For all those following the Hi-Def format war:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/soapbox/soap060107.html

There are some great facts in this article along with some very educated opinion. A must read for anyone considering upgrading to one of the Hi-Def DVD formats.

Very interesting article, I just read an article in Home Entertainment Magazine about the Playstation 3, they said it is "arguably the best and most future proof player on the market".
That is coming from custom Home Theater installers.
I might have to get one along with a Wii..

I read that this morning. I'm not sure that I'd rule out getting an HD-A2 entirely (thinking about getting one for $250), although I don't know that I'd invest much in discs. I agree that Knowles' assertions are so riddled with errors as to be devastatingly absurd, and a counter-point was needed. This format war has too much confusion already (HDMI versions, new audio formats) without adding such misinformation to the mix.

Oh, I wouldn't rule out HD-DVD yet either.
I still have the 950 so I haven't even taken the step to Hdmi let alone HD-DVD or BD yet. Just some interesting hypotheisis if you will.

Oh Yes....
and Microsoft ruling the world once the dust settles...
is not too far fetched....

There's an enormous amount of spin along with the "facts" in the Bill Hunt article, just as there is a lot of misinformation along with the opinion in Knowles' article.

If any Outlaws are trying to make a purchase decision, I'd suggest reading posts in other HT forums and comparing the formats in person before making a decision. Neither of these articles represent reliable information.

Bits has been leaning toward Blu-ray for some time. They've tried to be fair to HD-DVD, I think (they have admitted that Toshiba's made excellent progress with their players via both firmware updates for the gen1 players and speed and feature improvements for the gen2 players), but their preference for Blu-ray is still present in their observations on the format war.

Bob,

Can you point out to me what the "spin" is in the Hunt article? Maybe it's my own bias against Microsoft, but I didn't notice anything in the article that either wasn't stating published totals or was clarified as personal opinion based on insider sources. Just wondering...

I really don't want to start YET ANOTHER format war thread here on Outlaws; however, to respect your question, Jason, here's one example:

Hunt compares sales of POTC on Blu-ray to sales of The Matrix on HD DVD. However, he's comparing sales of two separately packaged movies ( at single movie prices) to the sales of a movie bundle that includes three movies. Therefore, it's spin to say that POTC outsold Matrix without any additional clarification. That interpretation of those numbers comes straight from Sony, which is where I believe most of Hunt's info comes from.

OK, with respect, now I'm out of this thread entirely.

PS -- In response to Jason's comment below, I took NO offense at your honest question.

Bob,

No need to get offended. I was just wondering what you were basing your statement on. I personally don't see the need for people to affiliate themselves with a format. I just tend to agree with most of Hunt's arguments. Thanks for the reply.