Saving HD DVD??

Warner's CES announcement of Blu-ray exclusivity has created quite an uproar in the media. Many claim that the HD war has been won by the Blu-ray camp. Does Warner really believe that Blu-ray is the consumer's real choice for high definition, disc based media? Do they think we want higher priced hardware or incomplete and changing specifications? Are the rumors of a $500 million payoff true?

Here at Audioholics, we see the rumors, we play with the hardware, and we feel the pain of a format war. And, from our personal experiences, it's clear that both HD DVD and Blu-ray can provide a fantastic audio and visual experience. Dare I say, an identical experience? Even so, with nearly 90,000 new sales of low cost HD DVD players on Black Friday 2007, there will surely be a large consumer backlash at the recent shift of power.

As such, we would like to point you to an independent Internet based petition to Warner, Paramount, and Universal Studios. It seems that there are quite a few fans of HD DVD left out there. As of this writing, nearly 20,000 have signed the petition, and there will certainly be more. If you are an HD DVD user, and the format is important to you, then this may be a way to make yourself heard.

http://www.petitiononline.com/SAVEHDD/petition.html

Not only are the proponents of HD DVD actively seeking their own preservation, but on the other side of the battlefield there are people seeking its demise. Perhaps you feel that HD DVD truly isn't for you, and the war should end quickly. Is Blu-ray your choice? Yet another independent Internet petition exists, but with only 8,000 signatures at the time of this writing.

http://www.petitiononline.com/HDVDeath/petition.html

Will these petitions make a difference? We don't know. Of course, we may be on the verge of a new revolution of devices that will let us download HD content directly from the Internet, cable, and satellite providers. In 5 years, will bandwidth and content be so ubiquitous that physical media becomes obsolete? Only time will tell…