Well, it isn’t 100% official yet, but it looks like Toshiba is prepared to pull the plug on HD DVD fairly soon.

I knew this was coming once Warner Brothers said it was going Blu-ray only, it was just a matter of when. Last week was the killing blow when Netflix said it was dumping the format, and then Wal-Mart also announced they were. Seeing as Wal-Mart had been one of the biggest pushers of HD DVD, their departure pretty much sealed the fate of the format.

So, what do I do now? It’s too late to return my Toshiba HD-A35, and that’s fine, I just view it as having a really nice DVD player with upconversion.

When will I go Blu-ray?  Well, this brings me back to why I went HD DVD in the first place, and the fact that the format isn’t finished yet.  Profile 2.0, the firmware that will catch Blu-ray to where HD DVD was at launch, isn’t due for release until October of this year.  So, the first wave of Profile 2.0 players come out, they’ll be high priced through th holidays for sure, you’re looking at 2009 for the price drop.

Great, well, at least I’ll enjoy the HD DVDs I bought already and just bide my time again.  Still, an interesting war to watch play out, too bad it’s over.

Well, I said on November 23rd, when I ordered my HD DVD player, “Now that I’ve picked a side… expect a surge in Blu-ray sales.”  Well, instead, I got the death of a format.

No, HD DVD is not officially dead… yet… but the news that Warner Brothers is going Blu-ray exclusively as of May, pretty much seals the coffin.  This is going to give Blu-ray control of 70% of the released content, meaning HD DVD will slowly choke on a lack of product.

It’s unfortunate because I genuinely believe HD DVD is the superior format for a laundry list of reasons.  The format will probably not die off until February of 2009, when the exclusive deals with Dreamworks and Universal end, but it’s not going to be pretty for the next year.

*Countdown to Roy mocking me… 3… 2… 1…*

Over at TECH.BLORGE.com this past week, I’ve been writing a bunch of stories about the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war, and it’s getting more and more interesting.

It seems that hardware manufacturers are getting more enamored with the idea of releasing dual format players. LG has already done this, but ringing in at a cool $999 (list price of $1,049.99), it’s not exactly a super fast moving device. Now there are rumors that a sub-$500 model may appear next week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and this is followed by news that by 2012, 66% of the HD drives in computers may be dual format.

So, is it the hardware manufacturers who are behind this?  Have they seen that their lack of sales of the HD players is due to the studios being stubborn, and it’s time to take the decision away from them and the consumers?  One has to wonder what’s causing this move.  They obviously see the war as being in a stalemate or else they wouldn’t be investing the money in these new players.

Could it really be this simple?  Could we really see the ‘war’ settled with both formats just co-existing for their entire product life-cycle?  It would make me laugh if this is how it all finally shakes out.

In what is becoming an annual list, I’m going to share the holiday programming I enjoy every year.

A Christmas Carol – Patrick Stewart is a classically trained actor and he brings a powerful tone to the role of Scrooge. A fantastic version of this classic tale of Christmas spirit.

A Christmas Story – Set in the 1940′s does nothing to diminish the fun or relevance of this movie. Every kid has had that “dream” gift on their Christmas list that it seemed no one wanted you to have. Fun, cute and so many quotable lines. “You’ll shoot your eye out” if you miss this one!

It’s a Wonderful Life – Come on…do I even really need to discuss this one? Is there anyone alive who hasn’t seen this? Actually I did find someone this year…and I promptly pointed her out for the heretic she is. This is one of my all time favorite movies. Jimmy Stewart is amazing.

Love Actually – Really, the only connection to Christmas is the time of year, and a couple of holiday jokes, but it’s cute and sweet. Never mind it has a stellar cast of English actors and actresses.

Miracle on 34th Street – While some can believe it’s like a film length ad for Macy’s department store, it’s still a cute film with a central message that Christmas can be magical for any numer of reasons.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – The Vacation movies have been a mixed bag (as has most of Chevy Chase’s career), but this film is so easy to relate to. We all have those dreams of the perfect family Christmas, just to have them dashed and never have them live up to our hopes. Plus, the Cousin Eddie scene in white sweater, with green dickie, is worth the entire price of the movie!

The Nightmare Before Christmas – Not only is it a sweet story, and amazing to watch, how can you not love a movie that can make both the Halloween AND Christmas movie lists?

The Original Television Christmas Classics (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer / Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town / Frosty the Snowman / Frosty Returns / The Little Drummer Boy) – I recommend this primiarly for Rudolph, but now you can only get it with all this other stuff. Oh well. What is Christmas without Rudolph? Nothing I tell you!

Santa Claus – The Movie – This movie got ravaged by critics, but it is cute, funny and warm. Deal with it.

You have a fave? Talk about it!

