Blu-Ray Vs HD DVD

Microsoft beat Mac, using arm twisting and questionable tactics (think Park Place and Boardwalk) to finally force Apple away from the lion's share of the corporate desktop and home computer operating system market. Apple has lived on to bring us other innovating products, but we all suffer daily as we bear our share of broken glass from daily crashed windows, muffling the sound of clanging shards with our iPods turned to maximum volume.

Before that, BetaMax, with it's ground-breaking features and futuristic capabilities beyond the reach of the displays it was played upon, fell prey to the overpowering simplicity and cheap production costs of the VHS stone-agers backed by a multi-corporation marketing bankroll to keep the better technology off the shelves so profit margins could grow wider with a cheaper product at the same price.

And even earlier, the space-age safety features and ingenious drive system of the Tucker automobile was sacrificed on the altar of the rapid production motor industry giants, who played dirty and bullied investors out of the fledgling car maker's innovative arms.

So many people in this world miss the opportunities to enjoy the greatest advancements in technology and entertainment as early as they could. Instead most of us end up waiting another ten years or more for those achievements to astound us simply because we fall prey to the better marketers. And the better marketers are always for sale to the highest bidder.

Remembering these defeats for the poor masses, I was almost loathe to watch the battle that has been raging for a nano-second in time considering the pace of technology and our long history on this planet. The war between Blu-ray and HD DVD has divided the home entertainment viewing world into thirds. By no means are they equal thirds:

1. One third are the spectators, some would consider them frugal and wise. I'd agree to frugal, but wise...no. Their wait-and-see attitude saves them money in the end, but contributes to us all being doomed to lesser technology at a higher price.

2. Another third are the practical. They weigh the options, and see which technology will make the fastest buck for industry, and assuming industry always has the deep pockets (despite occasional short arms) for massive marketing campaigns, they bet on the lesser, more easily and cheaply produced product as the eventually winner and invest in it after a considerable time of sitting on the fence to make sure the defeated isn't going to start breathing again.

3. Then there is the final third. People like me who simply desire the best. If one format has nearly twice the data space of another, and delivers features the other will never be capable of for only a reasonably higher cost, I choose it.

Thus I sit in front of my Blu-ray player and rejoice. Finally, for once, the outcome is as it should be. Because HD DVD will soon roll over and die, as Warner Bros. does the two-step with Blu-ray and spurns the loser's wails, we will all benefit. An earlier than expected demise to HD DVD will turn HD DVD competitors into Blu-ray competitors, and that will add more Blu-ray player product to the shelves and drive prices down to a point of reason. All the major motion picture producers have moved exclusively to Blu-ray, and only the smaller picture houses and porn vendors are left staring dismayed at their exclusive HD DVD contracts. Serves them right. And another reason for the moral to go buy a Blu-ray player. The only good porn disk is a porn disk that doesn't have a compatible machine to be played on. That makes it a $29.99 coaster. I know, the porn peddlers will re-tool and start producing Blu-rays soon enough, but think of what it's cost them and is going to cost them, since they've already invested in the gear to burn HD DVD? Now they get to trash that gear and go spend double for Blu-ray presses! And they have to move all that equipment in and out...okay, they fuel the Internet with their money and got plenty of it, so if you can find some joy in them making bad decisions and losing a tiny bit of it, at least, for heaven's sake don't feel sorry for them.

But you know who wins biggest this time? It's still a good thing, but what really hits me as ironic is the fact that it was those "play it safe"-"sit on the fence" folks who held out until they could see a clear winner. Well, now you know, folks, so head on out to Crazy Al's Appliances and get yourself a Blu-ray player. It's safe now and everyone will know how prudent you were. Even though it's you type of sheeple who made MS Windows, Corvairs, and VHS into three of the modern plagues of technology.

Me? I played the gambler. I bought me a Blu-ray and bluffed myself through to the first big win for the truly better and more advanced winner. I don't think that's ever happened in a major tech marketing war before. And that makes me a loaner. A wild west gambler who knows how to stand his ground. Husbands, if your wives are staring at the computer screens and heaving a heavy sigh right now, it's because I was a real man and dared to put my money on true value, and women's bosoms can't help heavin' when a smart man willing to take a risk on something right is presented to them.

Don't worry, boys, I'm happily married to a wonderful woman and will never stray, so you're darling spouse is safe. I'm the lone, tall, dark and handsome stranger who put his foot down and bought a Blu-ray player when the rest of the world was yelling, "Hang on, pardner! Wait and see which one comes out on top!"

Well, actually, my really cool wife bought it for me for Christmas. But if I'd have known she was gonna I would have told her I agreed that the Blu-ray was the one to get.

HD DVD won't hang on for years as BetaMax did, with it's niche market in television studios for it's great freeze, slo-mo, and smooth fast forward during display features...or its compact size and rapid rewind ability. HD DVD has all that, but what, 30 years after Betamax did it?

HD DVD won't be here much longer, unlike the MacIntosh and its many descendants, still being produced and clung to by cult followers and graphic artists who realize its value and capabilities cannot be equaled by a Microsoft operating system.

HD DVD won't even end up being saved in museums or by loving collectors, because the people that love and collect and restore Tuckers do it out of astonishment at the tragedy of its loss, the grandeur it could have given us on the roads and the safety it could have provided the traveling public.

HD DVD will die utterly, never to return and to be no more than a forgotten sentence in technology history, because it was inferior, cheaper, and easier to produce, and for once, the inferior, cheaper, and easier to produce technology did not win the marketing war.