There has been plenty of discussion, debate, arm-waving, confusion, and FUD thrown around since the HD-DVD/Blu-ray format war really got going less than two years ago, so much so that I rarely give much of it a second glance these days. This blog post by Fred Manteghian caught my attention moreso than most, though (and only partially for the well-used Monty Python reference). It touches on the principle reason that I haven't felt compelled to seriously shop for a Blu-ray player yet (even though I think the format still has the potential to win the format war, assuming the wayr ever has a winner): lack of hardware support for all of the planned format features. I'd really like to start seeing profile 2.0 (or at least profile 1.1) players crop up before I spend money on a Blu-ray player. Fred also puts what I think is a pretty realistic spin on the most recent group to "pick the winner" (specifically the Home Theater Specialists of America's choice of Blu-ray).

This business of the Toshiba HD-A2 is precisely why I lept in. I paid $230 for it. I would never have taken a side in this oft-swaying war. I don't believe in resolution differences between the two formats. the way I see it, if HD-DVD loses, I have a good upconverting DVD player and a snazzy looking piece of equipment that I didn't mortgage the house for.

Thanks for posting gonk.

Like many of us, I've been sitting on the fence seeing how the format war will play out and how much lower the players will go. As Fred pointed out, if Blu Ray players do not come down soon, I think they may start losing any edge they had nudging out HD DVD.

But let's say they do come down by the holidays and you can pick up a Blu Ray player for $250 or less. Would you do it?

At this point, I probably would NOT, as the movies themselves are still VERY expensive compared to standard DVDs and the number of titles is pretty limited.

So from my perspective, the cost of the player is only part of the decision making process. Until I can get more high-def movie choices at reasonable prices, I'm comfortable with my Oppo.

If a Blu-ray player shows up at near the $300 to $400 mark, is at least profile 1.1 (although at this point I'll probably try to hold out for profile 2.0), and supports bitstream output of the new HD formats, I might pick one up. So far, the only players I've read about that I might want cost more than I want to spend, and the BD profiles make me a bit hesitant.

I've been very slow to buy HD-DVD's (mostly just NetFlix), and would likely not be much different with Blu-ray if I had a player - at least in the short term.

Gonk -- There also is an article at UltimateAV Mag by Shane Buettner that discusses the failure of Blu-Ray manufacturers to make devices that fully comply with BR interactivity specs (both 1.1 and 2.0):

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/features/907bdint/

I'd love to get high-def DVD player, but until the format war dies down and someone makes a machine that has full interactivity (or the ability to achieve it through a firmware upgrade) and decoding for lossless HD sound formats through analog outputs (so it can hook into the 990), and does it all at a reasonable price, I'm happy with my Oppo 981.

Yeah, I saw that one. Manufacturers are pushing to get the next generation of Blu-ray players into production before the profile 1.1 deadline. I wonder if we'll see a similar wave of new players before the inevitable profile 2.0 deadline...

Speaking of interesting commentaries, here's one that someone e-mailed to me this morning: Junk in a box . It's a commentary on stability and reliability (or the lack thereof) in modern electronics, focusing in the end on HDMI's version stew in particular.

Stability and "consumer beta" situations certainly have become issues to a degree that they never were before, partly because of companies sometimes pushing products out the door too soon and partly because of the level of complexity and sophistication in modern technology. I don't know that I'd give bad printer drivers much leniency on the latter point unless you toss a wild card into the mix like a new operating system (*cough* Vista *cough*), but it does hold true for much of the gear winding up in our equipment racks these days. And of course HDMI and the features that are arriving alongside it today are only magnifying that complexity challenge...

I have a hard time deciding whether I'm more bothered by products that don't work right, standards and formats that are put into the marketplace prematurely, or one that Guttenberg didn't mention: consumer education. That's one that the CE industry has largely ignored while rolling out one new technological marvel after another (DVD, Dolby Digital and DTS, HDTV, and any other acronym you can think of). We have consumers walking into stores like Best Buy and getting their only education on modern home theater equipment (and in many cases computers and car audio as well) from employees who rarely have the training to even know the right answers in the first place, much less present it to consumers effectively. Tech support (which never got enough attention to begin with from many companies) gets outsourced or otherwise budget-limited, and while training and good call center scripts can cover some things (assuming that good training and scripts are provided) there are still some egregious sins committed. Case in point: I got an e-mail from a guy recently because Samsung tech support told him that the reason his HDMI v1.3 Samsung DVD player wouldn't send video to his HDMI v1.2 Samsung HDTV was because he had a v1.3 cable instead of a v1.2 cable! And all the while, many consumers (who often deserve some of the blame) wave their hands and say "I'm not good at this technology stuff, just give me the simple answer." While it shouldn't be necessary to learn enough to start designing speaker crossover networks or bench-test amplifiers, there needs to be a willingness to at least seek out a minimum level of knowledge. Forums like this one and companies that make a point to provide complete, clear documentation are two examples of how companies can address the "consumer education" gap - and how consumers can seek out that education. I do sometimes find it a little curious that the most reliable ways for consumers to learn about the industry-standard technologies is to track down smaller companies and online forums. Just think where we'd be if technologies like HDTV and HDMI and formats like DVD-Audio, SACD, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD had entered the marketplace without the internet to help consumers make sense of it all.

Gonk,

As always, your comments are right on the money. I would just add to your post that who knows where we would be without patient people like yourself, who have the knowledge and respect but who also have such wonderful typing skills. I am always amazed at how well you can condense technical information into very untechnical speech. Are you sure you don't write technical manuals for a living...

I do produce plans and specs for a living. Specs, however, are sort of the antithesis of untechnical speech (or, with MasterSpec, anything remotely "condensed").

While the 1070's manual was really well written, I nominate Gonk to write its successor.