This week, Sony announced that the wholesale price points for DVDs in their new High-Definition Blu-Ray format will be between $18-$24. This is in line with the price points for the new High-Definition HD DVD titles from Warner Home Video. That’s the only good news for consumers in this whole Hi-Def DVD war: the fact that the prices for these higher-quality discs will be much lower than they otherwise would have charged.
Sigh. 20 years later, and nobody has learned a goddammed thing: two competing video formats, sponsored by warring big-moneyed camps, and — if history repeats itself and one format reigns supreme in the marketplace — the big loser will be the film buff who stocks up on that eventual losing format. So bollocks to all of them: this film buff — who already has hundreds of DVDs and would be a natural and even eager target audience for High Def DVD — is staying far away from all of it. And I’m guessing that I won’t be the only one.