Hi, my name is Sujal. I have been a long time customer, and a long time fan of your products. I collect movies, and really believe in the value of film to our collective culture. That being said, I’m just writing to say that I no longer will purchase HD DVDs or BluRay discs and will only buy those movies I really want on regular DVDs. The reason is simple: I want to be able to use the purchase I made on as many different platforms as I can. As an owner of several computers and multiple portable video devices (PSP, iPhone), I want to be able to pay a reasonable fee once and use that movie on all of these platforms.

With DVDs, I can do this. With HD media, I can’t. So, I’ll save myself about $10 and get the DVD copy. That’s $10 you don’t get, and $10 you won’t get because, trust me, I’m not spending more than once for a movie I already own.

On top of that, because your anti-copy technologies (AACS on HD-DVDs and BluRay and CSS on DVDs) actually don’t do anything meaningful to stop piracy but only interfere with your customers’ legal and fair use of these products, I will continue to restrict my DVD purchases to those movies at the top of my collectable list.

Please consider getting your heads out of your collective asses and recognizing that you’re costing yourselves money by alienating people like me who have always been (and would otherwise continue to be) your best customers.

Thanks,

Sujal

PS. At least this makes my wife happy.

If you’ve ever wondered what HD-DVD or BluRay might get you compared to your old DVDs, check out this nice comparison of the Fellowship of the Ring DVD and HD versions. He’s done a great job of laying out nearly identical captures of both versions so you can see directly how they compare.

It’s all about getting closer to the way the filmmakers intended us to see their film in my mind, and this is getting us closer each day. I just got the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player and hope to see for myself how much better it can be. Netflix to the rescue!

Just saw on Amazon that the second season DVDs for Lost are coming out on September 5th. I think Josh and some other folks were asking me. You can pre-order today and Amazon will probably deliver by the 6th. Just click on the image to go to Amazon.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Recently, my mom purchased a Samsung HL-R5067W. Over the past few months, she was able to get a new Samsung progressive scan DVD player for free or low cost, and this past weekend, I helped her get the unit set up with her TV using the HDMI connection. For some reason, I didn’t notice the included HDMI cable, so we went off to Best Buy to pick up a cable.

Holy freaking expensive… we found the cheapest Monster cable at around $95. The cheapest HDMI cable was $63 for a 4′ cable. That’s over $15 a foot. How crazy is that? These cables cost as much as many DVD players out there. It’s unbelievable.

As HD becomes more popular and HD-DVD or BluRay roll out, the prices will come down, but right now it’s a big disincentive to having HDMI components. Anyone have any ideas on why these cables are so expensive? No computer cable is so costly and I can’t imagine that the home theater equipment needs higher tolerances than a data interconnect.

I just got Serenity on DVD and am watching it tonight. Even after all this time, it’s still hard to watch Wash die.

I just got my copy of Fantastic Four from Amazon today, so I fired it up. The first thing I’m greeted with on this DVD I purchased legally was a long commercial telling me that buying pirated DVDs is a crime.

Cause, you know, I paid $15 to get a morality lesson. Stuff like this makes me want to stop buying DVDs.

You can find the resources I’ve found on encoding video for the PSP on OS X at my del.icio.us page. I’ll be adding more and posting here if/when I have any success.

Update: I’ve put more notes and findings on this page.