Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, why I'm sitting this out

Frisch’s third law is “technology changes, always.”

The first modern entertainment format war began in the late 1880’s. Thomas Edison created modern home entertainment in 1877 when he invented the phonograph. It used cylindrical recording media. Within ten years, competitors developed and marketed lateral cut disk players. These are familiar to most of us as records. The Edison cylinder had technical advantages over the lateral cut disk. However, it was harder to store and more difficult for the manufacturer to duplicate. The lateral cut disk won the war.

The next war was fought over record speed. There was no standard for over 35 years. One manufacturer might press records at 75 rpm and another might use 79 rpm. Finally, in 1925, the industry settled on 78 rpm. This lasted through 1948 when Columbia introduced the 33⅓ rpm record. RCA Victor responded with the 45 rpm in 1949. 78 rpm-only players were relegated to technology’s garbage heap. Combination 33⅓/45/78 rpm players eventually came to market and then became obsolete a few years later. Magnetic, reel-to-reel tape was introduced. Stereo was introduced, and then tape cartridges, tape cassettes, and quadraphonic records. Each new format required new equipment, and often, new media.

Mono became stereo, which morphed into quadraphonic and then surround sound. Tape cassettes were replaced by CDs. VHS and Sony’s Betamax fought it out to dominate the video recording market. The VHS format won, but was quickly surpassed by DVDs.

Today the equipment manufacturers and content distributors want us to choose again, between Blu-ray and HD-DVD optical discs. Each side cites superior technology and industry partnerships as the reason why they will win. An HD-DVD player is an option for the Microsoft Xbox, while Sony incorporates a Blu-ray player into its PS3 gaming console. Blu-ray negotiates exclusive deals with Blockbuster to supply Blu-ray disks and with Wal-Mart and Target to feature their players this coming Christmas. Paramount and Dreamworks studios announce that they will only distribute movies in the HD-DVD format.

Competition is good for the consumer. It drives down manufacturing costs and MSRPs. It incents the manufacturers to innovate and refine their innovations. It makes products cheaper and better. But…

I have cartons in my basement filled with vinyl records, 33⅓ and 45 rpm. I have lots of obsolete equipment. I have tape cassettes, CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes. I do not want any more physical media. I have ripped a substantial part of my music collection to a large computer hard drive. I can easily transfer these MP3 files to my daughter’s iPod or my tiny Creative MP3 player. We can find and play any track, album or artist in a moment. We can easily play these tracks on any of our computers since one computer is set up as a media server for the whole house.

I do not care if these new optical discs are better. I do not want to own them. I like video on demand (VOD) be it from TiVo, a DVR, the internet or Cablevision. I want reasonable prices, easy, quick access from any player in my home. I want portability so that we can easily copy the video to an iPod or other portable video player. I do not want another soon-to-be obsolete piece of equipment and its attendant over-priced media draining my wallet and cluttering my home. I am sitting this war out.

If you were wondering, Frisch’s first two laws are “life is not fair, get on with it,” and “gravity never takes a holiday.”