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'Bye 2005, Hi Def Pt 2 |
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'Bye 2005, Hi Def (Pt. 2) Hey Santa, where's my HD DVD player? Part II: Hi Def
So here we are on Opening Day of Twenty-Ought-Six (why do we say Two Thousand Six when we never said One Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety Nine, but I digress), waiting once again for Consumer Electronics Show (CES), that Brigadoon of a convention that emerges into full cityhood once a year then evaporates like desert dew for another 51 weeks.
I for one had hoped against hope that by the end of 2005, there would be some sort of unification consummated between The Blues Brothers, Ray and DaViD. But, as one of The Original Blues Brothers, John Belushi, was wont to say, nooooooooooooooooo, that would have been too logical, too welcome a détente, too consumer-friendly, too too.
Last year, you may recall from Part I (Bye 2005), CES brought us one collectively big HD announcement, from DaViD, strutting like a Peacock and specifying all manner of big-time movie titles due before year-end, and it brought us one holding pattern from Ray, who had very little to say and, as such, no premature announcements to live down.
Be that as it may, what intrigues me at this juncture in The Blues Brothers’ never-ending publicity tours is wondering who will be the Opening Act and, more important, who will be the Last Act Standing. Or whether The Blues Brothers will ultimately be fused into Siamese twins.
But I still can’t escape the nagging notion that in the run-up to The Blues Brothers’ big 2006 debut, never has so much been written by so many who knew so little – or, more accurately, knew only what they were being fed by Ray and DaViD, or from self-styled analysts who have a hard-on for physical media. They are descendants of the visionaries who were telling us that pay-per-view would banish video stores “in the next five years.” That was 20 years ago.
Now they’re stopping the presses with news that if HD DVD and BD wait as much as one day too long to show their stuff this year, consumers will flock to “alternative” high-def program sources like cable. Uh, sure they will. This consumer has been mightily disappointed, not by my 60-inch LCD HD Sony, but by the dearth of HD channels and the ho-hum programs on those few channels. There no doubt are serious threats and challenges for HD discs to overcome, but HD cable ain’t one of them from what I’ve seen – or haven’t seen. If anything, it’s an opportunity.
What’s missing not only from the forests of coverage on whither HD DVD and Blu-ray, but from much of what passes for technology journalism these days, is the human factor. It’s there in some reportage, but we need a lot more context now that we have quite enough commoditized news content, thank you, that tends to parrot what is put forth in press releases. As phrased for our soon to launch site, DVDJ.INFO, let’s talk and explore more about that elusive flashpoint “where technology meets humanology.”
What on earth am I talking about? Well, in the case of Blues Brothers Ray and DaViD, when the smoke clears, think about where Judgment Day really will take place. I don’t know too many consumers who buy much of anything direct from Sony or Panasonic or Pioneer or Disney or Warner.
Then why do we hear and read so precious little about the disposition of major retailers, whether storefront or on line, when it comes to the next-gen formats? Not that they’d reveal a heck of a lot anyhow. That’s not their way, which is understandable in the miniscule-margin, ultra-competitive world of electronics merchandising.
So let’s just leave it that what the hardware and software vendors do or say is only half the story – the first half – and will quickly diminish in importance once product is on shelves, because the balance of what fate awaits our friends DaViD and Ray hangs with Mr. Big Retailer and Joe Consumer. That is the real story to watch and tell these next 365 days.
In the meantime, excuse me while I pack for Vegas so I can hobnob at dinner and a screening with HD DVD’s hardware and software Wynners, and suck up at The Mirage to the Blu-Ray Disc Association Jet setters. I’m only human.
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