This has been known for quite some time, but this is a good article explaining how early buyers of HDTV's aren't going to be able to benefit from either of the new high definition DVD formats. In a nutshell, the early adopters of HDTV, presumably the same people who would have been early adopters of the new high definition DVD formats, are being left out in the cold. Since older HDTVs don't have the "new improved" outputs (read outputs that prevent you from doing anything Hollywood hasn't dreamed up themselves) their HDTVs that they paid thousands of dollars for won't be able to display the high definition DVDs at full quality. Yep, that’s a wonderful idea. Screw over the people who are most likely to buy your product in its early days. Sounds like a sure-fire marketing technique to me. The more I hear about Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the more I'm rooting for both formats to fall flat on their faces. Hollywood deserves to loose because they are the ones who are insisting on the new draconian security features that the next generation of DVDs will include. The consumer electronics industry deserves to take a hit given that they've rolled over and let the movie industry tell them how to run their businesses. Sorry chumps, the current generation of DVDs are just fine by me. I won't be making a switch until you all get your collective heads out of your asses. I suspect that I'm not alone in that sentiment. Maybe some good old financial hemorrhaging as a result of these goofy products might wise Hollywood and the consumer electronics industry up. It's time they started asking their customers what they want instead of presuming to know what is best for them.

¶ 2/22/2006 04:42:00 PM

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