The HD DVD event at PJ Hi Fi was wonderful. I used to moderate a major forum some years ago, and consequently am no stranger to being wooed, and indeed manipulated by eager executives from studios and manufacturers. Such past experience has taught me to know when I am being played by these people, but I can honestly say that I could not have felt more comfortable with the way stories and opinions were presented to us this evening. I am incredibly grateful to Amir and Kevin from Microsoft for their sincere and candid nature which allowed us to voice our own questions, opinions and concerns freely both during the presentation, and afterwards as we all dined on the assorted nibbles set out thanks to the expert hospitality of all at PJ Hi-Fi. The evening (which was made up of two presentations. One for a 4pm crowd, and another repeated for a 7pm audience) seemed to be a big success.

Now, obviously, there is little I am allowed to divulge. I will say that the history of the format war as revealed from the point of view of Microsoft could not leave you any more repulsed by corporate mentality and internal politics, all of which has lead to the sorry situation we`re stuck in now with multiple formats and, multiple video codecs and so forth. ‘Keep it Simple` would have been in his element hearing all this, shouting “I [censored] told you bozos!” ( smile ), though little was presented as being entirely the fault of Sony. It was not a Sony bashing seminar by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, we`re really at the mercy of a whole host of greedy decision makers here.

Seeing a glimpse of what can be achieved with these formats in the home this evening was a thrill, especially for those of us who aspire to one day reach levels of film presentations under our own roofs that the likes of Mark are already enjoying. It is astonishing that this level of quality is available to us. I have never, in all my life, seen a consumer format that it such an honest representation of the filmed image.

We watched clips from a number of titles this evening, a highlight of which for me was Casablanca, boasting an image so glorious I practically wept having never seen it look this good, this detailed, in my lifetime. What I find particularly astounding about the VC1 codec, aside from its dynamic toolset, is just how analogue it looks. Via the Qualia 004 projector, whilst these were images that can still be rivalled by the best 35mm show prints a handful are fortunate enough to see for major films in select cities, I`ve never seen a digital codec deliver such a rich analogue film like quality.

I remain concerned for HD DVD as it goes into 2007, worrying that it will fail to maintain its momentum against a potentially bloated catalogue of exclusives Bluray might unleash onto the world. There were certainly some things we learnt tonight that suggested even that may not even ensure smooth sailing for HD DVDs competitor, but whether that`s true or not remains to be seen. There`s no denying those backing HD DVD are unrivalled in their sincere passion for wanting to deliver a wonderful product, and one that has pretty much consistently delivered quality from the outset, in great part to the wonderful VC1 codec and its encoder. On these grounds alone, it remains difficult not to want to stand up for this little engine that could and wish it the great success that I believe - now more than ever - it so richly deserves. And that`s really the point. You can`t tout HD DVD on the basis alone that it can be perceived as “the little guy` in this shameful format battle, but you can tout it for delivering on the level of quality control that we expect of HD optical media.

I can think of a number of occasions where Bluray has made its success out to be inevitable, and many of us at one time or another might have perceived them to make salient points, though we did so assuming they could deliver. Consequently, so far, each time Bluray has made bold claims be it at CES in January of this year, then the actual launch of the format in May, then the launch of the PS3, HD DVD has gone from strength to strength. Now, with CES 2007 looming, they`re at it again, claiming now will be the time of Bluray. We can but wait and see.