I love Bill Hunt! Check out The Digital Bits today!

[Jack Torrance]

This guy is now my hero:

Originally Posted by Bill Hunt

Well... as expected, I've received a flood of e-mails over the last day or so in response to my high-def format war comments of yesterday. And as expected, those who have firmly attached themselves to HD-DVD weren't terribly pleased with my arguments. The interesting thing, however, is that none of these people could logically refute my reasoning, and very few even attempted to do so. In fact, while some of the responses from HD-DVD supporters were polite and thoughtful, most were defensive, overly emotional or even downright hostile. A couple e-mails were so nasty that I can only wonder at the mental stability of their authors. All of this suggests to me that even these people are starting to suspect that the writing is on the wall for HD-DVD.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, at how many readers responded to say that they generally agreed with my assessment of the situation. And it wasn't just Blu-ray supporters who reacted positively. A surprising number of retailers and industry insiders expressed relief that we had finally said what they WANTED to say, but weren't in a position to do so. I was also struck by how many people that agreed with my comments said they hadn't yet adopted either format, instead having decided to remain neutral until a choice was more clear. But many of those folks told us that they were now close to jumping into the high-def arena, and Blu-ray was where they were headed. The responses as a whole were certainly fascinating, and they have done nothing but convince me further that this format war needs to end now, before the early adopter market gets even more fractious and divisive.

So what, or who, could end this format war? Simple: Universal. If Universal were to suddenly announce support for Blu-ray Disc in addition to HD-DVD, or if they were to adopt Warner's TotalHD combo disc, that would be the end of it. You would suddenly have every major studio in town releasing Blu-ray titles (except for DreamWorks, and our sources tell us that the studio is simply waiting for one of these formats to start selling serious numbers before getting involved). By the end of the year, cheaper second generation Blu-ray hardware will available, and that's the ballgame. That's not to say that Microsoft and Toshiba would stop pushing HD-DVD anytime soon. And I'm sure some of the HD-DVD supporting studios would continue releasing titles, at least for a while. But why would any average consumer want to buy an HD-DVD player, even a very cheap one, when you can't get Disney movies, you can't get Pixar films, you can't get the Bond films, you can't get the Spider-Man films, etc, etc, etc. Universal has the power to end this format war tomorrow. We certainly hope a lot of people, both inside the industry and film fans as a whole, are making efforts to POLITELY convince them to do so. Here's how:

Universal Studios Home Video
70 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
(818) 777-4400
Studio website - E-mail form on website

By the way, here's more evidence of Blu-ray's advantage: Blu-ray almost completely dominates the Japanese market now (click here for more on that), and has a clear edge in the Australian market as well (click here). In fact, one of Australia's leading consumer electronics retailers, JB Hi-Fi, has announced that they won't even carry HD-DVD in their stores (click here). Why? Because they, like many others, simply don't see how HD-DVD can overcome the overwhelming studio support behind Blu-ray Disc. JB's marketing director, Scott Browning, put his company's position this way: "We don't want to be selling $1000 clocks." Ouch. Any way you slice it, this whole format war situation is just getting silly.


thedigitalbits.com

email link for contacting Universal: http://www.universalstudios.com/home...gi?email_id=10

[phloyd]

Priceless.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by phloyd

Priceless.

Double that.
Absolutely!

[Jim L]

Originally Posted by Jack Torrance

This guy is now my hero:

. . . The interesting thing, however, is that none of these people could logically refute my reasoning, and very few even attempted to do so. In fact, while some of the responses from HD-DVD supporters were polite and thoughtful, most were defensive, overly emotional or even downright hostile. A couple e-mails were so nasty that I can only wonder at the mental stability of their authors. All of this suggests to me that even these people are starting to suspect that the writing is on the wall for HD-DVD.
. . .

[degas]

Nice!
And you know what...I usually never do this kind of stuff but...I'm gonna email Universal and ask them to release on Blu!

[ProvenFlipper]

Wow... BH just earned alot of respect in my book. Just putting it out there. This is what BD needed, a promient member of the "industry" who is somewhat free to speak his opinion.

BTW... can anyone post a link to the Universal e-mail form? or the address. I'm going to send them an e-mail about releasing on BD. If all of us do it, and get our friends to do it, whether they have a BD player or not, (Uni doesn't know) I think we can start to have a decent voice. Remember the HD optical media market isn't that big yet. If Uni looks ans sees that they are selling 3000-4000 of one HD-DVD title and have 2000+ emails saying we need your movies on BD, maybe they will start to listen as this could expand their sales by over 50% and that's just taking online forums in to account, never mind the average guy who walks up and sees Uni titles on the shelf and picks one up.

[Jack Torrance]

[QUOTE=ProvenFlipper;55640]

BTW... can anyone post a link to the Universal e-mail form? [QUOTE]

http://www.universalstudios.com/home...gi?email_id=10

Done and done! I just dropped a line to Uni and to Bill Hunt...

[JTK]

So much for rdjam's petitions. This'll make waves for sure.

Bill Hunt, here's to ya:



I hope everyone Bill Hunt alludes to, especially industry folks and such, take note and follow the lead. I hope DB is as influential as Gary suggests.

[dialog_gvf]

Wow. So there you go: Bill Hunt has screamed "One HD Format: Blu-ray".

A surprising number of retailers and industry insiders expressed relief that we had finally said what they WANTED to say, but weren't in a position to do so.

Gary

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Wow. So there you go: Bill Hunt has screamed "One HD Format: Blu-ray".

I know -- and I couldn't be happier!

Spin it, HD-DUD/m$ fanbois! Spin! Spin! Spin!

[dialog_gvf]

Considering how influencial Bill is, and how he clearly has many important people behind him who are scared to talk, this is a very important posting. I can't but be reminded of DIVX. Bill Hunt was a major warrior against that. And it seemed to be clear it was doomed the moment Bill took up the cause against it.

It is now ten years later, and The Digital Bits have far, far more influence and respect then it had even then.

This is absolutely wonderful news!

Gary

[Maximus]

The end of HD DUD is near.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by The Digital Bits

Well... as expected, I've received a flood of e-mails over the last day or so in response to my high-def format war comments of yesterday. And as expected, those who have firmly attached themselves to HD-DVD weren't terribly pleased with my arguments. The interesting thing, however, is that none of these people could logically refute my reasoning, and very few even attempted to do so. In fact, while some of the responses from HD-DVD supporters were polite and thoughtful, most were defensive, overly emotional or even downright hostile. A couple e-mails were so nasty that I can only wonder at the mental stability of their authors. All of this suggests to me that even these people are starting to suspect that the writing is on the wall for HD-DVD.

Lots of people (end-users and industry folk alike) read The Digital Bits. You just cannot help but laugh at the nasty HD DVD fanboys treatment of Bill Hunt as it seem to have galvanized Bill to take up the flag for BD. The fanboys are essentially hastening the process that has already begun.

They're going to hang themselves the nastier, more defensive, and more delusional they get. The more people like rdjam (hi buddy, I know you're covertly reading this ) continue to post their anti-BD nonsense, the more they continue to hurt the HD DVD cause/face with the "moderates", which are essentially 99+% of the population at this point in the BD/HD DVD life cycle.

Good Stuff!!!!

[Knight-Errant]

"The end of the war is near, General"
- Darth Sidious, Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith

[ra1024]

Wow, this is great news for HD-DVD!

( sorry, someone had to say it in this thread )