Confessions of an HD Heretic

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You won't find me roaming the HD message board range, where seldom is heard a discouraging word against HD-DVD. That's because I own a Blu-ray player, and on the boards I've noticed that some people get so worked up over Blu-ray that it feels a bit like the peasants from "Young Frankenstein" spilling over onto the set of "Blazing Saddles," looking for something or someone to pitchfork. That leaves me wondering, What in the wide, wide world of sports is goin' on?. It's almost as if HD technology is the new religion, and we Blu-ray owners are the heretics.

The whole HD war seems to have less to do with movies than it does with consumer politics. Me, I'm a movie lover, plain and simple. I'm not a computer game player, so I can't really appreciate or understand the criticisms directed at Sony because they tied their movie product to their game product. As for the two movie formats, I find myself wondering just how many people out there have actually bought both the HD-DVD player and Blu-ray player in order to make informed comparisons. I'm guessing that most people can't afford both. Certainly I can't, and that leaves me comparing Blu-ray to standard discs. But you know what? That's enough for me. When it comes right down to it, HD is HD, and 1080p is 1080p, whether it's played on a Blu-ray player or HD-DVD player. It looks better than SD in either format, plain and simple. It's other factors like ease of play, glitches, affordability, and titles available on format that are fueling the debate--not picture quality. And the more I see of Blu-ray (I've watched close to 50 different films now), the more I like it.

Am I trying to convert the heathens to Blu-ray? Fat chance. Nor am I going to let proselytizers convince me that Blu-ray is the devil. I happen to like Blu-ray, but truthfully, I'm so put off by the format war that I could care less whether one dies and leaves the other to carry the HD standard. That would probably make people happy who are predicting the demise of both formats. Sure, it would be a bummer if Blu-ray bit the dust, simply because it's the player I own. But if it did, the consolation is that I'd feel a nostalgic connection to my dad, who bought the best Beta videotape player he could find, and before that had a fancy 8-track tape player installed in our family car. Like him, I would become a martyr of consumerism and the brunt of jokes for years to come. I can take it. Besides, it wasn't long before VHS tape players came way down in price, and the same with the DVD players that replaced them.

But just as Macs and PCs have been able to peacefully coexist, my prediction is that both formats will find a way to survive. The picture quality of both formats is just too good, and it really is an improvement over standard disc visual and audio quality. As an outcome, I'm guessing one of three things will happen: 1) Both players will drop in price so drastically so that no one will think twice about buying two units, 2) Someone will invent a player that can accommodate both discs, or 3) All studios will release titles in both formats, so consumers don't have to agonize over whether a favorite film will be available in the format they own.

I have to confess, though, that I've become half-addicted to Blu-ray discs. Yes, there are still glitches in the player itself, with some discs an adventure in movie-watching even before the film begins. I wait expectantly as those little blue dots on my Samsung BD-P1000 go from left to right in a bar at the bottom of my screen, then hold my breath as it changes to a multi-colored loading bar, and finally a tight circle of black-and-white dots. Never did an FBI warning screen look so wonderful as when you thought the dang thing wasn't going to play. Though I've only experienced a problem with six discs so far (and after repeated tries, all six played, despite telling me "this disc cannot be read"), all it takes is one to shake your confidence. I have to keep reminding myself that it's a new technology, and that it's natural for there to still be some bugs and glitches. The bug this time is in the Samsung loader. Sometimes I have to try inserting the disc three or four times before the machine will finally read the disc. Yes, that's a pain, but does it reflect on Blu-ray quality? Not really. Once the film is in, it looks great.

And I have to admit that I've really gotten used to seeing a higher quality picture on my 42" widescreen HD television. I especially notice if I watch four or five Blu-ray discs in a row, then pop in an old SD disc. What the heck? I'm thinking. This looks TERRIBLE. Then, after I watch SD again, I find that my eyes adjust. It's all what you get used to, and I've gotten used to Blu-ray.

I love those little blue transparent cases that are thinner and shorter and take up less space on the shelves. I really like those animated pop-up menu screens (though the sound is cranked too high on some of the effects), and the heftier discs that seem coated with a protective plastic to minimize scratches. I love the amount of detail that shows up on practically every disc, and I love the six-channel sound that finally utilizes all of my speakers to their fullest.

Right now, there's a whole group of undecideds out there who are half-hoping that HD fails so they won't have to replace their collection again. A part of me was thinking the same thing. I really resented having to replace every VHS tape, and now with DVDs we're talking about hundreds and hundreds. But I've played my old discs on the Blu-ray unit, and while the upconversion doesn't create a picture or sound that rivals Blu-ray, it still reinforces that no one's forcing you to replace anything. You could just start buying HD the minute you purchase a unit, and leave that SD collection be until the HD wars play themselves out. But be prepared to create more space. It's amazing how some movies that I wouldn't have even considered adding to my collection are now on the shelf because they're Blu-ray--because there aren't all that many Blu-ray discs yet. Strangely, though, that's expanded my movie vocabulary considerably. I'm watching films I wouldn't have bought before, and feeling like I'm pushing my own tastes. That's not bad. Right now, I just see myself as having two collections--SD and Blu-ray--and that's also not bad.

If this debate were really over picture and sound quality, as the ranters and ravers seem to want us to believe, wouldn't somebody bring up TV monitors and the plasma vs. LCD debate, or types of audio systems and connections? Probably, but the HD wars are about something more than that, something I don't quite understand. In the public's eye, it all boils down to HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray, and the tone is that this is a Holy War. So far, the voices of HD-DVD have been shouting the loudest. But it felt like just the right time to say, Hey, some of us have Blu-ray, and you know what? We like it.

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