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2008: The year of mudslinging

This week is exciting for two reasons: the upcoming Iowa caucuses and CES. This whole year seems to be dedicated to politicians battling it out for the most desirable address, spokesmen battling it out over high-def media, and fanboys battling each other because … well, I don’t know why they battle.

It seems as if the mudslinging has already started. Mike Dunn of Fox has been quoted by Home Media Magazine as saying, “Some of the blowout pricing seen by the other format appears to have been counterproductive, as software sales showed no dramatic increase.” With a bit more teeth he added, “Blu-ray is ‘future proof’ technology with the capacity to grow and evolve, rather than the one that faces near-term obsolescence.”

Craig Kornblau from Universal Studios must not have got the “mudslinging” memo as he said, “The HD DVD companies continue to stand behind our value proposition, which offers consumers a compelling and consistent high-def experience at the most affordable price.”

Meanwhile, New Line and parent company Warner Brothers have nearly identical points. Steve Einhorn of New Line claimed, “Dueling formats have restrained our ability to launch large-scale, industry wide marketing initiatives” and Warner’s Ron Sanders said, “Unfortunately, the dueling formats created an information logjam in what should have been our conversation with consumers.”

Hmm, perhaps it’s only Fox doing the mudslinging. I’m sure Hillary can get in on that. However, Warner’s position does seem a little different than it has previously been. They’ve been very vocal about how both formats are great and now they seem a little put off by the war. If I was paying close attention, it seems a lot like the way Paramount was speaking weeks before they dropped Blu-ray. I don’t want to make any claims or add anything to any rumors, just making an observation.

Twas the week before Xmas

One week until Christmas, so what’s going on in the World of Format War?

Best Buy is currently running a BOGO that includes the HD DVD version of Bourne Ultimatum and Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. This is the first time new release titles have made it into one of these sales.

The Playstation 3 receives firmware update 2.10 adding Blu-ray 1.1 compatibility. This adds PiP functionality which is being brought out in upcoming releases from Lions Gate, Sony and Fox.

Fanboys are being fanboys.

Michael Bay at it again

Of all the unlikely news-makers in the “format war,” Michael Bay sure nows how to stir the pot. Months back when Paramount and Dreamworks announced they were going HD DVD exclusive, Bay posted on his website that he thought the decision “sucked” and even questioned making Transformers 2 because of it. He retracted the first comment and said he was angry and posted after having a few drinks.

Now he has posted again saying, “Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about.” This rumor isn’t new to the format war observers, it has been made before. He goes on to say, “Microsoft is handing out $100 million dollar checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu Ray [sic]. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth.”

I don’t imagine the post will stay up much longer - just like the first post was taken down. Bay seems to want to connect to his fans, but he really ought to let his publicists post for him. And then maybe he should just stop posting drunk.

Armistice Day

Today is Armistice Day, the day set aside to commemorate the end of The War to End All Wars. While there are certainly wars ravaging all across the world, for some reason I’m caught up in the middle of the most trivial of all wars, the high-def format war. It’s not really a war at all, it’s more like two-year-olds arguing over the same toy. “Mine,” they say with that whiny voice while huffing with an air of disgust and fury.

Not a war at all. For surely there would be no war if it weren’t for the media’s inherent ability to sensationalize everything. Without the “format war” there would have been a year of “slow news days” or the poor “journalists” would have to fabricate some other random controversy to generate web clicks.

Here in the States we’ve changed Armistice Day into “Veterans Day” - and in the British Commonwealths to “Remembrance Day” - after World War II (The Great War). Apparently the entire western world was naive for the first half of the 20th Century thinking one war was going to be the last ever. It would be just as naive to think this high-def war would be the last format war as well. Certainly we would hope the mega-corporations would have enough sense to avoid another one, but egos always get the better of the two sides and it’s inevitable. This is how shooting wars start after all, two sides can’t agree on something so they start killing each other. Yes, it’s obviously the most ridiculous concept ever devised by humans, but it sure is good for the economy! (I say this in jest obviously.)

I may just be the only person watching this war who is jaded (I sure hope not), but I’m over the whole affair. It appears some in the industry are also growing weary. Sony’s Howard Stringer appeared to be tiring of the canard. Reflecting back to before he was CEO he declared that he wishes he would have stuck to the negotiations and unified the two formats. He blamed egos for the quagmire we’re in (isn’t it always one ego trying to prove something to the world?).

