Well I guess Netflix was just really bored and wanted to stir the pot a little. They announced that they would be discontinuing user profiles, a very handy feature on their current system. Now all picks will go into a single queue. I know that this feature was the sole reason Scott and myself used Netflix when we lived together (in a totally straight way). It just seems completely pointless to eliminate a feature that is already optional.

I personally stopped my Netflix account after having a copy of Terminator 2 on bluray on my tv stand for probably 4 months but their current customers are sounding off in a fury. Way to go Netflix. Viva Apple TV!

[buzzFeed]

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft officially killed off their XBox 360 HD DVD add-on. The only reason I bring this to your attention is because the thing is still a great upscaling DVD player if you’ve got a 360, regardless of the fate of HD DVD. They dropped the price to $119 recently but now that these players are irrelevant, retailers will probably be giving them away soon.

I’ve always heard rumors that using your video game system as a DVD player can wear it down and shorten its life-span, and considering the XBox 360’s 16% failure rate, no one needs to speed up that process. Plus with this thing connected to your 360, you’re not taking up an extra input on your TV or receiver.

It comes with a sweet remote control, it makes DVDs look awesome and you’ll probably be able to find some HD DVDs in bargain bins across the land. Of course if you have a Playstation 3, you have no use for this, and I hate you.

[Engadget]

You may be sick of our posts about this HD format war, but there’s good news if you are. This will be the last one.

Toshiba announced today their plans to cease all HD DVD hardware production by March, leaving Blu-ray the victor. There had been rumors flying for a while about this announcement and they were all right. The part that a lot of people got wrong was the assertion that Toshiba would begin manufacturing Blu-ray players. During a Q&A session after their press release, they formally said that they had no plans of entering the Blu-ray business. Although just yesterday they said they still hadn’t made up their minds about HD DVD, so obviously what they say and what they’re planning are two very different things.

So that’s it. If you’ve been on the fence waiting to enter the HD disc market, you can now purchase without fear. Just make sure you study up on Blu-ray players because they are not all created equal. In fact, that sounds like a good Dumbass’s Guide to replace our now-defunct Format War one.

Follow the link for the full press release from Toshiba. I’m going to go cry in the bathroom now.

[Engadget]

People who frequent message boards and blog comments crack me up. If you were to read some of the comments on posts about the HD format war, you’d think it was bigger and more important than Iraq. People defend their format of choice so jealously that they’ll get into ridiculous spats, call each other names, call each other’s mothers names, etc. Then there are the people in the middle; the fence-sitters. They’ll say things like, “AHH I can’t WAIT for this war to be OVER!” and “This has gone on long enough. Can we please just call one a winner so that I can start spending all my money?!” Ok that was an exaggeration, but that’s what they might as well be saying. Seriously though, let’s step back for a second and analyze this. (more…)

Wal-Mart announced today that it plans to phase out HD DVD products completely by June. Seriously, it’s like salt in a wound. I would love for this format war to be called by someone official so that I can stop reading about it and hoping that HD DVD drops a nuke on Blu-ray. Engadget has already called it and supposedly Toshiba is on its way. It’s probably a matter of hours before there’s a press release. Then maybe I’ll start searching for a backwards-compatible PS3 on eBay.

[Hi-Def Digest]

If you haven’t been following the HD format war very closely, you might have missed Michael Bay’s newsworthy blog post late last year. In it, the Pearl Harbor director expressed his disappointment that Paramount, distributor of his latest blockbuster cheese-fest Transformers, had chosen to exclusively support HD DVD. He whined about how he felt that Blu-ray was superior and that he wouldn’t make Transformers 2 if Paramount continued to back the opposing format. A few days later, possibly after sobering up, he quickly recanted his statements, saying he’d be happy to make shit-loads more money do Transformers 2 but he was still disappointed in Paramount’s decision.

Fast-forward beyond all the recent defections from HD DVD, and we get to hear from Mr. Bay about just how right he was: (more…)

As I posted earlier, Netflix has decided to go Blu-ray exclusive. As far as I’m concerned, that’s fine. Then I got their e-mail regarding the switch.

The part that gets me is the “In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles…we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.” Yes, because taking things away provides more of a selection.

Our Dumbass’s Guide to the HD Format War is becoming more and more obsolete as the weeks pass. The latest bit of news comes from Reuters. It seems as though Netflix has chosen to support Blu-ray discs exclusively and phase out their HD DVD collection by the end of this year. Sucks for me since I’ve got the XBox 360 HD DVD player and I can’t afford a PS3. Plus I hate Sony for taking away backwards compatibility for PS2 games, but that’s another post altogether.

(Picture courtesy of Gizmodo. Ok I stole it…)

[Reuters via Gizmodo]

Apple has always had a stranglehold on the music industry with their iTunes Store. Their latest target: Hollywood. They upped the ante at this year’s Macworld conference when they introduced movie rentals through the iTunes Store. Users can now rent from a growing collection of movies from all of the major studios on their computers and transfer them to their iPod or iPhone. That alone is pretty cool, but what really makes this a huge deal is Apple’s often overlooked Apple TV and its ability to rent many of those movies in HD. (more…)

The Consumer Electronics Show ended on January 10th after four long days of companies climbing over each other to show off their latest and greatest innovations. As you can see by checking out a site like Engadget or Gizmodo, the sheer amount of crap that is shown off is nothing short of overwhelming so it’s difficult for a non-nerd to sift through and find things to really look forward to. That’s where we come in. We’re just nerdy enough to check out all the coverage, but just normal enough to spot the things that will really have an impact on our lives (and wallets) in the coming year. (more…)