When the great 19th century French novelist Victor Hugo was anxious to hear about the initial sales of his novel "Les Miserables," he wrote a letter to his publisher, consisting of a single mark:
His editor replied with equal concision:
Why the literary trivia? To show how easily this could have been the shortest essay ever. With high-definition DVD about to become reality, a lot of consumers, including myself, are faced with a simple but nagging question: Should I continue buying standard definition DVDs? The Victor Hugo version? YES. The Ed Peters version? Pull up a chair and pour some coffee, we're gonna be here awhile.
The most compelling reason to continue buying standard definition DVDs is that for the moment they're still the best we've got in home entertainment media. I have no intention of stopping my DVD addiction just because there's a new home entertainment format comin' to town. In fact, I'm still waitin' for them to ride in.
(For the remainder of the article, DVD refers to the current standard; HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are referenced as such.)
There's been a lot of ink lately devoted to how that the DVD market has "matured" and the studios have officially declared the sky as fallen. Yeah, for many, DVD has tapped out. All their favorites have been released - Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Godfather, Citizen Kane, etc. Now the content providers find themselves in the position of having to release anything that's left in the vault, just to keep the DVD gravy train a-chugging. For me and my eclectic tastes -- and I imagine for many other enthusiasts -- now is when the really interesting stuff starts materializing on DVD. Box sets devoted of Carole Lombard, Marlene Dietrich, Mel Brooks, Cecil B. DeMille, Busby Berkeley and Steve McQueen are starting to or will shortly compete for shelf space alongside "The Loved One," one of the blackest comedies of the 1960s and the turbo-charged Ultimate Planet of the Apes Collection, complete with Cornelius' cranium. I can't wait to get my stinking paws on that one.
One of the unfortunate side effects of the format war is quick public acceptance. Embracing high-definition DVD has been complicated by a factor of two, and the transition time from analog NTSC to HD correspondingly doubled. So for the foreseeable future, DVD will continue to be available - and for the studios, still THE revenue generator -- with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray slugging it out for my hard-earned available credit balance.
Even as we count down the days to high definition DVD, many questions linger. Similar to the "full screen and widescreen version" double-inventory pattern, certain titles will be available in DVD, HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray, depending on the studio. Will they all share the same content? Will the high definition versions carry bonus materials different from the plain Jane DVD version, a tactic to spur sales of the nascent format(s)? Will DVD go "full-screen" (or 1.78 to "fill" 16x9-compatible sets), with the hi-def versions presented in "the original theatrical aspect rato" (i.e. 2.35 for Scope-lensed features), catering to the cinema enthusiast willing to pay top dollar for OAR? Time will tell, but I hate to think that watching "2001" properly might cost me an extra Jackson…
Sometimes, I feel caught in a Kubrickian dilemma: Dr. DVDLove, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Multiple Formats. Does anyone remember the Dolby/DTS home audio format war? When each introduced their 5.1 surround process over ten years ago, speculation was rampant as to how the market would react and what kind of collateral consumer damage might ensue. Arguably, Dolby "won" the format war yet DTS has resiliently co-existed, with many DVDs offering both audio options on the same disc. The increased storage capacities of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray should facilitate an analogous Dolby/DTS cohabitation in the hi-def disc era - with attendant higher fidelity.
One more element to consider before moving on concerns HD-DVD's ability to house a standard DVD layer on the same disc. The HD-DVD CES demo disc offers exactly that - and the DVD portion plays just fine in my player. One way to kick-start HD-DVD is by releasing "hybrid" discs, so when you're buying the DVD, you're getting the HD-DVD version as well. Supposedly, Warners will take that option in the beginning, but as of yet, no officially announced hybrid titles. And like their automotive counterparts, it'll cost extra for the privilege.
At the beginning of the DVD era, I had a few friends who started buying the discs LONG before they had a player. I found the practice an odd one and entirely against the instant gratification principle. What's the point of having DVDs without a DVD player…or a 16x9 TV or a Dolby Digital/DTS home theater? (The Home-Theater-In-A-Box product category neatly resolved that issue.) I eventually saw the logic. It allowed them to start collecting DVDs while allowing some financial flexibility, so that (gasp!) you could actually save for the DVD player. Recommending the same course of action is a bit tricky and even risky, if it wasn't for the fact that we have an extra variable in this scenario - dueling formats. A unified format is a no-brainer - start buying the software and wait for player prices to come down. What if I choose the wrong format? Nothing like a 17" wide, 25 lb. paperweight and a bunch of shiny coasters…
Eventually, the high definition DVD format war will produce a clear winner, but not for some time. So what do to do during format wartime? Relax. Take a deep breath. And remember that plain ol' DVD still offers A LOT of bang for the buck. And most importantly: it's already here for us to enjoy.