And yes, I know a lot of these movies show up on TV, but if it’s something like It’s A Wonderful Life, PLEASE don’t watch it on commercial television. It is deserving of your hard earned money being spent on a DVD of it. Same with Christmas Vacation. Christmas Story I don’t mind because it’s a 24-hour marathon, I usually watch it 3 – 4 times through out the time period. Yes… 3 – 4 times, I love it that much.

Not that it matters to 99.9% of you, but I have chosen my High Def format and… I went HD-DVD. I ordered my Toshiba HD-A35 and will be getting it next week.

So why did I finally decide on HD-DVD over Blu-ray?  (In no particular order)

1. Cost – HD-DVD is bringing their prices down much faster than Blu-ray.
2. Promotion – I got 10 free movies in addition to the excellent price.
3. Installed User Base – No matter how Sony tries to spin it, the people with HD-DVD players are purchasing more movies per player than Blu-ray.
4. Quality – Again, it’s a matter of spin, but the only MAJOR advantage Blu-ray has over HD-DVD is storage capacity, and when you get up to these numbers, does a person really need THAT many special features?  Otherwise they’re very close to being negligible.

Now that I’ve picked a side… expect a surge in Blu-ray sales.

I have come to the conclusion that if an older television series I like comes out on DVD, I am waiting until all the seasons are out and wait see what happens. The “Complete Series” box sets trick is quickly annoying me.

Let’s take Buffy, The Vampire Slayer as an example. Going through Amazon, seasons 1 – 7 will run $218.93, but if you waited for them to do the complete box set, you can have the entire series for $164.99. Amitadely I started buying the seasons while the show was still airing, but I still wasn’t too happy when the box set came out. You would have thought this taught me a lesson, but oh no.

There have been other instances, but the latest, and the one that taught me my lesson was The Addams Family. Buying sets 1 – 3 separately comes to $59.97, but if I had known there would be a complete series set coming, I wouldn’t have picked them up as they were released. Actually, that’s the burn, I had the first two, and then as the third came out, the set was announced.

So, my lesson has been learned, unless it is something I am trying to catch up on, such as 30 Rock, then I can wait it out and see if the box set is coming out, and hopefully save myself a couple of dollars… or… you know… I could just stop buying DVDs, but… that would make sense…

I have never been big on the whole concept of strikes. Maybe it’s because every one I have ever encountered, I didn’t fully grasp. The Writer’s Guild of America strike though I can relate to, and I have to say I would gladly stand with them.

As of this morning, screenwriters for TV and movies are on the picket line. It is all over money, but understandably so.

As it currently stands, the average writer makes $.04 on the sale of a DVD, they are asking for an increase to $.08. The shocking portion though isn’t the DVDs, it’s legal digital downloads. As it currently stands, writers are paid no royalties on the sale of downloads.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero.

The studios are refusing to budge on downloads, or they are asking for a “no residual” window that would kill the highest portion of download sales, leaving the writers with next to nothing.

I have always felt that writer’s get the shaft, and it’s about time they stood up to the studios. A writer in a good year, an exceptional year, will make around $200,000. Yes, that is most than more Americans, but when you compare it to what directors, actors, producers, studio heads and so on earn, it’s a pittance.

Hollywood has always seemed to not grasp, nor appreciate, how important to the process writers are. If it wasn’t for their concepts, their words, all of these all-star directors and actors would do a lot of standing around. All you have to do is look at any film’s poster to grasp the problem. Why does the director’s name go with the title? Take Transformers for instance. Why does it say “A Michael Bay film”? And I’m not picking on just Mr. Bay, this happens all the time, and it has always irked me.

But, I digress. It’s been 20 years since the writers went out on strike, and at that time it lasted for 5-months. In most cases you won’t notice it happening for a while, but as of tonight, all the nightly talk shows will be in repeats. Prime time shows are filmed months in advance, so those will be okay in to early next year, and film studios stockpiled scripts in anticipation.

This could be a long one as both sides are very set in their demands, and, like I said, I side with the writers. If the studio makes money from their work, then they deserve a cut. To think otherwise is just insane on the part of executives.

I got a chance to take a quick look around NBC’s new “private beta” site today, Hulu.com. This site has been causing quite the stir as it seems this is why NBC pulled their shows from iTunes, and if the current content is any indication, Fox won’t be far behind.

There are two types of videos on the site: Full length TV shows & movies and highlight clips.

I’m not sure what the strategy is here. There is an enormous amount of older shows on the site, most with thriving DVD sales, so you have to wonder why NBC would want to undercut their own sales. I can either buy season 1 of Arrested Development, or I can just go on Hulu and watch it.

Huh?

That’s not to mention there are some full length movies on there as well. Not that I really want to sit in front of my computer for two hours just to watch a movie, but the option is there.

