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	HD-DVD and Blu-ray Debate
	Reviewer:	Wayne A. Klein	Studio:	All
	Genre:	DVD	Release:	Now
	Special Features:	Some thoughts on dueling formats and the death of DVD
Review:	First up the good news, the Toshiba HD-DVD players deliver amazingly life like images where you can see textures and detail like never before. You can count the pimples on an actors face in close up. The resolution at 1920 x1080 pixels looks terrific. While Blu-ray as of this writing hasn’t been released I don’t doubt that it will look equally terrific. The big question is whether or not you should upgrade now or wait until the format war ends. While I wouldn’t recommend waiting another 10 years I would recommend waiting until we find out which format is the de facto winner of this pissing contest. Otherwise you’ll be as fortunate as those early Beta-max adopters who quickly found that they had joined a videophile cult which no one else was going to serve. VHS became the big winner there even though it was an inferior format i n many respects but it did have the advantage of cassettes that could record two hours of video on one cassette. Image & Sound: HD-DVD is clunky at the moment. These machines are more computer than DVD player and, as a result, it takes time for the software to boot up and time for the discs to load. I noticed that the HD-DVD player I got a chance to mess with had a problem with the image and sound being out of synch when the disc was stopped to play with the menu and started again. I haven’t been able to play with a Blu-ray yet so can’t really compare the experience but I do know that as the firmware that guides these puppies is upgraded we’ll see improved performance. These are minor issues which will ultimately be addressed with improved second and third generation machines. I wouldn’t start tossing those DVDs yet. While they may eventually go the way of laserdiscs, I believe it’ll take a bit longer. Also, many of the cult classics you may cherish may take awhile to show up on DVD—look how long its taken cult classics like “The Seven Ups” and “Night Moves” to show up on DVD—so keep the ones you have now. It’s also entirely possible that HD-DVD and Blu-ray will become the laserdisc of the 21st century – appealing to a small core of high end users. Many people may be satisfied with the image quality of DVDs. Sure they can look crappy but they can look extremely good even if the resolution isn’t anywhere as good as these two new formats. *** One other point about HD-DVD and Blu-ray the longer the formats are out the better the image quality will be. Look at the evolution of DVD as a guidepost; the first DVDs released were nonanamorphic and were fuzzy by comparison to the newer upgraded releases (compare the first DVD release of “Batman” to the deluxe edition released to coincide with “Batman Begins”). Those doing the authoring of these discs learned a number of tricks to improve the image quality as time progressed. The same will no doubt be true of HD-DVD and Blu-ray. The early adopters usually are the ones that can most afford to upgrade the previous editions of movies they’ve purchased so they’ll also probably be the least concerned with doing so. On the other hand, do you honestly want to buy all the movies you already own on DVD again?
Special Features:	You’ll note that many of the special features on the current crop of HD-DVD were on the DVD editions as well. In fact in some cases they’re presented in their lower resolution DVD format using Mpeg as the compression software. While the movie may look great the special features may not. I’m not sure if this lazy trend will change if the studios are hoping you’re going to buy these movies again and again my guess is that the first generation of HD-DVD and Blu-ray titles will take this approach only to have new and improved double dips around the corner. ---
Final Words:	The bottom line to HD-DVD and Blu-ray is do you want to purchase titles you’ve already got again and again? Hollywood sure seems to think so how else to explain the endless double dip titles that are now triple dips with a new format. If you decide to go for the new formats there are clear advantages in terms of the image and sound quality but I’d suggest waiting until a clear victor hops out of the video ring to upgrade. Otherwise you’re going to find yourself with a format that will have less and less titles available and purchasing another machine. Until the manufacturers can create a hybrid that can play both systems (in addition to being backwards compatible with DVD something that both formats currently have as an option) or until we have an idea as to who will be the winner of the format war I’d hold off on upgrading your players. As someone who saw Sup er VHS die on the vine and Beta-max die a slow painful death even though both formats were inherently superior to VHS, I’ve had my fill of an industry that can’t pat their head and rub their tummy at the same time. Let’s make them wait and prove that they’re worthy of our attention this time around.