Since the Cap'n now has one of those X-thingy mathingy 360's with the Fancy Schmancy but already rendered obsolete drives (HD-DVD) I might as well dig up some movies that aren't on Blu Ray and check out their comparably fancy schmancy alternatives.
There are two things that I found to be true after some cursory searches for HD DVDs online:
1) There are a number of good movies with pretty high marks visually that aren't on BD yet, or anytime soon.
2) HD-DVD's are REAAAAALLY cheap.
How cheap? Let's look at it this way; the most expensive HD-DVD I ordered was 6 bucks with shipping included. Most of them were around $3 a pop, compared to the (at best) $14-40 cost of their eventual Blu Ray counterpart. For most of the HD-DVDs I ordered, shipping was free. There's nothing wrong with the discs, and if you have a player it's not going to stop working any time soon just because they've been discontinued. So, for about 30 bucks (with shipping), I got the following HD discs:
The Deer Hunter
The Game
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Being John Malkovich
Army of Darkness
Seed of Chucky
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
Dune
The Frighteners
None of which are available on Blu Ray or have been announced and all of which were much cheaper. Based on the limited amount I could get from work (it consisted of Miami Vice and Hollywoodland plus the King Kong that came with the HD-DVD drive) the picture is comparable to Blu Ray so the only drop is in price of disc. Not too shabby.
They haven't arrived yet, but I'll be sure to give you an update when they do. I'm particularly interested in The Frighteners. Dune got some high marks online, and one review indicated it's the best the film has looked on home video yet (and considering how many different region coded discs he compared it to, I'm inclined to believe him). Also, most of them have all the extras of their fancy dvd counterparts, including the 4 hour Frighteners "making of".
In fact, the only HD-DVD disc I couldn't find for dirt cheap was Forbidden Planet, which was hovering right around $12. It's still not super expensive, I guess, and there's no indicator that or if a Blu Ray is on the horizon, but I'd like to keep spending on this dead format to less than $10. On the other hand, if any of you see it out there for a reasonable price, pick it up and I'll be happy to pay you for it.
Since I've got this drive, I might as well use it, and I have all the incentive in the world to build up a small collection of this already obsolete medium. More than half of them are "flippers", which means that one side is high definition and the other is a regular dvd, so they'll still work even if the drive peters out. If anyone knows how (or where or if) I can locate firmware updates for the drive, drop the Cap'n a line.
Off to work shortly, but I did end up getting The State. Even in the awkward first episode, it's still funnier than most sketch comedy on tv today. Just saying...
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