Why are people trying to save HDDVD

[jjseth]

KruzeS said:

It's the prospect of rebuying media that sucks. DVD players I've had a bunch, but I've never repurchased a single DVD, of which I own many dozens. I may rebuy less than a handful of those in HD (those where I really do give a damn about picture quality), and I'm holding on buying exactly one DVD, cause I'd like to have it in HD.

I don't like to repurchase stuff I (supposedly) own, so I've come to appreciate the tradition brought forth by 12 cm disc media, where support for new formats has always been added to players, and never dropped. To me, and most people I know at least, backwards compatibility is even more important in music and movies than in games. Apart from gifts, I only buy stuff for its replay value: otherwise I'll just rent. Playing this stuff down the road is essencial, otherwise video-on-demand rentals would do just fine.

 

KruzeS, this is FUD and just propaganda against any and all HD formats.  All Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players will play your existing DVD's.  You don't HAVE to rebuy all those movies.   If you so choose to rebuy a movie you already own on DVD that is your perogative and not necessary.   It's not like Sony or Toshiba would be twisting your arm and telling you that you have to rebuy every single movie you own on DVD and then burn your existing library.   I'm sure the movie companies would love it if you did that, but you don't have to do that. 

 When movie prices come down in price (just like DVD's were expensive when they first came out) you can then focus on buying any new movies you wish to own on Blu Ray instead of DVD.  However, if you would prefer to buy the DVD version, you still can do so and the player will up-convert from 480p for you.   Just because you have a Blu-Ray or HD DVD player doesn't mean that you can only have those formats and nothing else on it. 

Of course you had to rebuy your VHS library on DVD if you really liked the movie as VHS movies would degrade in quality over time, where with DVD and other Disc formats won't degrade like that since they do not use a magnetic tape to record the movie.

The jump from DVD to Blu Ray isn't as steep or expensive in the long run like it was from VHS to DVD because you can still play your existing DVD's in the new players.  Your library is not "obsolete" and you don't have to fear about not being able to watch them again unless you buy some old player on eBay or have Hank the repair guy fix your old DVD player.