HD-DVD is dead. Yet again, my strategy of waiting it out seems to have been vindicated. I’m still not interested in a Blu-Ray player, but if a movie or a deal were compelling enough, I now feel that I could pull the trigger on HD movies without locking myself into a potential dud. I’ll admit that the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 was a compelling, almost tantalizing option, but I couldn’t escape the fear that when I finally bought it, I’d get burned a month later like this guy did.
This strategy has played out well in the past. For example, when everyone else was buying DVD burners for $300 that locked them in to DVD-R or DVD+R technology, I waited until a decent drive could be had for nearly nothing that would burn both formats.
In the case of LCD monitors, I felt like I waited forever to upgrade my 20″ CRT, and as a result, instead of the $600 I almost spent back in 2002, I upgraded to a nice 17″ Dell Ultrasharp in 2004 for $150. (Thanks, Drew!)
I even waited quite some time to get a decent digital camera because I just wasn’t happy with the offerings. I remember Scott mocking me relentlessly on vacation in 2005 because I still carried this clunker from 2001 after (seemingly) everyone else had upgraded to more pocketable, sexy cameras. Scott, I forgive you. That camera did seem pretty giant and ugly by that point.
Other items that proved to be smarter buys in their second or third generations (even though I lusted for them immediately upon release):
- My iPods (2G, 3G, 5G, and 2G Shuffle)
- 2004 Altima (had been redesigned in 2002)
- My upconverting DVD player
So is this hesitant attitude reflective of reasoned consumerism, or am I just a penny-pincher? Well, my brown-bag lunch might give you a hint, but I like to think that a good part of it is just being a wise consumer. I’ve saved quite a bit of money and enjoyed the fruits of the extensive R&D that comes with later models of gadgets, while only enduring mild bouts of envy over my friends’ latest and greatest purchases.
Counterexamples
In the interest of fairness, I’ll admit that I didn’t have the same level-headed patience regarding these products:
- iPhone - I told myself I was going to wait for the second-generation model so that they could work the kinks out of it, but after a month of loudly wondering to my wife whether it was worth it, she went ahead and surprised me with one. I would have probably caved anyway. I’ve been very happy with my iPhone, purchased after the price drop, and Apple hasn’t made me regret it with quality issues or tantalizing new models …yet.
- S1 Tivo - Yes, I got a nearly first-gen Series 1 Tivo in 2001, with 20GB of space instead of 12GB constituting the “nearly” part of the equation. But Tivo–really Philips and Sony at the time– were pretty slow to improve on the feature set of their devices. The biggest upgrades the Series 2 offered, more disk space and network connectivity, were both available to even casual hardware hackers like me from the moment I got my S1.
- Xbox 360 - Essentially got mine at launch (December 2005). Yes, a RROD sidelined me 11 months later for a few weeks, keeping me from beating Gears of War until after most of my friends had stopped playing it. Had I waited 18 months or so on the console, I would have gotten one that was far less likely to suffer from quality control issues. But I also wouldn’t have been able to play a whole mess of games, including Gears, CoD2, GRAW, and yes, even Dead Rising. When you’re limited to content that becomes less relevant by the month, there’s more of a downside to waiting patiently. But those HD-DVD movies I passed on will still be available in Blu-Ray when I eventually buy a player, and if I had wanted to own certain movies for $25 in 2007, I’m sure I’ll still want to own them in 2009.
I want to close this post with some words from a fantastic, roiling screed written a year ago by Joel Johnson, former writer for Consumerist and Gizmodo:
And you guys just ate it up. Kept buying shitty phones and broken media devices green and dripping with DRM. You broke the site, clogging up the pipe like retarded salmon, to read the latest announcements of the most trivial jerk-off products, completely ignoring the stories about technology actually making a difference to real human beings, because you wanted a new chromed robot turd to put in your pocket to impress your friends and make you forget for just a few minutes, blood coursing as you tremblingly cut through the blister pack, that your life is utterly void of any lasting purpose.
Then you had the audacity to complain about broken phones, half-assed firmware that bricked your gear, and winner-takes-nothing arms races between the companies whose gear your bought and the hackers who had nothing better to do than try to fix it. […]
Stop buying this crap. Just stop it. You don’t need it. Wait a year until the reviews come out and the other suckers too addicted to having the very latest and greatest buy it, put up a review, and have moved on to something else. Stop buying broken products and then shrugging your shoulders when it doesn’t do what it is supposed to. Stop buying products that serve any other master than you. Use older stuff that works. Make it yourself. Only buy new stuff from companies that have proven themselves good servants of their customers in the past. Complaining online about this stuff helps, but really, just stop buying it.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I am not gonna lie - I was kinda pissed about HD-DVD failing so quickly. At the same time I am glad the format war is over. I have a PS3 too so it really doesn’t impact me that much. One could argue that I would be better off if I didn’t buy the HD-DVD in the first place, but consider this…
I bought the HD-DVD player in early November and got the 5 free movies plus King Kong and Heroes Season 1 on HD-DVD. Total cost of $179. In the las 3 months I have been getting Netflix HD-DVDs like it is going out of style. Even though I have a PS3 almost 2/3 of the movies I had in my queue ended up being HD-DVD because they were HD-DVD exclusives. It turns out it may be months before some of those exclusives make it to Blu-Ray too. I have American Gangster upstairs right now on HD-DVD - not available on Blu-Ray. Watched Transformers, Shrek 3, etc. as well.
