Movies

I’m giving up on Blu-Ray Baby

By Hervé St-Louis
March 9, 2008 - 21:25

As the war between Toshiba’s HD-DVD and Sony’s Blu-Ray video formats has been decided, I’ve decided that, unlike what studio moguls desire, I will not upgrade to any new video entertainment technology.  I will skip the Blu-Ray thing altogether and stick with my regular DVD player and DVDs until something better comes along. If nothing better comes along, I will simply not upgrade to anything.

When I think about Blu-Ray, as a consumer, it leaves a sour taste. I feel like I’m being tricked into purchasing something I don’t need. The closest example I have is Columbia House. Columbia House is a club that convinced people to buy music and video tapes in the 1990s as part of a contract.

They would hook you in with a cheap selection of films or music albums and then all you would have to do, is commit to buy more at regular price over the next few years. Of course, the regular prices were somewhat more expensive than stuff available in other retail venues. And the selection was limited. But, because you had signed a contract, they would force you to complete the mandated amount of purchases. Like many, I waited until the end to complete that contract and when I did, I made sure I would no longer have anything to do with Columbia House.

But after my initial contract was completed, they sent me back a promotion, asking me whether I wanted to do it all over again! They wanted me to be forced to buy their goods with limited selection and non competitive prices all over again! Why on Earth would a sane person put themself through that again? Of course, I rejected the offer!

Well, my experience with Columbia House is very similar to the way I feel about Blu-Ray today. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD were proposals to replace common DVDs. They market themselves as the next generation. Using the excuse that they offer better quality and more contents, both Sony and Toshiba wanted me to buy more discs and rebuild my existing collection, which took me years to build in DVD format.

When I started with Columbia House, I bought video tapes that worked in a VHS player. By the end of my subscription, DVD was a full blown reality and I was still stuck buying video tapes. One of the last video tapes I ever bought was the first Matrix film. Last week, I found the DVD version of the first Matrix film for $6. Of course, I jumped on the occasion and bought the disc. Now, my old VHS collection is complete in DVD (ok, not really). My VHS player has stopped working for years; still, I haven’t replaced all these video tape films with DVDs. But it seems like the right thing to do, right?

Why on Earth, would I be convinced to restart this collection all over again as Blu-Ray discs? Moving from video tapes to DVDs offered a real tangible gain. The more you watch a tape, the more it gets damaged, the poorer the quality. With DVDs, you have better quality and none of the destructive analogue material. It’s all digital. But Blu-Ray is digital too. Remember Columbia House?

Once a consumer has gone through the process of replacing an entire VHS collection or for that matter, and entire music tape collection to DVDs and CDs, why would that consumer start the process again? Why purchase contents you’ve already purchased before?

Time shifting is a major issue in copyrights managements and all the new devices put more controls over how I use the contents I have legally purchased than tapes ever did. As a consumer, I want less of that control and I certainly do not want to fatten the wallets of Hollywood executives by buying the same stuff twice or trice.

The offer of new and better technology has not inspired me at all when it comes to Blu-Ray. I know they can be backward compatible, but I don’t feel like upgrading my entertainment equipment. The thrill of better image quality is not enticing enough. The thought of having more commentaries on a film is also not enticing. Once you watch a commentary piece, you’ve seen them all. I don’t know if the consumer electronics moguls and their Hollywood cousins have figured it out themselves, especially, when it is known that a new technology will soon replace Blu-Ray. So why would I lock myself in a stupid contract, when I just got out of another?

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12