Don't Reward Sony

Back in the day Sony tried to corner a developing market with their own proprietary format in the hopes of reaping huge licensing fees from anyone publishing on the media. That format was Betamax, and I think most everyone know how that turned out (VHS FTW).

This time around instead of the VCR market Sony's gunning for high definition optical discs. Sony's format is the Blu-Ray standard while the opposing standard is HD-DVD. Now personally, I prefer HD-DVD because it's simpler due the the fact that the same laser that reads HD-DVDs is backwards compatible with regular DVDs. 10 points right there. Granted, Blu-Ray has a larger storage size, but not significantly enough to outweigh the fact that Blu-Ray plays need two separate lasers to support legacy DVDs. Sony also shoved their players out prematurely to not be behind the HD-DVD release. Those original players didn't fully implement the Blu-Ray standard. Most reviewers also couldn't discern much of a difference quality-wise in either's audio or video.

Now all the news is about how Blu-Ray is winning this high def war. If it wins then I think we all lose. Having an entire market beholden to a single primary source like Sony is bad for all consumers. We all need to speak out by voting with our pocket books for HD-DVD. Having said that, I've purchased neither yet. My early adopter ways have long fell by the wayside.

And as if you needed one more reason to not support Sony's standards-autocracy plans there's wireless USB. Wireless USB is going through standardization right now. But all of the sudden Sony smells blood and launches their own version, TransferJet. Coincidence? I think not! Fight the powah!