Holding back on SD DVD purchases

[eggz]

Hi all

 

Is anyone starting to hold back on DVD purchases? I've not bought any DVDs for over 4 months, especially new movies that are likely to have HD DVD or BlueRay versions released either sometime this year or next.

 

I feel at this time, it's best to just rent movies that you absolutely want to watch and wait for the HD versions to be released

 

what do you guys think?

[redders]

How much does a HD DVD or BlueRay player going to cost ?? Are you such you are jumping to it so soon ??

 

For me, I just hold and wait, carry on enjoying the current DVD format and see what's coming the way. Prices will start dropping when the new dvd formats is common :P

[moviefiend]

I feel that you should still continue to purchase DVDs for movies you wish to collect for now rather than wait for HD version. A few reasons;

 

- standards war between HD DVD & BluRay camps has not been settled. Until a common standard is established, HD hardware will continue to expensive (> USD$1,000) and you will need to purchase 2 players in order to watch your HD content from different studios.

 

- general lack of HD content in all genres and back catalogue

 

- release schedule for new releases on HD for 06/07 is very limited

 

- cost of purchasing HD products...at least for the 1st few years

 

 

[InnocentBlood]

i think it will take a very long time for the SD DVD format to die. so that's a good enough reason for me to continue to keep expanding my collection whenever i can.

 

btw, VCDs are still going very strong in Singapore :p

[moviefiend]

I heard from a source that Sony is exploring the possibility of distributing movies on VCD format in Europe.

[Corona11]

DVDs are anything from $5.00 to $30+ a pop, compared to VHS and LDs we have never had any orginal media so cheap and good quality and yet you are still holding out? When the next big thing comes along....hmmmm....technology never stays still.

[DIRTRUN]

Hold out, hold out, in the end will be like the frog under the coconut shell(old malay saying) besides Bluray HD dvd players will be backward compatible so can still play what, no problem one....

 

Regards.

Dirtrun

[darthmax]

http://www.avbuzz.com/audio-video/200603/toshibahddvd/index.htm

 

In HK they are going to have the Toshiba HD-DVD player on demo very very soon!!! Gosh...so happening over there.  ;D

 

[Hardlok]

I love lists!

 

1.  Future generations of blueray or hd-dvd players can still play dvds, so dvds won't be obsolete.

 

2.  Not all movies are so great as to require high def for enjoyment. Except for diehard hd fans, DVDs will suffice for all but the best titles if you just want to be entertained.

 

3.  The format war will rage on from next year to 2008 at least. Any hardware related to hd/blu-ray you buy at that time will be obsoleted fast, and/or will be more expensive compared to legacy dvd technology, which may well get cheaper. The money you lose in being the first to buy such stuff will be much greater than the money you perceive as being wasted if you still invest in dvd technology.

 

4.  Improved sound quality for movies isn't really the draw of blueray or hd-dvd so we won't need to give up dvds even if we look forward to the better sound quality. How many extra surround channels do we need???

 

5.   Your viewing device has a great bearing on whether you will be really making full use of blu-ray/hd movies. DVDs do just fine on normal tvs up to 34", and on 40" lcd tvs up to 720p. With upscaling dvd players, the dvd picture is good enough even on high resolution 42" plasma and lcd tvs. You will need either a good projector (giving out a 100" or bigger image) or a 1080i or 1080p to really justify the risks of being an early adopter of the new technology.

 

6.  There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding DRM and how it will prevent owners of current hdmi devices to view future hd content. Buying new hdmi devices just to be compatible is also going to be a headache due to lack of a good user base. Sticking with dvd is a lot simpler and less risky than losing thousands of dollars on equipment that may plunge to 30% resale value (and be technologically obsolete) within months of launch.

 

7.  The new HD media will most likely be difficult to copy for backup purposes, at least for the first few years. As such, early adopters will be playing into the hands of the greedy media industry, giving them more power to maintain artificially high prices (particularly due to lack of piracy). If nothing else, we should continue to put our money and weight behind dvds, so that the pressure of low initial sales of hd media will cause them to rethink their stance on copy management. In fact, if everyone stopped buying dvds right now, that would fuel the impetus for media companies to stop dvd production and force everyone to buy their new media. Nothing would make them happier to discard a technology that is so "unprofitable" and so easy for consumers to copy/backup/rent/exchange/borrow/lend out at low cost.

 

8.  If you still feel that dvds are not worth supporting from now on, then you can at least rent them. Giving up on them completely would only lead to less consumer bargaining power when it comes to forcing the manufacturers and movie studios to quickly stop the format wars, technology wars and drm control, and start supplying reasonably priced high def content.

 

9.  Historically, satisfactory "old" technology has continued to have its place in society despite the lure of new (but not necessarily better where it matters most) tech. Witness the audio cd, vcd, vhs tape, and the vinyl record as they continue to do duty for ordinary people.

 

10.  The conspiracy theories have it that the fundamental agenda behind the new media technologies is to put a stop to organised piracy and even casual piracy (which defines lending a dvd to a friend as piracy) in order to regain total control of markup rates/profits/lost profit due to piracy. In a perfect world, that would be acceptable if this led to self audits and market checks and balances that result in very reasonably priced content of very reasonable quality. Unfortunately, absolute power corrupts, and if consumers ever cede total control to the media companies, then we can expect very corrupt behaviour from such companies, and we'll only have ourselves to blame.

 

Let me improvise on a quote from V for Vendetta:

"Consumers should not be controlled by Media Companies. Media Companies should be controlled by consumers."

 

2nd improvisation:

"Media companies should not determine how much profit they should earn from consumers. Consumers should determine how much profit Media Companies should make."