The Kastle Tower

So, Transformers was released this week! Possibly, it was the best big-budget movie of the summer '07. It didn't gross as much as Spider-Man 3 yet still broke $300 million. Last I heard, Spidey had grossed about $20 million more than the robots-in-disguise.

Now, I want this movie in HD yet I have adopted the Blu-ray format. So that means I'm just out of luck. Why did I choose Blu-ray? Because technology speaking it’s a better format. Why am I out of luck with a HD Transformers? Because Paramount (the studio that released Transformers) has adopted HD DVD as their sole format for their movies.

Now, the format war is similar to the old Beta vs. VHS war of the early 80s. Beta back then was the better format--technology speaking. Yet, VHS won for a couple of reasons. One--it was cheaper. And two--the porn industry adopted the VHS format for their adult videos. Now here we are again. Blu-ray (Sony) like Beta (Sony) is a better technology and allows for High Definition to grow. HD DVD enters the scene and has similar traits but falls short of the blue laser technology. When HD DVD debuted they stated it would be cheaper than its Blu-ray counterpart. Well, this is not true. If you enter any Wal-Mart or Best Buy and you'll see pretty much the same price on a HD DVD and a Blu-ray disc. They usually hover around $27.95 a flick. So, HD DVD won't win because it's cheaper. Will it win because its better?? (do I need to answer that?)

If you look at the numbers, Blu-ray is out selling its HD DVD competition. For most of 2007, Blu-ray has out sold their HD DVD nearly 2-1. Roughly 1.6 million Blu-ray discs have been sold while only 795,000 HD DVD discs. If you look back to the two format's launch, 2.2 million Blu-ray discs to only 1.5 million HD DVD discs have been sold. Some say this is because of the Playstation 3. And it should. This is why I went with Blu-ray as we are a Playstation family.

My only gripe. The studios! The studios will only hurt their own HD movie sales because of picking sides. Do we need 2 formats? No. But in this world of PC vs. Mac it may just be a 2 format society for a while. So I think the studios need to release their movies on both. Allow the Blu-ray devotees and the HD DVD followers to have both their cake and eat it too.

I guess if my salary had a few more zeros on the left side of the decimal, I'd buy both a HD DVD player and have the PS3. But right now, it's not in the cards, baby!