HD-DVD and the case for unlocking your media

The HD format war is over.HD-DVD has lost, and lost big. Lost in all the buzz about Blu-Ray's victory is the question of what becomes of those who purchased HD-DVDs. Short term, those people's lives haven't really changed. What happens though, a year from now when their HD-DVD player stops working? Some people have collected fairly large collections of HD-DVD movies. This is content that they have paid for, and content that is, unfortunately, locked to the disc.

In the audio world, it's easy to rip a CD, and have those files in a digital format. The same cannot be said for HD DVD, or Blu Ray. Here's a situation in which honest, law-abiding consumers have a legitimate reason to want to move the content from the original delivery medium. Let's not lose sight that that's what we're talking about here: media tied to a delivery medium, rather than a purchase. 

This is the first significant digital format to go belly-up. And while Blu Ray supporters are high- fiving each other victoriously, don't forget your format could be next.

But then again, maybe this is much ado about nothing. Perhaps this discussion will look quaint in five years. One would think once movies are delivered primarily online, the ability to play them would last as long as there are computers. What do you think? Should HD DVD movie buyers be able to convert those films to another format? Is this a problem that will go away in time? Should the studios be able to lock content to a particular delivery method?