Jan 15, 2008

Update: By the way, for all of you frothing-at-the-mouth conspiracy theorists who've written in accusing us of being on the take, you'll note that we never actually endorse HD-DVD over Blu-ray. We're not saying it's better... at all in fact. We're simply trying to shine a little sunshine into the lives of all those HD-DVD fans out there. Relax.

We like movies. You like movies. And we have game systems that play movies. In our first week, we look at the current Hi-Def format war. Next week, we’ll start picking the best movies to buy. Fear not loyal readers: we won’t jump the shark by talking about other things like slam poetry and muscle cars.
--GamesRadar

The high-definition DVD format war has reached a new fever pitch. Coming off the heels off the recent announcement that Warner Bros. (producers of the Harry Potter franchise, also: Batman) announced Blu-ray exclusivity come June 1st. The only two major Hollywood studios supporting HD-DVD at the moment are Paramount (Transformers and all things Dreamworks) and Universal (Children of Men). Recent rumblings suggest both studios are shifting their focus to Blu-ray. Sadly, we’re almost completely positive that HD-DVD will fizzle out by the end of the year, leaving early adopters high and dry.

What does this mean to you? Is your HD-DVD copy of Transformers useless? Why did Hollywood screw you over? Don’t fret HD-DVD loyalist, ‘cause we’ve compiled five reasons why your HD-DVDs are perfectly fine.

1) They still play movies
Just because Blu-ray’s taking over, doesn’t mean your current batch of HD-DVDs will magically dissipate. We have this dumb completist tendency to think that every collection from music to movies must be perfectly arranged on a shelf, while your VHS tapes and minidiscs rot away in your garage. Is the sole reason you want to re-purchase Planet Earth on Blu-ray because you don’t want to go through the hassle of hooking up a separate player? Sure, you’ll have to buy a Blu-ray player eventually but that’s the price you pay for adopting to the format so damn early. Why not embrace what you have? Which leads us to…