May 11, 2006
David Pogue
NY Times
Why the World Doesn't Need Hi-Def DVD's
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/technology/11pogue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
WHEN did you first become cynical about the electronics industry?
Was it when VHS went out of style, and you had to buy all your movies again
on DVD? Was it the time(s) you never got the rebate you mailed away for? Or
was it when your computer's 90-day warranty expired, and the thing croaked
two days later?
Doesn't matter. As it turns out, you didn't even know the meaning of the
word cynical. This month, Toshiba's HD-A1 high-definition DVD player hit
store shelves. It's the first marketplace volley in an absurd and pointless
format war among the titans of the movie, electronics and computer industries.
Just contemplating the rise of a new DVD format is enough to make you feel
played. What's wrong with the original DVD format, anyway? It offers
brilliant picture, thundering surround sound and bonus material. The
catalog of DVD movies is immense and reasonably priced. And DVD players are
so cheap, they practically fall out of magazines; 82 percent of American
homes have at least one DVD player.
To electronics executives, all of this can mean only one thing: It's time
to junk that format and start over.
Of course, the executives don't explain this decision by saying, "Because
we've saturated the market for regular DVD players."
Instead, they talk about video and picture quality. A DVD picture offers
much better color and clarity than regular TV, but not as good as
high-definition TV. The new discs hold far more information, enough to
display Hollywood's masterpieces in true high definition (if you have a
high-definition TV, of course).
UNFORTUNATELY, this idea occurred simultaneously to both Sony and Toshiba.
Each dreamed up its own format for a high-def DVD. Each then assembled an
army of partners. Toshiba's format, called HD-DVD, has attracted Microsoft,
Sanyo, NEC and movie studios like New Line and Universal. Sony's format,
called Blu-ray, has in its camp Apple, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp,
Pioneer, Dell and movie studios like Sony, 20th Century Fox and Disney.
(Some companies, like HP, LG, Warner Brothers and Paramount, intend to
create products for both formats.)
The new DVD players will play standard DVD's, but that's as far as the
compatibility good news goes. Movies in Toshiba's format won't play in DVD
players from Sony's side, and vice versa.
At first, pundits guessed that Sony's Blu-ray format might win, because it
had signed up so many more movie studios, its discs have greater capacity,
and the PlayStation 3, expected to top best-seller lists this fall, will
double as a Blu-ray player.
But Toshiba has two aces up its sleeve. First, its first HD-DVD player is
available now, giving it a head start; Blu-ray players aren't expected
until the end of June. Second, this new player, the HD-A1, costs $500
half the price of the cheapest Blu-ray deck.
The HD-A1 is a pretty big box: 17.7 by 13.3 by 4.3 inches, more like an
early VCR than a sleek modern DVD player.
The $500 isn't the only price you pay for being an insanely early adopter;
this baby is slow really slow. It takes over a minute just to turn on;
menus are sometimes slow to respond; and a newly inserted DVD takes 45
seconds just to get to the F.B.I. warning. (And no, even the brave new DVD
format doesn't let you skip over that tiresome warning.)
The remote is a disaster; its buttons are identically shaped and
illogically placed. Not only are they not illuminated, but their labels are
painted on faintly and in what must be 4-point type. (A sibling model, the
HD-XA1, adds minor goodies like a backlit remote for $300 more.)
Finally, though, the movie begins and your shield of cynicism begins to
waver. As you watch the brilliant colors, super-black blacks and
ridiculously sharp detail up to six times the resolution of a standard
DVD you realize that you've never seen anything quite this
cinematic-looking in your home before.
Even high-definition TV doesn't look this good; the amount of information
HD-DVD pumps to your screen dwarfs what you get from high-def satellite or
cable (36 megabits a second maximum, versus 19 or less).
You need a big screen to benefit from all this picture data, however. The
impact of the extra detail begins to evaporate at screen sizes below, say,
35 inches.
Even on a small screen, though, you don't have to interrupt the movie to
open the DVD menu (to get access to settings and extras); on a high-def
DVD, the menu appears at the bottom or side of the screen as the movie
continues to play.
That feature makes it quick and easy to turn on subtitles during a mumbled
scene, for example, or to tune in the director's commentary track without
losing your place. I watched six beautifully made HD-DVD movies from Warner
and Universal, including the gut-churning "Training Day" a
