I'm the Idiot Who Bought an HD-DVD Player (A casualty of the format war tells all)

slate.com ^ | Feb. 28, 2008 | By Josh Levin

[Las Vegas Dave]

Toshiba finally mercy-killed its HD-DVD format last week, ending a drawn-out fight with Sony's Blu-ray for high-definition disc supremacy. The format's demise has brought HD-DVD owners untold humiliation: reams of newspaper stories comparing them to the losers of yore who bought into Betamax and LaserDisc, the sad sight of desperate early adopters peddling brand-new players on Craigslist, and, worst of all, a Web site celebrating the similarities between HD-DVD and Hillary Clinton. I'm sick of the mockery and abuse. You see, I'm one of the morons who bought an HD-DVD player.

While I freely admit my moronitude, I still believe the HD-DVD owner is an unfairly maligned creature. It wasn't dumb to jump on the HD-DVD bandwagon: Toshiba's technology was cheaper and more consumer-friendly than Sony's. It was dumb, though, to assume that the forces of good would triumph. In the end, the fight between Sony and Toshiba played out like some kind of bizarro sports movie: The bad guy won at the end by clocking the lovable underdog in the crotch with a baseball bat.

In retrospect, it might've been smarter not to buy either player. But alas, I have a strange affliction that left me susceptible to HD-DVD's limited charms: I'm a gadget-loving cheapskate. The typical early adopter opens his wallet first and asks questions later; he doesn't care how many gigs of RAM are inside the MacBook Air, just that it slides into a Manila envelope. The HD-DVD player, however, appealed to a different group, electronics fetishists too imprudent to wait out a format war yet stingy enough to base their purchasing decisions entirely on price. Of course, this is an irrational position, like signing up for the inaugural commercial flight to the moon but only paying for a coach-class ticket.

< snip >

[Las Vegas Dave]

Interested in HDTV?
Please Freepmail (works best) me if you would like your name added to the HDTV ping list.

The pinged subjects will be those of HDTV technology, satellite/cable HD, OTA (over the air with various roof top and indoor antennas) HD reception. Broadcast specials, Blu-ray/HD-DVD, and any and all subjects relating to HD.

Las Vegas Dave

[Las Vegas Dave]

Pinging the HDTV list..

HDTV pings

[SlapHappyPappy]

At least we know who bought it now. One mystery solved.

[woofer2425]

Keep it...in 20 years it will be a collectors item:)

[MEpajamaMONSTER]

HA!HA!HA!

[Paleo Conservative]

It wasn't dumb to jump on the HD-DVD bandwagon: Toshiba's technology was cheaper and more consumer-friendly than Sony's.

Sony has dual layer 50 GB capacity now, but has demonstrated 200 GB 8 layer disks in the laboratory. Toshiba was going to develop a lame 3 layer 51 GB version of HD-DVD that's just a little bigger than the 50 GB Blu-Ray. As manufacturing costs decline, Blu-ray will become cheaper just as have all the previous new mass market formats.

[CarrotAndStick]

You're one of the idiots who bought an HD-DVD player? Well...

[Squidpup]

It was Sony's turn

[Still Thinking]

so you were the guy!

[kempo]

I’m glad I’m not the kind to be the first one on the block to have something. I usually wait and buy it for one tenth the original price.

[ThomasThomas]

“Keep it...in 20 years it will be a collectors item:)”

Would you like to buy a rare bata max?

[CholeraJoe]

In the same boat. Saving for a new system.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That’s no fun....

[MHT]

Does this mean that the dvd player built into the back of the HDTV I bought won’t work with any dvd’s made after 2008?

[varyouga]

I was thinking the same thing.

HD-DVD is almost half the capacity per layer as BluRay. How did HDDVD even stand a chance?

[MarineBrat]

I’ve got about 1000 of the best movies of all time in Video Laser Disks. They still play great!

[Yo-Yo]

There’s a reason why it’s called “Bleeding Edge Technology.”

All but the most rabid “gotta have it NOW” stayed on the sidelines until the format wars were over.

You’re just a casualty, buddy, but a willing volunteer.

[Snickering Hound]

The fire sale at Amazon.com for HD DVD players has a new in box A3 for $83.

It's a good upscaling DVD player at that price.

[I Drive Too Fast]

I bought mine too early also, but figured I could always use another dvd player (I have 4 tv's). I got it for the 7 free HD-DVD's which became 12 free HD-DVD's less than 2 weeks later. I also bought it mainly to rent HD-DVD's from netflix who chose NOT to rent those any more 3 months later.

At least the Sony Blu-Ray player I bought will be good for a while, unless it won't be upgradeable to the upcoming 2.0 format :-(.

I am curious how long the Blu-Ray player will last. My original "top of the line" Sony DVD player that I purchased back in 1998 or 1999 still works fine and I think I paid more than $500 for it back then.

[CarrotAndStick]

This is the best time for robot enthusiasts to buy up cheap equipment for complex parts like blue lasers and motor assemblies.

[Right Wing Assault]

casualty of the format war tells all

You're lucky. Women and children were hit hardest.

[tje]

I got one too.. It’s right next to my Beta Max...

[mowowie]

I’s been almost 3 months now and i still haven’t recievied my five free Blu-Rays.

[Lee'sGhost]

If it makes you feel any better, Josh, you’re just one of the idiots.