I’m sure NBC has something up there sleeve with this, but what it is, I’m not quite sure yet. It’ll be great if you miss a recent episode though, or your DVR gets too full (as mine tends to do).

So, that post about Even More HD-DVD Temptation? Seems quantities were limited.

I thought about it all night, was going to order the HD-A20 today, and… deal was over for the Toshiba players. You could still get it on the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player, but I don’t want to go that route. So it appears I will be waiting for another similar offer to come along.

Oddly enough, the Sony Playstation 3, 60GB model deal is still on as of this writing.  Hmmmm.

The HD-DVD/Blu-ray war just got a bit more interesting over the Amazon way.

Right now, if you buy a Toshiba HD-A2, HD-A20 (pictured to the left), or an HD-XA2, not only do you get the free five mail-away movies they’ve been offering (which the choices are fairly lackluster, I will admit), Amazon will give you three movies instantly for free, and their selection is pretty nice.

But, where is the format war in all this you ask?

They have a similar deal running if you purchase a Sony Playstation 3, 60GB model. Get three movies instantly for free, and then you can mail in for five more.

Oh no, this doesn’t make this decision any harder at all!

The free instant movies last until September 23rd, the mail-aways are good until October 31st.

I know by now I have to be boring some of you, but please indulge me.

The following started off as a comment to Roy on this post, and I decided to expand upon it.

As much as I love Japan, it is an anomaly when it comes to technology. I can remember on my first trip over there in 2000 thinking to myself “Laser Disc was actually this popular here?!?” I loved my LD player, and I picked up a ton of discs, heck, it was the only place I could pick up Song of the South. They also embraced the mini-disc, which was never more than a whimper over here.

Honestly, I just want the war settled. I have an HD TV, I *want* HD content to watch on it, and I *know* the second I pick a format, whichever one it may be, the other one will win. Now that I have an Xbox 360, the temptation to go HD-DVD is far greater, I won’t lie.

The sad thing is, I remember the Betamax/VHS war, true, I was young, but I remember it. Beta WAS the superior format, but VHS won for whatever odd reason. Between the two new formats, I have heard very, VERY convincing arguments for one being better than the other, but from film aficionados/buffs, I tend to hear more favorable things towards HD-DVD.

The price point, as silly as it may be, will end up playing a major factor in the war, and HD-DVD is winning that side hands-down right now. The Toshiba player I am looking at is currently $238 on Amazon, the cheapest Blu-ray is $456. When Christmas rolls around, and it’s time to add an HD player to your new HD TV, people are going to look at that and go “Wow… well, I dropped a ton on the TV, I’ll go for the bargain player” without giving two thoughts which one may have the crisper blacks.

Sony has made some very critical strategical errors:
1) Pricing
2) The name is nonsensical (HD-DVD is pretty straight forward, what the hell is a “Blu-ray”? I’m speaking from a Joe Consumer point of view mind you)
3) Where porn goes, so goes the format

#3 is what ended up winning the Beta/VHS war, and now, the porn industry has chosen HD-DVD because it’s cheaper to produce. Initially they wanted Blu-ray, but Sony said “No thanks” as they didn’t want their name associated with it.

In short, the war isn’t over, I’m still not sure of my “side”, I know which way I’m leaning, but I’m taking my time to ponder it for a little while longer.

This helpful article lists Sony’s other failures:

Betamax
Memory Stick
Universal Media Disc (UMD)
Mini-Disc
Professional Disk for Data
HiFD
Super Audio CD

I truly feel that Sony’s biggest enemy is themselves. They end up with a successful product like say the Walkman or the Playstation, and they lose their damned minds again.  Blu-ray IS a solid product, but, the cheapest way for me to get into a format I am uncertain of is an overpriced gaming console?  Gee… thanks Sony.

And then articles like this one appear today where the executive vice president and chief technology officer for Paramount, Alan Bell, makes very valid points is to why HD-DVD is a more stable format than Blu-ray.  And as you can see from the above list, there are reason to be weary of Sony saying they have the new solution.

*sigh*

Can’t someone just settle this?  Is it really too much to ask?  I just want to make the leap to HD dammit!

Oh, this is too funny. Me thinks someone has heard from his corporate overlords and was told he was being an idiot.

Yesterday I mentioned how Michael Bay was all up in arms over Paramount going to HD-DVD only? He was proclaiming “…No Transformers 2 for me!” and how he was unahppy with the switch over.

Well, funny how things change:

Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-Ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-Ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted – nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you – I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.

As a director, I’m all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.

So today I saw 300 on HD-DVD, it rocks!

So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!

Michael Bay

Oh, this is too funny. Me thinks someone has heard from his corporate overlords and was told he was being an idiot.

The only thing about this that saddens me is it brings him back to ruin another Transformers movie.