In case you live under a rock, BluRay won the Civil War of High Def DVD Formats™. So now you can relax, and go out and get yourself a new toy. But you might want to wait for Profile 2.0 Players for special edition BD-Live discs.
What is BD-Live?? Yahoo News tells us:
The musical spoof “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and the Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi thriller “The 6th Day” will be the studio’s first two BD-Live titles. Their release coincides with the launch of a new software update for Sony’s PlayStation 3 that makes the game console the first Blu-ray player with Internet connectivity, an ability known as “Profile 2.0.”
Ultimately, all Blu-ray players will be Profile 2.0. When the format launched in June 2006, Blu-ray players were of the basic Profile 1.0 kind, meaning they could offer neither picture-in-picture nor Internet connectivity, something the doomed HD DVD rival format offered from Day 1.
I am thankful that this Civil War of High Def DVD Formats™ only lasted about two and a half years instead of its predated Format War between VHS and Beta that arguably lasted 13 years. But this new news caught me at two different angles at the same time.
1. Viable improvement.
Like the mighty Borg, resistance is futile. The war is over. But the Borg do not destroy, they consume. Borg integrate beings and cultures into their collective. And I see this “upgrade” as a feature that is dragged out from the spoils of war. BluRay won. They have no offical competition anymore. So why not adapt some of the features of the format it beat out?
2. Money Grab
This was my first reaction to the news. I listed it second because the logic of the first point is making this less of an issue, but it still remains.
BluRay saw a phenomenal increase in sales mere seconds after Toshiba threw in the towel with their HD-DVD. Electronic stores were swamped with the standby enthusiasts who refused to buy one of these next gen formats until the war was over. Hell, US Best Buy stores were offering a token “sorry you lost” $50 gift card program for people who paid piles of money to back the loser.
Now you ran out and got your BluRay player right? You are ready for the future! The war is over, so let’s celebrate and throw our lot in with the invested purchase of a High Definition DVD player that will retail for half that price in a year!
Oops. There is a new BluRay coming out. A George Lucas Special Edition upgraded version of the one you already have. G’head, buy that one too.
But it isn’t so bad. If the upgraded feature to go online for additional content is not an appeal to you, then don’t worry. Your current outdated BluRay Player still works.
Is this move a money grab, or just a much needed improvement to fill the gap of an HD-DVD feature lost with its format?