You may have noticed I haven’t posted last week. It was not because I was enjoying my amaretto sours while I wasted away at home, or because I am sick of the “format war.” It was because I was away on vacation. I was in Las Vegas where I had neither fun nor relaxation. I am back now and I will be writing more articles for your education or enjoyment. I will be enjoying an amaretto sour, however.

A little rationality is in order

I’ve been thinking about the whole format “war” thing and I’ve come to a conclusion: It seems like the only rational discussions concerning the formats is taking place in the Warner Bros. boardrooms.

By the way the HD DVD fans have been talking on the message boards across the internet about this pre-Black Friday sale at Wal-Mart, you would think Sony had thrown in the towel … along with the other 170 other companies that support Blu-ray. Yeah, a one-day sale of a discontinued player single-handedly ends a format war with staunch lines drawn on both sides. Pretty ridiculous.

And there are reports of Blu-ray fans picketing outside Wal-Mart claiming supporting HD DVD is supporting terrorism. That’s right, buying an optical media format kills children all across the world!

Can we get some rational discussion about this? I wish I had a TARDIS so I could go back to 1994 and hog-tie Al Gore to prevent the “interweb” tubes from getting clogged by base blabber from fanboys.

Face it, Time Warner is having trouble getting advertisers for high-def networks because there aren’t enough subscribers. People with HDTVs don’t care about high-def. This is the problem, isn’t it? The “digital revolution” has brought us a culture that doesn’t care about quality. MP3 has taken a format that is already someone flawed (CD) and made it markedly worse, yet the iPod has made it acceptable. Surround sound systems are frequently set up so the front and rear speakers are sitting next to each other. Standard-def TV is displayed on HDTVs and that’s worse than DVDs. Two-thirds of HDTV owners think DVD is high-def.

My point? The HD DVD side is looking for commodity priced players. The problem is when a customer goes to the store they don’t want to think about formats, they want to think about which movie to buy. HD DVD isn’t a commodity product. Blu-ray thinks they can force the format on the market, but over 60% of PS3 users could care less about Blu-ray.

Both formats are niche products!

So can we have rational discussion about the merits of both formats? Can we talk about the market in a way that analyzes the moves of the companies and the impact it might have on the way we enjoy our movies? Can we talk about anything without hyperbole and pedantic arguments?

I would rather argue about poverty, politics, religion, art, literature … you know, stuff that actually matters.

Blu-ray laser in your pocket?
Neko Advanced Technologies recently posted the following promotional video for their new “Blu-ray” professional laser, the NT-L-118 V-SERIES.

[gv data=”http://www.youtube.com/v/OQRkGG33st4″][/gv]

According to the video, the pocket sized laser device features a “Blu-ray” 405.5 nm high output diode. The laser is 5 3/8” X 9/16” and is powered by two AAA batteries.

Blu-ray laser or just blue / violet?

While this is certainly a “cool device”, it technically has nothing to do with “Blu-ray”, the optical storage format developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA). It does use a blue laser diode, which may or may not be similar to the diodes used in real Blu-ray Disc devices. Nonetheless, if you want an extremely powerful and really cool violet/purple laser, you can snatch one of these up on ebay now for $349.99.

Black Friday is alleged to be the busiest shopping day of the year. What and when is Black Friday? Black Friday occurs immediately after Thanksgiving day. On this day, stores will offer discounts, deals and doorbuster sales that cannot be found at any other time of the year. To get the most out of Black Friday, read this reference guide, which contains links to many valuable Black Friday resources.

Black Friday Buying guide: http://dealspl.us/Black-Friday
Free After Rebate items: http://www.dealigg.com/bffree.php
Black Friday Deals guide: http://tinyurl.com/ylgsas
Consumer Reports offers Holiday shopping tips: http://tinyurl.com/yz6ehg
Black Friday free items (no purchase required): http://tinyurl.com/y9k7qh
Black Friday tips and tricks: http://tinyurl.com/wgz9t

And here are some other really good “hot deals” discussion websites:
http://Slickdeals.net
http://Fatwallet.com

If you have your own tips, tricks or online resources related to Black Friday shopping, we would love to hear them. Post a comment below with your info!