Re: *** Official HTF HD Formats Industry/Retailer/Studio Support Thread
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Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich
LOL It's funny I have always been bothered that Universal puts these on their standard def DVDs figuring it would just confuse people.
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Personally I have always felt that any such confusion would only be caused by the 'HD-DVD' name and not due to the presence of the promo itself. First of all, a lot of people are liable to think that the Universal promos on DVDs are for the same old 'regular' DVDs, but only with some kind of new enhancements from Universal. Thus HD-DVD ends up sounding like only an incremental jump in quality of the 'good' old, DVD format. Secondly, people see all these 'upscaling DVD players being advertised as 'HD DVD' players and guess what, that only adds to their confusion and further strengthens their perception about HD-DVD just being a refinement to the DVD format. On the other hand, Blu-Ray does not face these issues. Rather, Blu-Ray quite easily and clearly establishes itself as a new format due to it's name. Furthermore Blu-Ray sounds far more of a revolutionary change and more futuristic than HD-DVD. Although more often than not, piggy riding an already very succesfull 'brand' is good for the new 'brand', I personally feel that in the case of DVD and HD-DVD, this has only caused confusion and has diluted the strength of the HD-DVD format, rather than giving any real advantage to it.
PS: Sometime last year, around August 2006, and long before Samsung even announced their intention to produce a dual format player let alone a HD-DVD player, they were actually advertising their "HD DVD" players for approx $100. Ofcourse all they were advertising was their upscaling DVD players. Mind you, these advertisments were half page, official Samsung issued advertisements and they were released in the national news dailies no less. I remember getting into argument with so many people I know over this, I would tell them that it is impossible for Samsung to be selling HD-DVD players, since they don't make HD-DVD players. Also the advertised price itself, approx $100, made the whole deal impossible. But more often than not, my arguments were just not enough to convince someone who had seen the advertisement for themself. Anyhow, to this day you can walk into almost any exclusive Samsung showroom here and if you were to ask the sales person what source are they displaying on their HD TVs, the answer will be HD-DVD. I have even got into arguments with some, but in most cases to no avail. After all who would they rather believe, Samsung or someone off the street. I was even tempted to go file a complaint with the Consumer forum, but upon discussing it with a business lawyer friend, I realized it was too much time and effort for something that the Samsung would most probably, and quite easily, escape from. Anyhow the situation today is that almost all CE brand retailers term their 'upscaling' DVD players as 'HD DVD' players. Thus, hundreds, maybe even thousands, out of their naivety, continue to buy 'upscaling' DVD players, thinking they have bought HD-DVD.
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Originally Posted by Adam Gregorich
I am also peeved how a lot of early HD DVD titles have the really long HD DVD sales pitch in front of the film...I mean I already bought into the format why are you reselling it on me.
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The first time I saw one of those promos on a HD-DVD, my instant reaction was, are they out of their minds. Why in the world would you advertise a format to someone who has already bought into it? Alright, maybe they want you to feel good and convince you that you made the right choice. But one needs only so much of reassurance, it would only be an irritant to have to watch it every single time one sits down to watch that HD-DVD disc.
