Let the Battle Begin

HD-DVD format war looms for consumers - Financial Times - MSNBC.com

"The launch of competing and incompatible high-definition DVD players leaves consumers facing another confusing and costly format war. Leading consumer electronics manufacturers including Toshiba, Pioneer, Philips, LG and Samsung used the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which formally begins on Thursday, to debut competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD format DVD players."

I'm so excited about these "Blu-ray" and "HD-DVD" technologies, not because of the promise that DVD's will now look much sharper and clearer, but because I've been dying to spend thousands of dollars to replace my current DVD players which work perfectly fine and all the DVD's in my collection. Nothing will thrill me more than to have to buy "Goodfellas" for a third time because first I bought the regular DVD, then not too long ago I bought the "Special Edition" with all the extras and now I can look forward to buying it again to get the "High Definition" version. I'll be repeating this scenario with a few other DVD's in my collection too. Not to mention all the seasons of TV shows I own which I'll have to replace at $30-$50 a pop. Since analysts predict that this technology war could be a battle similar to VHS and Betamax in the early days of video, if I happen to choose the wrong format, I could eventually be looking at doing this all over again when one format wins out. To top it all off, I'll have to replace my TV set eventually to meet the HDTV requirement which is set to go into effect in a few years. You gotta love it!