Is Crap Still Crap if it is Free?

Some of you know that I have jumped on the HD-DVD fire sales. I currently own 3 HD-DVD players – 2 Xbox 360 add-on drives and 1 Toshiba A30. Since the demise of HD-DVD, my collection has ballooned to 5 times its original size and it’s sitting at close to 35 titles and growing. The problem I run into is that they are pricing these HD-DVDs at close to $8 used and $13 new. At these prices, it’s so close to rental costs that it makes more sense to own them. I run into a problem with titles such as Shrek the Third. That movie received universally low scores and did not fair very well general audiences. I have seen it and I thought there were moments but certainly not a worthy title to own in ones collection. But at a price of $8 used (and in mint condition – I wonder why!) it’s almost a shame to leave it behind.

So I bought this piece of crap for the sake of it being a cheap.

The other thing that has been bothering me is with most of my consoles modded (PS3 is the only one still virgin), I have access to a whole catalog of crap that I would not have considered if my console was still virgin. The Wii is a prime example of this, where there are 8 crap-tacular games for every one good title. I have recently come across the game Elebits. That game was an average 7.5 score and was mediocre at best. But I was always interested in it so I decided to pick it off of my site. Once booted and I began to play, I realized that this would have been fun if I was 12 years old or if I had never played a video game before. The Xbox 360 also has its share of crap-tacular titles. I was playing Kane and Lynch the other day and was that ever a stinker.

I guess the point is when you have the ability to get free crap, most people that are predisposed to deals, will jump on it. I can personally list a few friends and family that have boxes full of crap because it was a good deal. In keeping with my “green” theme, I think I will save some “green” money and be more selective on my “purchases” from now on. Because even if I have access to these titles of my modded consoles, it is still costing me time, effort, and the price of media to play a piece of crap.

HD Fallout

I'm not one to be an early adopter. Sure, I'm usually the first of my friends to get the latest tech but I don't pre-order my bleeding edge video cards or the iphone. The only real early failures that my family has ever purchased was a Laserdisc player. But even then it lasted a good 4 years of use (since all orientals love to karaoke). That is why this current Warner Bros. announcement at CES this year really rocked my world. My name is Moe and I bought HD-DVDs. I fell for the superior specs and linux-like open source mentality and complete forgot that no major studio ever got to be a major studio by being open sourced. Hardware, yes. Software, no. Google maybe the only real exception to that but that's for another day. I didn't buy that many HD-DVDs, unlike some others around the Net. But I did have a fair share and certainly replaced some of my more loved classics on HD-DVD if I could. I was lucky to find a local buyer that was still interested in my player's up-converting capabilities and bought my set and movies for a decent price. However, this whole experience has taught me that nothing in tech is ever a sure thing, and in most cases, you are more likely to get struck by lightning than winning as an early adopter. Take a look at the Plasma VS. LCD battle. That's not even a format but everyone saw Plasma as a dying technology and segment for the personal home use but in 2007, there has been a resurgence AND Panasonic is now expecting to ship twice as many panels as they did in 2007 for this coming year. I'm going to stick to my guns and only purchase the cheaper DVD format (and used at that!) and spend $100 on an up-conversion player that won't take 30 seconds to boot up. For the exclusives such as Disney/Pixar films, that will be Blu-Ray. It was a great format on paper and in reality, but like the electric car, I think HD-DVD just didn't have a chance in the real world.