So - I have probably watched about 20 HD-DVDs over the last 4 months using the player and got to enjoy them in 1080p HD goodness - not sure I can really say I am the loser in this situation. I could be $179 richer but you get to be a part of history and enjoy some movies along the way. If you ask my Dreamcast in the closet or my 3DO that burned long ago, they would also say it was a fun ride and worth the money at the time.
Would I trade my games of 8 player 3DO FIFA soccer, hours of fun on the original 3DO Return Fire - or even a 2 timed hour midnight D run on 3DO for getting my early adopter money back? No way.. and the 3DO was considered a colossal failure.
Yes - I fought in the format wars - it was fun. You just gotta make sure you will enjoy something when you buy it - then it will be worth it every time even if it fails. I totally disagree with the quoted dude - I love being an early adopter - you get cut sometimes, but that is why they call it bleeding edge. If you always wait for something to be perfected I say you will just miss out on the fun…
February 27th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I’m not upset at my decision at all. I don’t think I’ve been an early adopter in enough stuff that has failed or had problems to qualify as getting badly burned or “cut” by the bleeding edge. Yes, my 360 RROD’d twice, but back then it was an easy process and I got it back quickly.
As for HD-DVD, I’m more pissed off with Sony and Toshiba than with myself. I committed to the format for a few reasons. 1) HD-DVD was supported by the 360, and I am a diehard MS/Xbox fanboy 2) the very nomenclature “HD-DVD” seems clear and accurate and (I thought) it was sure to gain acceptance. I mean what? You want to watch DVDs in HD right? Then you should probably consider an HD-DVD player. 3) Advanced features like PIP and internet connectivity (firmware upgrades etc.) were ready right out of the box instead of in a later hardware revision see: Blu-Ray 2.0 coming soon/now (Think about those early adopters who bought into the format that won the war (most of the non-PS3 players), but are still essentially casualties) 4) No region coding. If something is Blu-Ray exclusive in the US but available elsewhere in HD-DVD, I can get that disc, and play it no problem. I realize that this might be a large part of what turned movie studios off the format, but that couldn’t have been the entire rationale. Which brings me to why I’m mad at Toshiba.
Whatever corporate negotiations took place, Toshiba needed to throw more money at the problem. Instead of locking in a Fox defection, they actually lost my favorite HD-DVD forum member Warner Bros. Granted Sony had more money, more parters, and more support, but seriously–heads need to roll at Toshiba for folding this quickly and easily.
The HD format war was over almost before it got started. Ground troops had not even landed yet, there was still plenty of time to fight it out in the trenches for years as the market grew to appreciable numbers, and best case it could have come out a tie with dual format players taking center stage just like in recordable DVDs. But Toshiba was unprepared and uncommitted to make it a real fight, and I think consumers are worse off for it.
As for me, I still have my player, and I’m not waiting to reacquire all the movies I have now after a Blu re-release. In fact I’m snatching up my favorites at rock bottom prices from places like Amazon and Deepdiscount.com
March 13th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Well it looks like the waiting game may be over for everyone, including me. According to this http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/13/microsoft-not-in-talks-with-sony-over-xbox-360-blu-ray-drive/
the earlier rumored talks between Sony and Microsoft over Blu-Ray didn’t include discussing bringing Blu-Ray to the Xbox 360, but rather perhaps integrating with the PC and I guess other divisions. I wasn’t sure if an Xbox Blu-Ray add-on was going to be as technically proficient as the PS3, but now it looks like I don’t have to worry because I won’t even have the option to buy one. I get that they want to focus on digital distribution, and that it indeed may be the way of the future, but in addition to wanting to watch High Definition movies in the future, I also want to watch them now.
I can’t taste the forbidden HD fruit and then put it back on the tree because my format failed. (I’ve actually bought a ton of HD movies since the surrender)–rather than wait for whenever the movies that are already out on HD-DVD to be re-released on Blu-Ray. As I stated before the quality and clarity of movies now offered on Xbox Live is nice and an improvement over DVD, but it cannot touch what comes from the physical discs I put in the add-on player. If there was any doubt about which force would be better for the consumer, competition encouraging lower prices or a unified standard format increasing consumer confidence and therefore greater adoption and lower prices, I think we now have the answer
http://gizmodo.com/367216/blu+ray-prices-higher-than-ever-man-this-is-going-to-piss-you-off
March 13th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Additionally, there may be some debate as to whether the statement by the Xbox Group product manager “Xbox is not currently in talks with Sony or the Blu-ray Association to integrate Blu-ray into the Xbox experience,” means there will be no add-on at all or just no integration into the gaming hardware itself, but common sense should prevail in that if they planned on releasing anything at all they wouldn’t crush future sales by leaving their position open to semantic interpretation or uncertainty.