Many of you have probably noticed that I have been conspicuously quiet and restrained on the subject of high definition DVD to this point. This has nothing to do with disinterest, of course, but more with the fact that I just wanted to see how things develop before building an opinion and making it public.
Recently I visited the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in hopes to find out some more hard facts and up-to-date details about the two proposed formats, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. After walking the floor, seeing many of the presentations I found one of my concerns sadly reinforced. I was utterly unimpressed with HD-DVD. Seriously! You can tell from its positioning, the way it’s being bullishly promoted, etc. that HD-DVD is a format that is created to fill an artificially created demand that does not exist. Worst of all however, it looks pretty poor.
Sure, at first you look at these high definition video images and you are vowed because of their clarity and resolution. If you look a bit closer however, the images on display were riddled with compression and mastering artifacts that would make you balk if this were a DVD. And that was for the big bang promotions at CES, the single biggest show on the planet to promote these things. If that is the best they can do, I am sorry to say “Thank you, but no, thank you!”
I was utterly unimpressed with HD-DVD
If I make the transition to high definition video I expect an image that is free of artifacts as we know them today. It needs to be absolutely clear, without edge-enhancement, without ringing, without dot crawl and without pixelation. HD-DVD has yet to prove it can offer that. Toshiba’s HD-DVD presentations at last year’s CES were ridiculously bad with colors that were bleeding to no end, and this year’s concerted effort of the industry was not much better. With its limited storage capacity HD-DVD is prone to over-compression to make room for audio tracks and supplements much the way DVD is actually, it is so even more because the required storage/quality ratio is much higher. Add to that the fact that the MPEG-4 compression theme has completely different characteristics than DVD’s MPEG-2 compression and a lot of disastrous quick-shot releases are already pre-programmed.
Enter Blu-Ray. At CES I saw among others Panasonic’s demonstration of Disney’s “Aladdin” on Blu-Ray and the effect was profound. I noticed details in the image that I had never seen before, not even in the theatrical prints. The lines of the image were so fine, it was unbelievable, and best of all the image was without a hint of an artifact. Perfect color balance, perfect shadow delineation, perfect edges and rock solid colors and blacks. I noticed the same effect on other Blu-Ray presentations and clearly, this is what I am looking for. A format that not only holds the promise of the future, but fulfills it.
The war between the two formats is on and a lot of mouthing off is going on, one side trying to best the other. A lot of arguments are flying around in the course of these heated discussions, many of which are nothing but artificial justifications for pointless issues. Case in point? Backwards compatibility for example, one of the hottest touted selling points of the HD-DVD camp. Frankly however, who cares? I have a DVD player and I don’t need a high definition player to play the same discs. Even if my DVD player should break it’s a mere $50 to replace it, but honestly, by the time it does break and needs replacement, I probably won’t even care any more, just as I didn’t replace my last VHS player when it broke. But even if, adding a red laser to a Blu-Ray unit to make it DVD/CD compatible adds a mere 25 cents or less to the overall manufacturing costs of the unit. So, this is a ridiculously naught argument upon closer examination, especially in the light that the first models will probably retail around $1000.- anyway.
There’s also a lot of talk about the manufacturing compatibility of HD-DVD with existing replication equipment, an issue especially the studios are made to believe to be interested in. However there is also a bit of lapse in logic here. What good is this if you’ll need two or three discs to hold the same material that a single Blu-Ray disc could hold? Your cost benefit goes right out the door. Again, it is a short-sighted argument that doesn’t necessarily hold true in practice. If you’ve followed DVD as closely as I have over the past 8 years, you know that a lot of things have changed in that period of time, even in the replication field. That change won’t stop. The digital age is moving fast and it will require replicators to replace and/or upgrade their equipment one way or another, come HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Of course the corporate suits running the studios these days don’t necessarily understand that, all they see is the superficially saved buck here or there presented to them in a nice Excel spreadsheet.
One thing you do not hear a lot of talk about on the other hand is forward compatibility. Audio formats have evolved dramatically since the inception of DVD. From the 5.1 channel Dolby Digital standard of 1997 we have now reached discrete 7.1 channel audio support in home theaters and the development will continue. The next break-through in the audio world will be full 10.2 delivery for the home theater. What do you think which format will be better suited to deliver your 10.2 dts sound track in the future? The HD-DVD format, which by its very nature strapped for storage before it even gets out of the gate, or Blu-Ray, a format that is expandable beyond anything we can currently anticipate and will grow with the demands of the delivery platforms.
These, of course are only a few random thoughts and notes on the subject. There are copy protection issues, the lackluster title announcements of the HD-DVD-supporting studios did anyone else notice that Universal is planning to launch the format with the exact same titles it kicked off DVD 8 years ago? There’s nothing like kickstarting a new format with films like “Waterworld” that no one wants to see again anyway.
Books could be filled with more detailed elaborations and parables on both formats. The point I wanted to make after all this time is that I am firmly rooting for Blu-Ray. It is the better format, plain and simple, and the format that better serves the purposes of the home entertainment industry. Of course, no one in the HD-DVD camp will agree with me as they are busy shepherding out a mediocre premature product rather than seeing it through the right way. Corporate politics, patent interests and big egos make out this battle and if things don’t change, the consumer will lose out once again. I can only hope that once studios like Warner, Universal and the rest of the lot will announce their Blu-Ray support it won’t be too late to drive the market in the right direction. And believe you me, they WILL announce Blu-Ray support, just as Sony Pictures will announce HD-DVD support. Let’s not forget that these are all publicly traded companies and the pressure from Wall Street will not allow that these entities to miss out on business opportunities and emerging markets. If you’re a public company you do as you’re told! There is no room for personal preferences in these entities, and for once in my life that makes me happy, because it will force all the format war participants to reconsider their odds at one point.
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