HD DVD Will Give You *Gonorrhea

*Note: There is no proof that HD DVD will give you gonorrhea. This is an unsubstantiated claim from myself, a proven Blu-Ray fanboy.

Okay people. I have HAD it! As most of you know, I have become increasingly obsessed with the HD format war. I have pertinent-to-the-subject websites open all day at work, and frequently check them for news. I guess you could say I have an addiction. Why HD media? I can't really answer that. I'm a big movie buff, and a big technology and HD geek, and it all just coalesced into being obsessed with HD optical media. The problem is, there are 2 of them, when there really only should be one. Movie studios are divided, potential customers are confused, and the whole thing is just crawling along at a snails pace.
In the past, I have stated that I just want one format to prevail regardless and stamp this thing out, and that remains true, but I am on Blu-Rays side here, and I am so fed up, I'm going to come right out and say it. I think HD DVD needs to hurry up and fucking die. I'm through pretending to be compassionate about HD in general, I'm on a side, and I want them to win. To me, Toshiba and their HD DVD flunkies are like a bug that you keep stepping on and it just wont die. You need to find something big and heavy and just smash it. Come on Blu-Ray. Lets get this done.
What prompted this rant? Toshiba, in what I look at as a last gasp of desperation to me, has started selling their low end (no 1080p support, long load times, last years model) HD DVD player at Wal-Mart for $198, with a one day fire sale today of $98. Now there is NO WAY that Toshiba is making a profit on this. You can't tell me they can manufacture this thing for less than 100 or even 200 dollars, considering it was being sold for $500 initially just months ago. I believe they have effectively cut out ANY chances that ANY other manufacturer is going to want to make players for their HD DVD brand. Not when they know Toshiba will undercut them.
Toshiba is fucking up the system. New technology costs more. It always has. It always will. When some new format is introduced, players are going to cost more than what its predecessor was. Manufacturers know this, and that is why they have all flocked behind Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray will re-vitalize their income with new technology being sold at new technology prices, also helping to fund further innovations in that technology. Toshiba knows this, and knows that most Americans are cheapskates, so they are trying now to appeal to people who don't like to spend money on cutting edge products. People with the 'walmart' mentality. Well, I have news for you Toshiba. People who walk into Wal-Mart and cream their pants over a 98 dollar HD DVD player are probably going to go into sticker shock when they see that HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs usually cost over 30 dollars. They are used to buying $5.00 DVD's for their $60 DVD player. I personally think your plan is going to backfire when most undeucated masses buy these low end HD DVD players and buy regular DVD's for them, because your name, "HD DVD" is stupid and confusing. People will think it's sole purpose is to make DVD's look HD. At least Blu-Ray clearly gets the point across that its something completely different than 'DVD'.

Now someone might say to me, "Hey Kody, if you are so upset about all this, why not just support both?"
Well, I tried that, and had a horrible experience with HD DVD. I got the XBOX 360 add on and the Matrix Trilogy for HD DVD, and the discs would not play. I don't know who is at fault there, Warner Brothers for the discs or Microsoft/Toshiba for the HD DVD drive, but it all went back to the store. After that, I decided that if I really cared about Blu-Ray winning, all I would accomplish by supporting both formats is prolonging the war. Every HD DVD disc I bought would cancel out a Blu-Ray I already owned or would purchase.
Speaking of Warner Brothers, eliminating HD DVD, or them picking Blu-Ray exclusively(which is in consideration) would make me so happy. They currently release on both formats, but they encode films to the least common denominator (HD DVD) Basically, HD DVD has 20 gigs less storage capacity, a lower audio bit-rate and a lower video bit-rate than Blu-Ray. Warner scales down and compresses the film to fit on a HD DVD, then they port it over to Blu-Ray, where it could be done to a higher quality if they really wanted to, or didnt have to worry about making it fit on an HD DVD.
I now have 34 Blu-Ray movies. I am confident that with Blu-Ray leading in sales, technical superiority, studio support, and electronics manufacturer support, they will prevail. They just need to finish eradicating the virus that is HD DVD.
Wow. I haven't bitched this much in a long time. It felt good to get that off my chest.
And remember kids, Paramount are sell-out whores, and Toshiba are filthy taints.
Have a great day, and go buy some Blu-Rays!
:)
-Kody

PS: On a positive note, after Paramount (Whoramount) took the bribe to go exclusively HD DVD, everyone was banking on HD DVD FINALLY winning a sales week over Blu-Ray when Transformers was released. Oops. Didn't happen. HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!