The End of My HD Content?

February 11th, 2008

I’ve been happily using my 360 HD DVD add-on since last Christmas when my parents gave it to me as a Christmas present. Shortly thereafter, I signed up for a Netflix free trial to rent some HD content and have been using it since. I’ve gone through, for the most part, all the worthwhile HD DVD movies. Now, I’ve been catching up on some films that I haven’t seen but had heard good things about them.

I checked my email a few minutes ago to find out that Netflix is moving to Blu-Ray exclusively. I have to say I’m a little disappointed, but I figured it was coming at some point. The price of being an early-adopter I suppose. Here’s what the email said:

We’re Going Blu-ray

Dear Brian,

You’re receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don’t worry, we will contact you before this happens.

PlayStation Related News

April 19th, 2007

Not too long ago word came out that Sony was cutting off the 20GB version of the PlayStation 3 in North America. Then we heard that the 20GB was still going to be available in Japan. And now we’re hearing news about Sony considering an 80GB model. From what I’ve heard, the 20GB was available at launch to provide a choice for the consumer. Since most consumers are opting for the 60Gb model, Sony is apparently deciding to no longer off us consumers that “choice” that we had a launch.

News Roundup

April 3rd, 2007

I’ve had some of these articles bookmarked for a little while and have been meaning to post about them. Rather than dedicate a lengthy post to each, I’m just going to provide you with some linkage, because…. well, who doesn’t like linkage? Just don’t forget to open these in new tabs so you don’t have to push that pesky back button a number of times.

Xbox 360 Elite official! 120GB hard drive, black design instead of white. (Cool, but I like my Core + 20GB hard drive)

Microsoft is also making some enhancements to the Xbox warranty and service
.

EMI announced recently that they will be dropping DRM from their music library. Apple will support the change with a premium for these new DRM-free songs.

More than 143 million mobile phones were shipped in the U.S. last year“. That’s a lot of cell phones.

SIRIUS will be a standard in Lincoln vehicles.

The EU is looking to energy efficient lighting, similar to Australia.

Blu-ray to be revised; adding Java layer.

Luminous Fabric from fiber optics.

Quite a bit of reading to do, but I have faith in you. I know, its not the greatest thing to just link to the articles and not provide any thought provoking statements and opinions but I’ve got a computer graphics test tomorrow that I really need to study for. Plus, you’re probably just going to read the title of the link on this page and forget it. Its a shame, but its probably true.