentality strikes me as odd and wasteful.

For consumers that rent movies the HD-DVD deadweight argument makes perfect sense, and hopefully those consumers didn’t pay too much to get what is now merely a great upconverting DVD player for them. For these people, I’d suggest selling the player to those that might use the HD-DVD capability if possible. I don’t feel these people got
“screwed” per se, as they should’ve known what they were getting into as early adopters during a format war.

A positive way to look at it is that HD-DVDs should be able to found on the cheap as they become clearance items over the next few months. You could take advantage of that to build a quick HD library that could last you personally 5+ years. The sad simple truth is that movies you purchase in HD-DVD may likely need a Blu-Ray replacement. Personally, I’m not going to buy any closeout HD-DVDs unless they approach the $4-$6 range.

Is Digital Download the Future
Many opinions have been written that perhaps the HD movie format war took too long to decide a victor and movie downloads via the Internet are the way of the future. Maybe, but connecting your computer or a computer like device to your TV is still only the stuff relegated to technology nuts like myself.

It would take somebody to make a device a simple to use as an Apple TV with a super fast Internet connection to download HD content that can actually compete with the picture and sound quality of Blu-Ray. These technological hurdles could be overcome over the next few years, but getting consumers to adopt it may be another issue. Grandma’s use iPods, so anything is possible.

The digital download medium makes sense for music as the files are light and fast to move around and actually become more portable with an iPod. The same venue for movies requires a bit more capable hardware and the large files sizes of 1-10 GB are not very portable. Light and fast video at high quality simply doesn’t exist yet.

It could be likely that the same people who bought into HD-DVD and Blu-Ray may be techno-savvy enough to shift to digital HD downloads.

Video on Demand (VoD)
VoD is actually better than digital HD downloads since storage, maintenance, and delivery are handled by cable or satellite providers. VoD services have really just started to be introduced over the last few years. If an HD movie library can be delivered at any time over cable or satellite and done well it would make digital download seem cumbersome in comparison.

Mass-Market Appeal?
Does Blu-Ray have mass-market appeal? When HD-DVD and Blu-Ray first came out in 2006 I thought HD-DVD had the better name due to recognition, but through my own simple consumer observations it appeared to be an acronym too hard for normal consumers to keep straight. In the end, I think Blu-Ray had a much easier to remember and just “cooler” name. Consumers may not remember “Blu-Ray”, but I overheard many say “Blue” something when discussing the HD movie formats.

HD-DVD had the player pricing right, but both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD had movie pricing all wrong. Consumer’s have a value mindset that movies cost $15-$20. When DVD first came out in 1996 the movies came out at the same price as a VHS release, or were only $1-$3 more. $35 movie prices won’t resonate well for the normal consumer.

Player pricing for Blu-Ray has always been wrong. Granted first year prices in the $600-$1000 for any new technology is appropriate, but with Toshiba getting HD-DVD players down to $200 quickly, Blu-Ray’s cost of entry seems too high. With HD-DVD gone, Sony’s need/desire to get Blu-Ray pricing down may not be there.

Why should a standalone Blu-Ray player from Sony cost as much the technology packed and more capable PlayStation 3. Granted the PS3 is priced to sell the console at a loss to make up the money in game sales. Why shouldn’t the same idea be used to get Blu-Ray adopted by the mainstream by using movie purchases to offset the loss-leader pricing of the player?

Get the Price Right and the Format will Flourish
My prediction is that if Sony can get the player prices down to around $250 and movie prices down to reality that Blu-Ray will start to eat into standard-definition DVDs market share. Otherwise, Blu-Ray will remain a bastion of technophiles like myself who will eventually get it regardless of the $400 cost of the player.

Some good news is that Presidents’ Day sales had many Blu-Ray movies offered at the same or close enough to DVD pricing. With that I again began contemplating picking up a player. If a solid $250 Blu-Ray player existed I would’ve bought one on the spot and purchased 3-5 movies.

Quality Control
The biggest shortcoming Blu-Ray had compared to HD-DVD was the issue of quality. Both sides had failed players, but Blu-Ray also had players that worked but delivered but bad video quality anyway.  Blu-Ray also suffered some massive disc quality issues that HD-DVD did not. That should be behind them now, but those older bad transfers are still there.

These new HD disc players operate more like computers, but what people want is the reliability of consumer electronics… not computers! If these players are going to crash, have software issues and so on, normal people aren’t going to take it. These things need CD/DVD player reliability and simplicity. They just need to work… period.

One Format... Finally!
Even though I bought an HD-DVD player I actually like that there’s one format. It’s already hard enough for consumer’s to make sense of HDTVs and surround sound. Purchasing movies should be the easy part.

I will be getting a Blu-Ray player at some point, but right now I’m still waiting for the prices to become acceptable. If movie prices were right, I’d consider paying $400 for a player. If movie prices stay high, I want a $250 Sony player. If both occur it’ll be a Blu-Ray world for me.

But that’s just me.

The short… keep your HD-DVDs around and enjoy the entertainment they’ll provide years to come and ignore the pundits who say toss it. As long as my HD-DVD player and movies work, I’ll be watching HD-DVD for the next few years alongside Blu-Ray.