So here we go again...
Just as my DVD library has easily surpassed 500 titles (although I'm sure my "significant other" would argue it's closer to 600, excluding the 40 or so laserdiscs I've held on to and a few dozen moldly VHS tapes that I just can't bear to part with), here comes the official announcement from the Consumer Electronics Show that our current collections are completely obsolete...more or less. Sony will launch its highfalutin' BluRay DVD format in North America this spring. Right about the same time Toshiba will launch its rival HD-DVD format. I won't bother with the technical specs on each--you can read all about them here and here. It's all just too depressing to contemplate, really...
BluRay seems the better choice, with its superior resolution and more storage space per platter. But it's apparently more expensive to make, requiring entirely new manufacturing facilities. Also, BluRay machines will only play BluRay discs--or so I have read. The first decks will cost approx. $1000 (U.S.) and up. But HD-DVD machines will play, and upconvert, regular DVDs, and the same plants that make the current DVD format can be retooled to make HD-DVDs. The players are cheaper, at approx. $500 (U.S.) and up.
Who will emerge the victor is anyone's guess: HD-DVD is supported by behemoth Microsoft and Hollywood heavy-hitters Paramount, HBO Video, New Line, and Warner. BluRay is supported by video game company Electronic Arts and studios Twentieth Century Fox, Vivendi Universal, and Disney. Sony's doomsday weapon is its upcoming Playstation 3, which will support BluRay, to no one's surprise. Readers of a certain age will find this reeks of the great VHS/Betamax War of the early 1980s--thankfully, my folks made the right choice at the time (I won't mention the RCA Selectavision Videodisc, which they've kept, for some reason...).
So, if you're like me, you'll take this weekend to start dumping video ballast--do I really need all three editions of "Manhunter", when each is now, essentially, worthless? I waited far too long to sell off my laserdiscs back in '99 and ended up tossing Criterions, teary-eyed, into the dumpster. Won't--don't--get fooled again....
