San Francisco Chronicle: Are you true Blu or rabidly red?

[Petra]

...It's as if he's among us........but he's purple (with red preference), so he couldn't be from this site

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...08/techwar.DTL

Are you true Blu or rabidly red?
Watch which color you choose as emotions run high in this tech showdown

By Matthew Tom

Tuesday, January 8, 2008



As a rivalry, it's not Yankees vs. Red Sox, Ford vs. Chevy, PC vs. Mac or Coke vs. Pepsi. Truth be told, it's much, much worse than any of those. It's more like Red State vs. Blue State, or, gasp, Bloods vs. Crips. This match-up even has the corresponding gang colors.

Every enthusiast knows about the "war," has picked a side and is passionate about it. Being an audio-video fan who likes to relax in my leather theater chairs and watch movies on my plasma television, I monitor the goings-on in the electronics world closely. So I've watched with fascination (and not the typical high-tech curiosity) how the HD DVD-Blu-ray "war" has and continues to unfold.

For those who don't know, the "war" is about which high-definition format will replace the ubiquitous DVD. The blue side is, of course, Blu-ray, and is led by a group of manufacturers including Sony. In the red corner, there's HD DVD, which is led by Toshiba. Pick the wrong side and let people know about it, and you risk ending up on the wrong side of a nasty Internet forum posting that will leave you hurt, angry and itching to enact revenge by posting a nastier Internet response.

Big deal, you say? Tell that to the members of AVSforum.com, probably the most-respected Web site devoted to audio-video. This "war" is complete with bickering, name-calling, swearing and "physical threats that have involved police and possible legal action," according to a message posted by a moderator. The areas on AVS devoted to these formats were closed for a few days in November after things got out of control, putting members on a timeout. When the forum came back online, a zero-tolerance policy was instituted.

And before the fanboys from either side perform the equivalent of an Internet drive-by by firing off hateful e-mails, let me state for the record that I own and enjoy both formats. I'm what's known as being "purple" in this particular "war." It's sort of like being Barney – you just want to have fun, try not to cause any problems and want to be everyone's friend. As a precaution though, I keep my blue movie cases on a separate shelf from my red ones. I don't want any trouble.

The first salvo in this format "war" was fired last summer when Paramount and DreamWorks SKG decided to stop supporting Blu-ray, which at the time had the support of every major movie studio except Universal. News of the decision spread like wildfire, setting off the entire A/V community.

The blue boys cried foul, as rumors spread that big, bad Microsoft, which carries the red flag, gave Paramount a "bribe" of $150 million to take off the blue colors. See, this rivalry even comes with its own conspiracy theories. Some were saying that Microsoft paid Paramount in order to keep the war going, forcing a stalemate. Then, Microsoft would swoop in and introduce high-definition movies delivered by set-top boxes (made by them, of course), bypassing the need for discs or players. Is Microsoft the lone gunman? Officially, no, but it still doesn't stop the insinuations.

Even Michael Bay, the director of "Transformers," chimed in on his Web site, saying he was angry that his summer blockbuster wouldn't be released on Blu-ray. (I'm sure there are plenty of people who wish Bay didn't release that movie at all.) And Steven Spielberg made sure that any movie he has directed was not part of the DreamWorks deal.

The next shot came during the holidays, as Toshiba dropped prices on some of their HD DVD players to $99, prompting calls that they were violating "anti-dumping" laws that ensure fair-pricing practices. You know it's a deadly serious rivalry when lawyers may get involved.

Then this past Friday, Warner Bros. landed what's being called the death blow to HD DVD. Two days before the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas where executives were scheduled to speak at an HD DVD press conference, Warner, the lone swinger who went both ways, stripped off the red to show they are now true blue.

You see, HD DVD has been playing catch up for some time. Blu-ray had 20th Century Fox, Disney and, of course, Sony Pictures as exclusive blue members. Blu-ray outsold HD DVD all last year, and Sony's PlayStation 3, which plays Blu-ray movies, has given the company an easy way to gain crucial early-market penetration. Adding Warner, the single-largest distributor of Hollywood movies, now gives blue exclusive access to about 70 percent of the films coming out of Southern California, not counting the San Fernando (Porn) Valley.

HD DVD fans declared the "war" lost, but some of the most rabid red members said they were taking their ball and going home. In essence, they were saying if blue wins, they don't want anyone to win. Of course, there was the inevitable childish gloating by some on the blue side. Both sides then began touting how much better their toy was, and how much better the future would be or could've been. It was like the "my dad can beat up your dad" argument except doing it as an adult. It's nice, and quite scary, to see that the inner child in many of us never goes away.

Now, I love movies as much as the next person, and the better the picture gets, the more I love it. But to be that emotionally invested in technology is about as useful as, well, it isn't useful at all. These machines are plastic and metal, have no soul, will not make you a better person, will not make you smarter, and, in fact, might make you a little dumber. The movie studios don't care about you, the electronics makers don't care about you, and in 10 years, both will be pushing the next great leap in technology on you.

So a word of advice: The next time you're in Best Buy perusing the movie aisles, check to see whether the guy standing in front of the high-definition racks is wearing a red or blue bandanna. I wouldn't want to see him spray you with saliva as he berates you for picking up the wrong color movie.