There's a war going on people!!

Saw an interesting little article today, Michael Bay (he off the very loud and not particularly good films) will not be making Transformers 2!! I'm still weeping now.

Now that fact that he won't be making Transformers 2 has nothing to do with him suddenly realising he made a right mess of Transformers 1, but more to do with Paramount and DreamWorks deciding to pop there arse completely over the fence, majestically landing on the side of HD-DVD. This has upset Mickey as his Magnum Opus (which sounds a bit like the Autobot they keep in the loft and don't like to talk about) will not be hitting Blu-Ray this Chrimmy. I hate to disappoint him but his little movie hit the Usenet servers roughly 3.5 minutes after its first screening.

This got me thinking. I have a dusty PS3 and a radiator I like to call a 360; Blu-Ray in one, HD-DVD in the other. This decision shouldn't worry me, as I have both systems and have no intention to buy Transformers on either format no matter how detailed it may be, but for some reason it does.

I'm beginning to feel that I have bought into the war, I have bought new format discs, I have supported both sides. I can no longer claim to be a conscientious objector, but that’s what I feel I should be.

For a while I have been converting my legally purchased DVD's into AVI files, storing them on a rather large hard drive and streaming them to the telly via XBMC on my old brick. Alternatively I have been downloading the films that I already own to save me the bother, in 15 minutes. You heard me correctly a good quality AVI in 15 minutes, perfectly watchable and in some cases my old eyes couldn't tell you the difference between the AVI and the DVD (even when up scaled). A library of films, all available at press of a button, a button even the Doris and kids can use!! Those shelves, the ones over there, see them, the ones that were groaning under the weight of all the DVD’s we own. Nope no more, they are all in the loft now, those are empty shelves, nice aren’t they. We live in a digital age, a world spinning to the sound of 0 and 1’s, so why are we arguing about a disc format? Why am I bothering buying any disc format? Where are my downloadable movies? In HD? With DTS sound (I have no need for 7 speakers)?

Sony, Microsoft UK (yes we know the sceptics already have this) I'm looking at you. Whichever one of you can get me my downloads, at a reasonable price, will win my business. Whichever one of you manages to get over yourselves and utilises your multi-media systems for multi-media rather than some crippled, DRM-infected file type, gets my sheckles. Do you want my sheckles?

Stop trying to get me to don my cammo gear and camp out for you in this war you seem to want to perpetuate, I'm sticking a flower in my hair and shouting peace man. We ain't gonna wait for you guys forever; there are ways and means, free love.

NS oot