Dan Ramer's level-headed perspective on the war and Warner...

[DaViD Boulet]

http://www.dvdfile.com/index.php?opt...k=view&id=6472

I know it's the site I review for, so I know it seems like a shameless plug. But honestly, just reading Dan's comments gives me an "ahh" feeling that there *ARE* resources out there who not only get this whole war-fiasco and what it was about, but are level-headed and dispassionate enough to maybe help bridge the gap with the HD DVD community.

In particular, Dan's comments specific to that end are:

I’ve already heard from several HD DVD player owners and it’s very clear that they're upset with Warner's decision. There have been expressions of betrayal, objections to timing, and reports of a rumor that financial incentives were involved (more about that in the next section).

To those upset with the prospect that the HD DVD format may fail, please consider that your players still work and your HD DVDs still play. If my recollection of consumer law is correct, Toshiba is obligated to support your player for six years after it’s discontinued, so you're safe for quite some time. Your investment is not in jeopardy. If you're forced ultimately to invest in BD, the player will cost less than $300, possibly close to $200. Disc costs average essentially the same for both formats. And you may even discover that BD offers a better presentation.

Warner's timing could have been worse. They could have participated in the HD DVD Promotional Group press event and then, one to four days later, announced for Blu-ray Disc. That would likely have been perceived as very hypocritical. There is no good time to make such an announcement. Millions may have been spent on Warner HD DVD titles for the holidays, and some correspondents believe that Warner’s timing took advantage of end-of-year shoppers. But the HD DVDs still play and they still entertain. I suspect that HD DVD owners would have been even more upset if the Blade Runner and Harry Potter collections (just to name two titles) were withdrawn and denied to those enthusiasts.

Paramount's much more abrupt decision and actions denied BD player owners its content (I seem to remember that Paramount may have even recalled BDs and may have destroyed BDs that had yet to ship). BD player owners were upset that they would not be able to buy Transformers or Shrek The Third. Warner, on the other hand, announced five months before it intends to stop producing HD DVDs, giving player owners the chance to continue purchasing Warner films on HD DVD while they consider whether or not to invest in a BD player. So I feel that Warner's approach is a lot more gracious than Paramount's.

As for this HD DVD owner, if the format fails, I'll have no immediate plans to replace my approximately 150 HD DVDs with BDs. I'll continue to enjoy those HD DVDs until both of my two Toshiba players fail and can no longer be repaired. Only then will I begin to replace my favorite films on HD DVD with their BD counterparts.

Dan has maintained a great deal of impartiality on all of this for some time, and he's pretty evenly split as a personal HD collector of both formats. However, he's also candidly stated some pretty gutsy stuff: like that he notices BD's delivering better PQ on-average in comparison to lower-bit-rate VC-1 HD DVDs.

Check out his essay on this latest turn of events. Pay particular attention to his point about FOX and the HD DVD-spin rumors... nice to see someone else calling a spade a spade on that latest FUD spin. And, of course, thanks to Bill Hunt for being our spear-head champion voice for BD. I'm sure that Bill's efforts have helped steer us to a single-format solution more quickly than we otherwise might have had.