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Utterly astonishing. Unless I've been missing something, I have seen no marketing of HD HVD or BD to the general public. What were they expecting
I think the HD DVD group had $150m marketing budget ready to start spending this winter, but the disastrous chip fault in their second generation players that has delayed their release on both sides of the Atlantic this side of Christmas seems to have put a halt on advertising. What would be the point if they`ve got nothing in quantity to sell? Bluray set ups can be found over here in the odd Comet or John Lewis branch, but again, they`ve got diode shortage problems and so on so quantity is low and hardly worth advertising to the mainstream yet. I`m deeply disappointed actually, as I was foolish enough to think both sides would get their arse in gear and really get serious this winter. At the moment the format war is more boring than I can ever remember it being.

I`m going to a little event at PJ-Hi Fi in Guildford at 4pm on the 20th. Amir Majidimehr is coming over from Microsoft in the US to do a two hour on and off the record discussion about HD DVD and the format war. I`m looking forward to that. Tickets are still available for the 4pm session on the PJ-Hi Fi website (7pm is sold out).

I`ve great respect for those buying either, or both, formats right now. Those buying now will hopefully steer us toward a winning format in good time. I stopped buying DVD ages ago but ideally I am not ready to buy into either HD format until we`ve a better sense of the outcome. I hate the prospect of dual format players and I don`t want an array of titles on my shelf, some of which might be for a dead format. It just baffles me how studios and manufacturers could be so arrogant as to let this outcome happen.

I`m just repulsed by the way backers of either formats talk about this situation. Fox are perhaps one of the most disgraceful with boasts and arrogance aplenty with regards to their Bluray support. These companies are dictating what consumers should buy, and I hate that. I`d rather they all saw sense, discarded their agendas, published on both and let the public decide. That would be the decent thing, but I am no longer sure that decent is in the vocabulary of those involved with either format.

I still don`t agree with the “it`s DVD-A and SACD” analogy, at least not to a significant deegree. Whilst yes we`re probably in a similar situation where the general consumer considers DVD ‘good enough` as they did CD, it can`t be denied that HD and HDTV are buzzwords ever escaping into public consciousness. It`s taken an age to bring HD to the UK, but this year you`ve not be able to escape it. I genuinely believe the market IS there for a single HD format but, and this is the greatest similarity to DVD-A and SACD, because we`re lumbered with two formats, people are confused, many can`t afford and/or justify buying both, so the majority decide not to buy either at all.

I like Bluray`s spec on paper, but I hate the way its backers have decided to take such a lacklustre approach in publishing on the format. As the premium priced format, it ought be exploited as the superior format its specification allows it to be, but we`re not seeing that. Everyone on the HD DVD side really seems to be trying their hardest to make their discs as good as possible and I can`t help but admire that.