Charlie I really hope we are not all waiting an inestimable amount of time. But after watching an interview with. Powell (chairman of the FCC) and the pres? Of CES. His answers to the industry on whether or not the FCC were intending on stepping in and mandating one method or the other appears slim. I just guessing but I think a lot of manuf. are worried if they jump early (and guess wrong) or the FCC does mandate something they will have possibly wasted R & D. He’s very ambivalent in his replies concerning what the FCC might do and when they might do it. Regarding the 2006 deadline he even waffled on that one…commenting that the FCC was ‘flexible’ to industry needs and some deadlines might represent only ‘optimum timetables’ which might need adjustment. But he would not rule out the FCC getting ancey and moving deadlines forward either. He almost appeared to mentality ‘rub hands in glee’ when he commented that it was the FCC policy to let industry and consumer demand dictate final choices whenever feasible. Leaving Manufactures having to make some costly choices regarding which way the market will move and whether or not something will occur to roust the FCC to mandate choices.

Michael Powell did however seem highly interested in HD, and his new purchase this Christmas of a ‘Tivo’ which he commenting clapping his hands, was one of the best purchases he had ever made and the ‘box was a gift from God”. Not bad news for those nervous on which way the FCC, if any ruling is forced might swing on the fair right use of purchasing consumers to copy for personal and lawful uses.

I can tell you as an ‘early adopter’ ending up with RGB and DVI connections and then watching several a announcements concerning IEEE-1394 about to launch on several audio products this and next year, but with the majority of display manufactures leaning to DVI this year and next. I don’t think its going to come together in 12 months, I think at the earliest your 2 yr estimite, -or your a lucky enough consumer to not mind limiting your purchase (brand range) by half and be satisfied to get the display/audio/etc that comes with that one connectivity device on all. They don’t seem willing to foot the expense too quickly of having both versions on most products. (Hope I’m wrong) And if they don’t come up with something that makes higher compression through bandwidth possible with the right decoders on the receiving end to uncompress it beautifully (or some method as yet not conceived) than I’m a monkeys uncle. Our society is becoming extremely bandwidth hungry and the finite limits of it will force technology to come up with an alternative.

I have lived in the past with a component that did not have the latest connectivity for its life-span in my system rendering more recent purchases’ advanced connectivity, inaccessible. Guess I’ll be forced to do it for the conceivable future also. (this is just my loosely trying to understand it all grasp of the situation).