This whole high def video thing is making me really angry. When HD-DVD first came out, I thought maybe it would win the war. I mean, they did have Serenity exclusively right? And the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player was only $200. That should be enough. But it wasn’t. Blu-Ray is now kicking the shit out of HD-DVD.

Why? Well, first off, HD-DVD is about 10% new releases, 90% old crap no one gives a flying fuck about. Whereas BR is the complete opposite, 90% new releases (and most of them exclusives) and 10% old shit.

The last 4 new movies I wanted were ALL BR exclusive. Fuckfish!

• The Prestige
• Mario Antionette
• Stranger Than Fiction
• Casino Royale (with Cheese)

I ended up getting the regular SD editions of STF and MA, borrowed the SD-DVD of The Prestige, and will end up with the SD-DVD of Casino Royale too. Very disappointing to me. I knew this would happen. But still… it sucks. Because Sony has just enough big new movies in their pockets that they PWN me.

What are my options here? Buy a PS3 for $600? I don’t need yet another console, I already have a 360 and Wii and not enough places to connect all of these things as it stands. Or I could buy a BR Player standalone for $900? Take it up the ass while HD-DVD disappoints me over and over? Someone on another forum I frequent found a refurbished BR player for just over $300. I could maybe spend $300. But even then, that’s a lot of beers. All to watch a few movies? Is it really worth it?

And then, to make things worse, I look at upcomming new releases on HD-DVD and BR and see that about 75% of the ones I want are BR only, once again.

So what’s a guy to do? Spend the money, bite my tongue, and just deal with it? Or do I stand up for myself and say NO to BR? I did get into the LaserDisc thing, spending $500 on my player. It was the very lowest of low-end Pioneer players, did not even have S-Video or AC3 out nor did it play both sides automatically. And then I plopped down $30-75 a piece for movies,. Many times these were not even movies worth watching. But, I did it for the digital quality non-degrading picture. And for the fact that I could score letterbox movies. (DIE PAN & SCAN YOU BASTARD!) But still, I am having a hard time deciding on whether or not to spend the money on BR.

When I started my HD-DVD collection, I bought movies as they came out that I really wanted. Then, when the Xbox 360 player came out, I got it and could finally watch the movies. So, I could do that again with BR, waiting for just the right deal on a player. And if I could score a $300-$350 refurbished player (new is better but I take what I can get), that would be much less of a wallet cruncher than the other option… $600 for a PS3, that would suck away my money for games too.

So here I sit, thinking, wondering, wishing, wanting. In a perfect world, there is only one HD format for DVDs. In a perfect world, all my fave shows and movies are on that format. In a perfect world, they are the same price as SD-DVDs.

But this is not a perfect world. Or a perfect party… and HD-DVD is being shown the door by BR, with Sony smirking happily. They may have totally fucked up the PS3, but they got BR right it seems. And that is something.