With Warner announcing that they will be moving from title releases on both high definition formats to [eventually] just Blu-Ray, you have to imagine that the HD DVD camp feels a little defeated.
And when I went by their booth here at CES, they sure looked that way. I strolled up to the booth late afternoon and my first impression before I spoke to anyone was, "wow, you look like you need a drink." I'm sure that every journalist that hit the South Hall show floor on Monday made a beeline over to their booth to question every representative about the announcements, but when I got there I just hung back for a moment. I gathered my thoughts and questions and then headed over to the booth.
I could tell that the guy I was heading toward at the booth caught a glimpse of my badge before I was in earshot as his smile started to fade away. When I finally reached him [foot is still a bit gimpy so I don't move too fast yet] after a short introduction I made my first statement: I'm not going to ask that question. the look of stunned amazement and then relief that came over his face was priceless. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I thought better of it. Besides I'm lazy.
Anyways, when he realized I was serious, a smile returned to his face and he began his spiel on HD-DVD. He was well informed about the product he was representing, and honestly believed that HD-DVD had a viable future, and I was happy to let him believe that. Who am I to tell him Santa isn't real and the Easter Bunny is a lie made up by candy companies? Nobody, that's who. I mean I had a lot of questions around the eminent demise of HD-DVD? Questions like, "now that nearly 70 percent of all feature length film studio work as well as television content will be moving to Blu-Ray exclusively, how do you [the HD DVD camp] plan to revitalize your format in hopes of staying alive? How long do you think the HD DVD format will survive if other content providers jump ship? Which in hindsight would have been a great question to ask as the new rumor about Paramount jumping to the Blu-Ray only ship swirls 'round the interweb.
But one of those thoughts that I gathered as I was walking up to the guy was this guy looks like he needs a stiff drink desperately. And while I couldn't give him a drink, I could give him a break. He's got three more days of dealing with awkward question, oppressive journalists looking for sound-bytes, and a never ending swarm of people looking to get free movie discs before they disappear forever. The least I can do is give this guy a break for 30 minutes and let him give the speech that he's rehearsed umpteen million times before getting to Vegas. So that's what I did.
At the end of the tour, I looked him dead in the eye, thanked him for his time and the information. I gave him my card, and went on my merry way. Good deed for the day done. But in case you missed it, HD-DVD = Dead. Especially if Paramount goes exclusive to Blu-Ray. It would leave Toshiba and Universal as the last pair standing and that just isn't enough to make it moving forward. It's sad, because HD-DVD is not a bad format, but when the high definition development camp got split with Sony saying, "we'll roll our own thanks," that it was only a matter of time before bad things happened.
I don't want you to be sad though, so here's a picture of a model of Bumblebee from the Transformers movie.
And when I went by their booth here at CES, they sure looked that way. I strolled up to the booth late afternoon and my first impression before I spoke to anyone was, "wow, you look like you need a drink." I'm sure that every journalist that hit the South Hall show floor on Monday made a beeline over to their booth to question every representative about the announcements, but when I got there I just hung back for a moment. I gathered my thoughts and questions and then headed over to the booth.
I could tell that the guy I was heading toward at the booth caught a glimpse of my badge before I was in earshot as his smile started to fade away. When I finally reached him [foot is still a bit gimpy so I don't move too fast yet] after a short introduction I made my first statement: I'm not going to ask that question. the look of stunned amazement and then relief that came over his face was priceless. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I thought better of it. Besides I'm lazy.
Anyways, when he realized I was serious, a smile returned to his face and he began his spiel on HD-DVD. He was well informed about the product he was representing, and honestly believed that HD-DVD had a viable future, and I was happy to let him believe that. Who am I to tell him Santa isn't real and the Easter Bunny is a lie made up by candy companies? Nobody, that's who. I mean I had a lot of questions around the eminent demise of HD-DVD? Questions like, "now that nearly 70 percent of all feature length film studio work as well as television content will be moving to Blu-Ray exclusively, how do you [the HD DVD camp] plan to revitalize your format in hopes of staying alive? How long do you think the HD DVD format will survive if other content providers jump ship? Which in hindsight would have been a great question to ask as the new rumor about Paramount jumping to the Blu-Ray only ship swirls 'round the interweb.
But one of those thoughts that I gathered as I was walking up to the guy was this guy looks like he needs a stiff drink desperately. And while I couldn't give him a drink, I could give him a break. He's got three more days of dealing with awkward question, oppressive journalists looking for sound-bytes, and a never ending swarm of people looking to get free movie discs before they disappear forever. The least I can do is give this guy a break for 30 minutes and let him give the speech that he's rehearsed umpteen million times before getting to Vegas. So that's what I did.
At the end of the tour, I looked him dead in the eye, thanked him for his time and the information. I gave him my card, and went on my merry way. Good deed for the day done. But in case you missed it, HD-DVD = Dead. Especially if Paramount goes exclusive to Blu-Ray. It would leave Toshiba and Universal as the last pair standing and that just isn't enough to make it moving forward. It's sad, because HD-DVD is not a bad format, but when the high definition development camp got split with Sony saying, "we'll roll our own thanks," that it was only a matter of time before bad things happened.
I don't want you to be sad though, so here's a picture of a model of Bumblebee from the Transformers movie.
Labels: CES, HD-DVD, Ninjasistah, robot, Tech, Technophiles