Thousands Petition to Save HD-DVD Format

By Filip Brajovic | January 23rd, 2008

It seemed like all the guns had come out already in the high definition format war, but there is a new development: almost 20,000 people believe a vapid online petition is going to save the HD-DVD format they bought into from becoming extinct.

On PetitionOnline.com, Tudor Cacenco rallies for the support of “High Def movie fans” in his petition:

Dear High Def movie fans, I’m starting this petition in order to support HD-DVD and hopefully save it, and to show Warner Brothers that the consumer has not “clearly” chosen Blu-Ray. Warner Brothers switched to Blu-Ray exclusive claiming that its the best thing for the consumer, but how about all the consumers that bought HD-DVD movies and hardware for the holidays, or all the loyal HD-DVD fans like myself that own Warner HD-DVDs? Warner just screwed them all.

Cacenco makes a very noble effort to fight for the consumer in the mostly corporate format war, but there is a critical underlying problem: petitions don’t make money. Ultimately, the format war is going to come down to who can make the most money, stay in the game and stay on top of the game. While 20,000 people is not a completely insignificant figure, it’s also not an astoundingly large one or one that Warner is likely to care about.

For those 20,000, most are likely to be people who bought an HD-DVD player before Warner’s Blu-Ray exclusivity announcement and don’t want to be starved of movie selection or be doomed to make use of their HD-DVD players as retractable cup holders. Blu-Ray proponents such as Warner and Sony know they are going to make more money off the same consumers selling them Blu-Ray discs and players if HD-DVD gets phased out, so taking any action over a petition to revive HD-DVD is slim to none. The petition is simply the result of unaware consumers eagerly grappling for new technology at a time when the to-be standard was a complete coin toss.

From overseas, Blu-Ray is mangling its HD-DVD competition in Japan. Over a three month period, Blu-Ray hauled in a massive 90 percent of next-generation DVD recorder sales. Toshiba, the main
player on the HD-DVD squad, got beaten up and had its lunch money stolen, taking home only four percent of sales while Blu-Ray mogul Sony smirked home with a huge sixty percent of sales. The remainder of sales was split amongst a few lesser Blu-Ray companies.

Now, many HD-DVD consumers probably wish they would have practiced the seldom used tactic of waiting for technology to establish itself. Apart from the threat of HD-DVD’s phase out, recent, massive price cuts on HD-DVD players from Toshiba and “free Blu-Ray player” incentives from Best Buy and Sony could have saved a buyer hundreds of dollars on an HD player. Not even iPhone prices dropped that fast.

As it’s playing out, the format war is not only threatening corporate casualties, but is also raking up some irate consumers that stand right on the firing line of being completely ripped off. Expect petitions like Cacenco’s to grow; don’t expect them to bring about change.