Netflix just pounded another nail into HD DVD’s coffin. Here’s hoping it’s the final nail. This nonsense needs to end.
I have both a PlayStation 3 (which plays Blu-ray disks) and an Xbox 360 with the HD DVD addon drive, so I’ve been sampling both formats for a while now. It seems like the HD DVD camp wasn’t even trying. Even the biggest HD DVD releases seem like they were shoved carelessly out the door, much like those horrible first-gen DVD titles I remember watching back in the late 90’s.
I can’t actually think of a single HD DVD title I’ve rented or bought that didn’t use a hideous default menu template with generic music and a rotating studio logo, whereas most of the Blu-ray titles I’ve watched (even the ones that were released in both formats) had the well-designed custom menus I’ve come to expect from quality releases.
It also doesn’t help that some of the more recent HD DVD releases are “Web enabled”, which just means they’ll lock up your player for 10 minutes (or sometimes crash it entirely) in order to download “exciting Web-enabled content” before allowing you to watch the movie.