Because I researched the format
Most of my favorite movies are from Disney, Fox, Warner, Columbia, MGM/UA. To be honest, Paramount and Universal have some good movies too, but the other studios I listed were much more important to me. How could I give up hope of the Rodgers and Hammerstein films in hd by going to hd-dvd? Or Close Encounters, Bridge on the River Kwai, all of the Fox Cinemascope and Todd-AO classics, and the Disney films. Universal, as far as classics go, had very few big hits over the years. The same is not true for the blu-ray only studios. Plus the fact that as these titles started coming out, I saw Sony (Columbia) and Disney releasing every single title with uncompressed PCM sound, and every title from Fox with DTS HD or DTS HD master. Can the folks on the hd-dvd side say this? Paramount still continues to only release Dolby Digital Plus, and Universal is very spotty with uncompressed sound, many of the titles that do interest me are Dolby Digital Plus. I know "plus" is better than Dolby Digital on dvd, but it is still not uncompressed sound. So, being a person who likes the sound as much as the movie, Blu-ray was the way to go. I just hope Warner changes their strategy with this issue. The big issue was software for me and studio support. Now if the studios would support me and start releasing some classics (yes with uncompressed sound) I will be a very happy camper!
Some of the other reasons were that I felt hd-dvd was just a rip off of dvd, not a new technology. Also, I was concerned about the 30gb of space on hd-dvd, 50 is much more and allows for those PCM soundtracks, which is the main reason you see zilch of those on hd-dvd. There just isn't enough space! Finally, I looked at the hardware support. I would rather choose a player from Pioneer (Elite), Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Denon and Phillips than have to stick with Toshiba and rely on them alone to be innovative...when there is no competition, things happen much slower.
Update on my story, when the Paramount announcement was made, even though I don't think that was enough for hd-dvd to win the war, I started thinking about a combi player. I am in this to view the movies, whatever studio they may be. I still feel much stronger about blu-ray but if need be, I am seriously looking at the Samsung 5000 combi player, due this holday season. I don't plan on buying many movies until the prices come down some, I spent way too much over the years on laserdisc and won't blow that kind of money on a single movie anymore unless it's a big favorite of mine. The only disc I own is Chicago (I'll probably buy any musical)...and plans are so far only for Twister, Close Encounters, Edward Scissorhands, Cars, Ratatouille, Independence Day, That's Entertainment set and Poltergeist. I have not seen any titles in the hd-dvd-only camp I would buy at this time. Maybe is Shrek 1 came out, but nothing else really.
Last edited by MNTWISTER : 10-04-2007 at 12:53 AM.
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10-04-2007, 12:29 AM
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