| jjseth said: KruzeS, this is FUD and just propaganda against any and all HD formats. |
No, it's not FUD. I'm really sorry, but this is just you lacking on reading comprehension, plain and simple.
I said I cherished the tradition started by 12 cm optical disc media, of always being backwards and cross compatible, with multi-format players having always become the norm. Right there in the post you've quoted. I obviously know very well that Bluray and HD-DVD players play DVDs. I've said so myself in this very thread, well before you parachuted into it, but that's besides the point.
The point is, if HD-DVD just drops dead, like many here argue they should, those that bought HD-DVDs will have no players to play those discs a few years down the road - and that's just lame. The same thing is happening to VHS (a far more successful format), where it's becoming increasingly hard to track down a good VHS player to play the old videos you haven't yet converted to DVD, whereas CDs (a format almost as old, with some 28 years now) are still going strong. And with HD-DVD it'd be even more of a problem, because of DRM, which won't be legal to circumvent for probably many years to come.
Customers having to repurchase all their HD-DVDs as BDs would be just lame, when supporting HD-DVD isn't really that hard. And unless the format totally tanks, I'm betting the brandless players (the ones I'm holding out for) will support both formats. After all, they came out supporting far less popular formats like DIVX and XVID, to the point that they even forced some of the big brands into launching similar players. I've been for dual format from the get-go and I'm still quite confident that's how it'll end up at the low end, at least.
I'm not against HD, quite the opposite - I'll be buying a 1080p set pretty soon. But I just won't trade my featureful, HD capable, media player of choice, for a far less featureful Bluray or HD-DVD player that costs far more. The only player in the market that can compete in features is the PS3, but for twice the price, and half the format support. It's getting there, with some DIVX/XVID support, but still lacking subtitles, FLAC, AC3, and a bunch of other stuff I need. So I'll hold out for the cheap players, which always bring the most features, even if at some inexistent quality loss in this digital world.
