*sings*

and let it begin....with Digi!

Does that mean you're buying a BD player soon?

BTW, here's an example of the sort of thing that goes on at AVS but thankfully would not be allowed here: That little nugget is not only personally attacking HD DVD supporters, but also likely some BD supporters as well (since it could also extend to those who think Disney is just cartoons and kids don't care about HD).

It was relatively recently that Namja decided to step in and stop the insane level of personal attacks on this forum. We even had threads dedicated to which format had the most unpleasant supporters! Crazy level of personal investment...

uhh...not recently. it's been months since he started that.

a few months is recent...

considering this whole thing started 10 months ago, that would make EVERYTHING recent.

namja has been cracking down for about 4 or 5 months, I'd say. I can check my emails if you want a specific time frame

The format debate has been going on for at least 2 years, possibly longer. Namja started reeling this place back under control a few months back.

I've banned several people for personal attacks on this forum dating back almost a year, for what it's worth.

I disagree with the "two years" timetable. There's a difference between when the 'war' itself started and when the bickering got really heated. Hardly anyone supported HD DVD (on its own merits, at least) until it actually came out. Virtually everyone either preferred Blu-ray or sided with HD DVD purely because Sony had nothing to do with it.

The Anti-Sony reason still seems to crop up with amusing regularity on AVS. I suspect it's an influx of console fanboys with little interest in HT.

As to the time frame of unpleasantness on this forum, it's simply my assertion that the lull has been relatively recent. This makes it a little rich for us to point fingers of fun at the nutters on AVS. There but for the grace of god...

BTW I'm not tired of the BD vs HD DVD debate. It's interesting to watch the machinations of these huge corporations and their interplay with the general public. It's also fun to watch the extremes of loyalty little boxes of metal and plastic can acrue.

oh the irony.

Your judgement is highly prized! Heard from TSD lately..?

To an extent, you're right. But that price and that quality would not be attractive to any but the most forwardlooking early adopter, and certainly not to joe consumer. They'd have to lower prices and/or improve quality sometime, just to move units. Certainly it's much faster with the competition, but still.

"Interesting" article comparing HD and BD based on reviews.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/feature/f...ual-238336.php
although I take issue with this phrasing:
"Translation: the studios are using crappier audio compression on HD DVD."
Comparing an 8 to an 8.5 doesn't make the 8 "crappy".

And this is different from the way things stand right now, how?

Okay, this is just mind boggling to me. In the AVS thread discussing the 50% deal going on for BD titles and how this is boosting numbers. A HD DVD supporter said this:

"This wont last. Universal is busy making alot of announcements. They just announced a bunch of stuff for May that I want."

Then the BD fanatic/blind supporter/retard replied with this:

"You must mean big movies like Children of Men(sales rank: 191) and The Good Shepherd(Sales rank: 1042) "

This is the type of responses I don't understand. Children of Men is a great, great movie that many consider to be one of the best of 2006. Yet this moron disregards it because it's only ranked 191 on Amazon.

Can someone give me a logical reason why some over there are that caught up in their format?

If BD wins the format war outright, I'll never visit AVS again. They'll be gloating for years.

This kind of shit happens with game consoles as well. People care more about the hardware than they do the games. I play games and I watch movies. I couldn't care less what the hardware is as long as it works. I was happy as an HD DVD owner and now I'm happy supporting both. Yeah, maybe BD will win the war or maybe neither will. Either way its about the movies and not the stupid discs and players.

IMO, it's the "PS3 Factor." Much younger demographic. Religiously zealous in format choice. Prefers comic book-style movies.

As a general rule, HD-DVD tends to appeal to a more adult demographic, in my opinion.

Speaking of the 50% off sale, I spent $150 on BR titles this morning because of it. I think it's great for the consumer (although either the BR studios or Amazon are losing money hand over fist). However, I feel like I'm shouting into a maelstrom over at AVS. BR zealots are proclaiming the sales ranks as the umpteenth death knell for HD-DVD (again) as if the sales spikes occurred in a vacuum.

OF COURSE SALES ARE GOING TO SPIKE! IT'S 50% OFF! DUH!!!!

Sales of both formats spiked to the moon at Buy.Com when the GCO $20 off $50 deal was active. Were those sales ranks "natural"? Of course not.

Yet the BR faithful are all partying in the streets as if this single-vendor sale is (again) signifying the end of the format war. Isn't that like the 17th time this year BR has declared victory?

Yet at the same time I'm watching a different sales rank at Amazon on a daily basis. Not content, but player sales. If any of the so-called "momentum" that BR title sales has garnered in the last 2 months were really indicative of a groundswell in BR's favor, I would expect at least SOME of that to spill over into standalone sales...

Absolutely zero sign of that occurring.

The Toshiba players still have a sales rank almost an order of magnitude better than the highest-ranked BR standalone player, and have been that way every day for weeks on end.

The Xbox 360 HD-DVD Add-On has been selling consistently as well. It shows no sign of dying off (in all fairness, neither does the PS3). But what happens when PS3 owners all of a sudden have actual games to purchase and their attention (and budget) shifts?

I think those that are writing off HD-DVD are doing so extremely prematurely. I still think we are ultimately going to wind up with a scenario where either (1) both formats coexist, (2) both formats die in favor of downloadable content, or (3) universal players become the norm so it's a moot point.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy both flavors, thank you...

The last figures I saw showed the HD DVD add on stuck around 175,000 units. I see a very bad 2007 for both formats personally. I think one of them will survive, but maybe only as a niche format. I can live with that if its the new laserdisc type format for film buffs.

In addition to what dharding said, I think there's also a sense of "payback" (in terms of trash talking) among BD supporters. Last year, BD took a beating due to their early problems with transfers and expensive players. There was also a lot of skepticism as to whether the PS3 would be a viable player.

Now that the transfers have gotten better and the PS3 has shown itself to be about as capable as the standalones, there's a sense of "I told you so" among some of them. Now they feel entitled to bash HD DVD because it's the format that's slipping now, and they can say they made the "right" choice to begin with.

That's fine with me as well. I loved the laserdisc days and there were always plenty of titles available.

Do you see alot of HD DVD bashing posts here at DVD Talk? I really don't. Take a look through the last couple of months of posts in the General BD and HDDVD threads. There is alot of arguing going on in the BD thread, but the BD supporters pretty much stay clear of the HD DVD thread. Just an observation. AVS is another story all together.

It's much more civil here. I don't expect to see much gloating here when 1 format wins. But over there, it's a whole different world. It seems like every poster there has the attitude of a 15 year old. Mine's better than yours! crap. Even some of the long time members, some of whom I really hate, are doing the same shit.

"I know you are but what am I? I know you are but what am I? I know you are but what am I? I know you are but what am I? INFINITY!!!"

Many of the long term members own neither format to boot.

I loved the most recent thread that shows Mpeg2 versus VC-1 with the 100X magnifcation screen shots.

Definitely some funny shit.