- Time
- Post link
We can finally move beyond ntsc/pal limitations, although nothing will ever beat seeing something on film or in 4k. Prolonging the format war would probably have meant a lower price for a blu-ray player when I eventually end up wanting one, but we're only going from one type of optical disc (standard def dvd) to another type (hi-def optical disc). This couldn't have gone on for years and years like beta/vhs, and even after that you didn't see hybrid players being mass-produced. That worked for vinyls (I'm not sure what the history behind why that happened is), and there was the interesting argument that "some transfers only need 25 gigs, some only need 30, some need all 50," but it would seem economics is dictating that only one format can exist. At least it's the one with more space.
The "hddvd is cheaper to manufacture" argument would have been great if anyone could have definitively proven to me that the studios were passing the savings on to the customer. I mean, when WB released combo discs the same day as the blu-ray, shouldn't the combo disc have been the same price and not five dollars more?
Out of curiosity, I would like to hear anyone's arguments for an indefinite dual-format situation being better.