Save HD-DVD Petition!

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I would urge any person who values watching movies at home to sign the petition linked below!

Warner Brothers is the world's largest movie company, and has to-date been a huge supporter of HD-DVD. Right after Christmas was over, they annouced that in May they would stop supporting HD-DVD, and only support Blu-Ray disc.

Warner pulling out of HD-DVD may just spell the end of the format, unless they can be convinced to change their mind. Stranger things have happened, so it's worth a shot.

For those who don't know, Blu-Ray was created by Sony, and is a competitor to HD-DVD. In my opinion, HD-DVD offers consumers a MUCH BETTER product, in terms of both price and features. The one, single advantage that Blu-Ray offers is slightly larger disc capacity, but the average consumer would never know the difference, because both formats hold PLENTY of space.

HD-DVD offers features like picture-in-picture comentary, web-enabled features (you can download extras right off the web), and is about half the price of Blu-Ray.

What does Blu-Ray offer? Some more disc space (which has very little impact, since both formats have plenty of room on a disc) and ... that's all. Along with that, you get charged twice as much money for it. That's crazy!

Again, if you enjoy watching movie at home Please take one minute and sign the petition. Please provide your real e-mail address, so they can count you as a real vote! E-mail addresses are kept private by them.

Here's the link: http://www.petitiononline.com/SAVEHDD/petition.html

The reason I say "if you enjoy watching movies at home, sign it" is because HD-DVD represents a way for average price-conscience consumers to get a real HD player at home. Do you want to spend a minimum of $300 for a Blu-Ray player, or a minimum of $99 for an HD-DVD player, keeping in mind that both have identical quality on the screen, and HD-DVD offers more interactive features?

Entry #190

Comments

Avatar Tenaj -
#1
I signed it. Easy - few clicks - no registration at all. My signature was #8334.
Avatar Think -
#2
I really don't care...I am really tired of format vs. format and 10 minutes from now it wont matter because there will be a newer and better standard comming along. My next purchase will be a converter box for HDTV through the coupon program.....and it will be for my circa 1983 color TV!
Avatar Todd -
#3
Oh, I care for one BIG reason (among several): I don't want SONY to be in charge of the Hi-Def standard!

Sony, for all its popularity as a mass-consumer products company, is just plain horrible from the point of view of people who care about quality audio and video. The HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray thing actually exemplifies their general positions pretty clearly. I'll get a little technical, but hopefully not so much that I'll lose people.

The Blu-Ray standard is much harder for companies to develop for, because all the programs written for each disc need to be written in Java, rather than plain ole' HTML (actually DHTML), which is what HD-DVD uses. The result for consumers? They will get discs with much fewer and less exciting features, because companies either don't have a lot of people who can program for it, or it takes so long that they can't wait for the developers to finish before shipping.

Do you think I'm blowing smoke? Well, I'm not, because there are clear examples out there already. Just look at any disc that came out in both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray format. The HD-DVD version always has more and better features.

A great example is the movie "300". The HD-DVD version has a ground-breaking feature that lets you watch the entire movie with a picture-in-picture view showing the actors filming the exact same scenes on the blue screen stage. So you're watching the real movie, and at the same time watching them film the same scene in the little window. It's just amazing stuff.

Then take a look at the same movie in Blu-Ray. No such feature exists. Why? Because Sony is so friggin' convoluted that it can't handle it. They have been saying for two years now that they are going to add a similar feature, but it has yet to materialize. Certainly because putting that kind of thing in a Java-based program is no cakewalk, especially when compared to doing the same thing in DHTML. It's simple for HD-DVD to do -- just look how easy it is to do stuff with video on the web. HD-DVD uses exactly the same technology.

Lastly, I think it's a bunch of crap that all these Blu-Ray people are going around trying to "stop the format war". Why stop it? I personally think it's been great, because it has forced these two camps to push their technology out as quick as they can, including hardware and movies. HD on DVD never would have taken off so fast without it.

I think the Blu-Ray supporters want the "war" to end because they know that the longer it drags on , the greater the chance that their inferior programming model and more expensive machines will lose. HD-DVD machines can now be found for $99. It took YEARS for a regular DVD player to hit that price, and HD-DVD did it in a little over a year. Damn it, if Warner didn't pull the plug on the movies I think HD-DVD had a good chance.

I really hope they get some sense knocked into them and reinstate their HD-DVD support.
Avatar spy153 -
#4
Gotchya' covered, man.
Avatar Tenaj -
#5
You should care because it's happening not only in this area but in other technical and digital areas. Don't get me on the e-book viewer tirade and digital rights management.

Greedy companies take over a product that's easier, cheaper and better for the consumer and fix it so you have to use their's and the other ones won't work and it will cost more, not better and you won't be able to use the one that works for you. Sign the petition.   They will stop supporting the one that works for you and will you be forced to buy their's.

It probably won't do any good because money talks but a least you can say you did something to stop it. We don't want a monopoly where you have to pay twice as much for something that you have already and works, just because some greedy company want to control and charge you twice the amount for something that is not better.

When VHS and Beta came out - remember when you were asked which one you wanted? Guess which one ended up being the one that controlled - VHS - guess which one is way way way way better like HD and is used in movies - BETA.

sign the petition
Avatar LOTTOMIKE -
#6
i'd rather have warner brothers HD-DVD.sony is a bully who will try to slap double the price with you actually getting less than half of what warner offers.we will be screwed if this happens.
Avatar konane -
#7
Done and am tagging the link and sending it out in email.
Avatar Todd -
#8
@konane: Awesome, thanks!

@LOTTOMIKE, Tenaj, spy153: Thanks!
Avatar Think -
#9
"They will stop supporting the one that works for you and will you be forced to buy their's."

Nobody is forcing me to buy a new DVD player and I, in fact, never intend to buy one. I am tired of a new format comming out every 10 minutes. I wont subscribe to cable either because the cable company wont sell me just the channels I want.
     If I knew that the DVD media I buy now would last and be playable for 100 years and the player standard wouldn't change for 40 years then I may care about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.
   
Have some discipline...if you don't like what is happening with DVDs then dont buy them and spend your time and money on something else.
Avatar Todd -
#10
@Think: You seem to be saying that people should not get engaged in an issue to advocate for something which they feel strongly about. I enjoy home theater. Should I basically just deprive myself of that enjoyment because two companies are fighting over which format of disc is better? I just don't subscribe to that view.
Avatar Think -
#11
@Todd: I cant find where I said that! That was not in anything I wrote.
Avatar Todd -
#12
But you did. You said: "if you don't like what is happening with DVDs then dont buy them and spend your time and money on something else." You are saying that because I don't like this format war I should not purchase a player or get involved.

If you didn't mean it in that way, then that's fine. Hopefully you can see how someone might see your words in that light.

I tend to be pretty passionate about the things I enjoy (can you tell?) so when I sense someone saying "don't be so passionate about it", that's an alien concept to me.
Avatar Think -
#13
"You are saying that because I don't like this format war I should not purchase a player or get involved."

No, that isn't what I said. In fact by not purchasing the Blu ray player or the Blu ray disks you are getting involved.

Avatar Todd -
#14
I repeat, "If you didn't mean it in that way, then that's fine. Hopefully you can see how someone might see your words in that light."

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