Welcome To Blu-Ray - or - Being Cutting Edge Also Means Cutting Into a Couple Of People

Sony Blu-Ray officially won the Next Gen HD format war when Toshiba's HD DVD threw in the towel.

Surrender also means Region Coding up the wazoo

None of this is news to those of you who've been following the fight. Still, there actually are some people out there - much to my amazement - who don't know what either of those disk formats are or what they mean, and I'm glad I'm not that old yet to be so effin' ignint.

Squish decided to celebrate Sony's victory by investing in this next generation format to complement his HD TV. With the Sony Playstation 3 doubling as a Blu-Ray disk player, as well as being one hell of a wicked gaming system, I thought I'd toss in my $500 and get me one of them high end 80 Gig ones.

I couldn't hold out for the PS500 Zeta

Let me begin my bitch session by saying that PS3, a system compatible with HD, doesn't come with the HD cables standard, which I find totally lame. I went and bought the $20 HDMI cable that makes your viewing experience godlike, so a minor inconvenience. The rant begins mildly.

As my rage intensifies, we come to Squish's desire in renting a Blu-Ray disk.

My local, favorite ever place, Invisible Cinema just plain old doesn't offer Blu-Ray. Sucks for me.

Before I boycotted Blockbuster for being stupid and always leaving the stench of corporate evil on my clothes, I used to rent from them. I don't anymore, but just for kicks I asked them what their Blu-Ray rental policy was:

Currently a Blu-Ray Disk rental from Blockbuster is $6.39, one dollar more than a regular new release.

Might I add their selection is 1/2 a shelf - pathetic. Then there's their competition, the far better Rogers Video. Though they have even LESS selection, their deal:

Currently a Blu-Ray Disk Rental from Rogers is $5.49, one dollar more than a regular new release, but it's an extra dollar every additional day that it's not returned.

Thank you librarian lady!

I used to borrow films from my local library, and although they offer mostly classics, documentaries, Canadian content and educational stuff, they do have all kinds of film. I gave them a call asking if they ever planned on carrying Blu-Ray, especially since IMAX and Discovery Atlas have High-Definition content. The library's response:

"That's a really good question! We don't have any now but let me ask and get back to you."

So, I guess no one's ever asked them about Blu-Ray yet... Squish: makin' waves at the library...

Which takes me to my regular go-to 'what I usually do' rental place, Zip.ca, the online service equivalent to America's Netflix. Their deal:

All Blu-Ray titles are rentable like any other DVD, at no extra charge.

Add to this that they have the biggest selection of them all, with a currently advertised 539 titles and you'd think I'd be satisfied, yet somehow I'm not. Even with lots of titles, Zip.ca somehow seems to take longer to deliver a Blu-Ray disk to me than a regular one, and their list, for as long as it is, is completely disorganized. It's not alphabetical nor is it chronological by the film's release date. When asked about why their list is such a clusterfuck, they have officially replied 'we'll get around to it'.

The moral of the lesson kiddies? I've officially concluded that I'm the one asking for too much too early. Sometimes it doesn't pay being one of the first.

Either way, all my hard work is being passed down to you, so appreciate it, damnit. Thank God for PS3 games and the system's upsampling of regular DVDs.

Before I sign off, let me add the biggest most important gripe I've got: I want more classics available to me on Blu-Ray, because seriously, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and Spiderman? Really, really not my bag.