[Radix]

I don’t even know what you are talking about.

I won a DVD player at a golf tournament several years ago and it still works great.

[FreedomPoster]

I hope your player continues for a long time. Just the same, I’d think about doing hi-res digitization of those babies.

[I Drive Too Fast]

I could sell you some betamax tapes L-750’s 4 1/2 hours at slow speed if you want them. I’ll give you a good price - 50% off what I paid for them. That’s a savings of $6.00 a tape. I still have more than 20 of them which are useless to me since my betamax (paid $840.00 for it in 1979) died a few years ago.

[american_ranger]

How did Sony win?

1. Sony bribed the porn industry to use their standard and to publicly announce their choice.
2. Sony low-balled priced before Toshiba did.
3. Sony paid off Netflix.

Simply put. Sony paid more bribes than Toshiba.

All of this is simply my humble opinion and does not constitute a statement of fact, allegation, implication or in any way resembles the truth.

Free Republic neither condones nor approves of this posting and should not be held liable in any way, shape, or form.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I’m not going to buy Blu-ray either. I’m going to wait for the format after Blu-ray to come out. Or maybe the one after that.

[Jeff F]

I agree with the author that disk based movies will not long survive. I have not yet used Apple TV but have and love a product called Vudu (www.vudu.com). It supports on demand DVD and HD quality video rental and purchases from a library of over 5000 titles currently. It has the best interface I have yet seen - very fast, intuitive, and simply orders of magnitude better than my cable company’s on demand services.

[BansheeBill]

Would you like to buy a rare bata max?

A friend of mine sold a barely used vintage Betamax player (in the box) on ebay a couple of weeks ago for over $300.00

[Nachoman]

At least he didn't buy one of these.

[richlk]

One big difference was that Betamax was a -recorder- as well as a player. I still use my Beta once in a while for its superior picture, transfer the edited version to dvd, and reuse the tape. I’ll keep recording until either the machine or the tapes bust.
(One -very- short lived format was the SuperVHS. Not many releases came out of Hollywood in that.)

[Beelzebubba]

This is the best time for robot enthusiasts to buy up cheap equipment for complex parts like blue lasers and motor assemblies.

---

Have you seen the hack for making a DVD burner laser into a laser pointer that will pop a balloon or start fires across the room?

[bmwcyle]

He put it next to his Beta machine.

[MarineBrat]

I hope your player continues for a long time. Just the same, I’d think about doing hi-res digitization of those babies.

I've got two of them, and there's amazingly a very large group of people who still can get them. I think there's even one or two models being manufactured again, though in much smaller numbers than before.

alt.video.laserdisc was a huge resource for locating potential future sources of hardware.

I've contemplated for a long time how I'm going to get them ported over to something new. Still no perfect solutions.

[metmom]

ping

[6ppc]

Me too. But it plays the few HDDVDs I have and does a great job upscaling regular DVDs, so I don’t have any regrets.

[6ppc]

You’re just a casualty, buddy, but a willing volunteer.

Yup...every once in a while to have to take one for the team.

[LiberConservative]

All but the most rabid “gotta have it NOW” stayed on the sidelines until the format wars were over.

Leo Laporte, (The Tech Guy) said, just a few months ago that the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD war would go on for a while and that the competition would allow most of us to buy both or combo players.

But I'm glad I sat on the sidelines. :)

[CarrotAndStick]

Yes. It’s on YouTube.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Depends on if it is a standard DVD player or not.

[Blood of Tyrants]

If you have a large collection of HD DVD movies, buy several HD DVD players and put them in storage so you can view your movies in several years.

[Paleo Conservative]

I was thinking the same thing.

HD-DVD is almost half the capacity per layer as BluRay. How did HDDVD even stand a chance?

The embedded software in HD-DVD is better developed. The 1.0 version of Blu-ray was rushed to market without many of the interactive features of DVD or HD-DVD in order to prevent HD-DVD from completely controlling the market by default. While HD-DVD may be adequate for current needs, Blu-ray has a much better expansion path especially for computer data applications.

[jaz.357]

I was a Beta Max guy. The picture WAS better, The tape WAS smaller then VHS. Sony gave up WAY too fast.

Just got a flat screen for the kitchen and an iPod so there is still hope for me.

[Paleo Conservative]

If you have a large collection of HD DVD movies, buy several HD DVD players and put them in storage so you can view your movies in several years.

I wouldn't be surprised if HD-DVD read compatibility were built into some Blu-ray drives. There are already some new Blu-ray reading/writing drives on the market with the ability to read HD-DVD disks. I'll post a link below to a some info about Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drives that I posted on a previous thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1971098/posts?page=2#2

[Eaker]

A friend of mine sold a barely used vintage Betamax player (in the box) on ebay a couple of weeks ago for over $300.00

I still haven't received it, but I have stocked up on VHS tapes. Please have him send it soon!

[Paleo Conservative]

I was a Beta Max guy. The picture WAS better, The tape WAS smaller then VHS. Sony gave up WAY too fast.

It was still better for making home videos. Digital video capture of Beta tapes should have better quality than those from VHS.

[aft_lizard]

I am yet anopther poor sap, and I have no regrets! It was a gift. Now I just need to find a dual format player out there on the cheap and I will be set to go.

[beezdotcom]

You forgot to add “This post does not actually exist, and is merely a figment of your twisted imagination”...