I agree with George.

Mark,
Go back in time to SACD and DVD-A- I think it was the same thing: fledgling new formats, new players coming out, even great legacy titles like DSOTM- is there a HD title on that level out yet? Do you remember the rave reviews of the Sony 2 channel SACD player, even for playing back CDs? Sounds an awful lot like the rave reviews on the HD DVD players playback of regular DVDs...

As to the companies rolling out a few players and some titles, well isnt that the same thing as with SACD and DVD-A? And while the companies are still making players that can play these formats, we still regard these formats as marginal at best. I am sure there is a lot of internal debate within these companies on whether to even participate in these new formats. If I were in charge of one of these CE companies, Id hedge my bets by putting out a player or two, but I would not be putting this new format into everything and I would also, if I owned a movie catalog, not put out the "Crown Jewels" in that catalog, but rather some of the medium demand catalog titles as well as some new releases. So far this is what has happened, and its also what happened when DVD was new. Those titles that we all care about so much, as a rule, did not come out until the format was showing it had legs. Its still too early for the people who make the decisions to rule these formats a success or a failure, but I suspect they have a good idea of where the formats are going. As you know my opinion is it does not look good.

HD will survive, of course. But will a HD disc based format survive? I think no. The time has come and past for that and now the mass market is warming up to the concept of downloading. I suspect history will look back at these disc based formats as another example of the "generals fighting the last war" and the contribution from that war will be technical specs like VC-1 and H.264 and hopefully MLP.

Btw- its a one page in The Absolute Sound, but its enjoyable reading so I suggest everyone pick up a copy. smile

best regards,
Jerry

Best regards,
Jerry
Main System: 861v6, DSP8000s in corners, DSP7000s Center and Sides, 1-9 humans.