The whole HD-DVD & Blu-Ray topic is kind of nonsensical anyway... the main reason for teh big push behind it by the movie studios is that they want to put the cat back into the bag ever since the DVD encryption was cracked, and people could start making backup copies of their DVD's.
Switching to a new, 'secure' format would ensure their profit margins again.
Of course, given the significantly higher costs of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray equipment and discs (mostly fo due to technical reasons, not just artificial profit), combined witht he fact that DVD is near omni-present and 'good enough' for the majority of people, they will fight an up-hill battle for years trying to get people to switch over.
There was a MAJOR advantage of DVD over VHS: better image quality was just one of them - no more rewinding, no degradation to image quality over time and surround sound audio were others.
All that the high definition formats give you is arguably better image quality, which many people couldn't even distinguish on their current TV's anyway.
I sure am not going to run out and buy a new player that costs ten times as much as my current ones, only to be limited even more to what I do with them.
Ever tried a childrens DVD? 15 minutes of un-forwardable previews and the likes. At least with a DVD you can make a backup copy and put nothing but just the movie itself on there, keeping the original save and out of harm's way. Perfectly legal under the fair-use provisions, but impossible with the new media.
(that's something very interesting too, when you think about it: the industry is trying to claim that you don't actually own the movie/album/whatever, but that you merely license the content and that they are entitled to restrict how you use it. Great! So were exactly does one go to get a replacement carrier media at cost when your $19.95 DVD is scratched beyond usability? I mean, you licensed the contents of the disc, you didn't just buy a round piece of plastic... Right? they want to have it both ways, and so far are getting away with it...)
Switching to a new, 'secure' format would ensure their profit margins again.
Of course, given the significantly higher costs of the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray equipment and discs (mostly fo due to technical reasons, not just artificial profit), combined witht he fact that DVD is near omni-present and 'good enough' for the majority of people, they will fight an up-hill battle for years trying to get people to switch over.
There was a MAJOR advantage of DVD over VHS: better image quality was just one of them - no more rewinding, no degradation to image quality over time and surround sound audio were others.
All that the high definition formats give you is arguably better image quality, which many people couldn't even distinguish on their current TV's anyway.
I sure am not going to run out and buy a new player that costs ten times as much as my current ones, only to be limited even more to what I do with them.
Ever tried a childrens DVD? 15 minutes of un-forwardable previews and the likes. At least with a DVD you can make a backup copy and put nothing but just the movie itself on there, keeping the original save and out of harm's way. Perfectly legal under the fair-use provisions, but impossible with the new media.
(that's something very interesting too, when you think about it: the industry is trying to claim that you don't actually own the movie/album/whatever, but that you merely license the content and that they are entitled to restrict how you use it. Great! So were exactly does one go to get a replacement carrier media at cost when your $19.95 DVD is scratched beyond usability? I mean, you licensed the contents of the disc, you didn't just buy a round piece of plastic... Right? they want to have it both ways, and so far are getting away with it...)