key: [title (release country)] – [RC as listed in covers] – [disc free of Region Coding?]

• 10,000 BC (Scandinavia) – B? – yes
• 30 Days of Night (Scandinavia) – B? – yes
• 300 (USA) – A? – yes
• 3:10 To Yuma (Scandinavia) – B – yes
• A Knight’s Tale (Ritarin tarina) (Finland) – B – yes
• All Star Yakyuken Battle (Japan) – A? – yes
• American Psycho (USA) – 1 – no
• Ant Bully, The (USA) – A? – yes
• Arlington Road (USA) – ABC – yes
• Arn (Scandinavia) – B – yes
• Apocalypto (USA) – A – yes
• Appleseed Ex Machina (USA) – A? – yes
• Behind Enemy Lines (Finland) – B – no
• Big Fish (USA) – A – yes
• Big Fish (Finland) – B – yes
• Black Book (USA) – ABC – yes
• Black Hawk Down (USA) – A – yes
• Bram Stoker’s Dracula (USA) – ABC – yes
• Brave Story (Japan) – A – no
• Breaker Morant (USA) – A? (no mention of RC on covers) – no
• Breaking and Entering (Finland) – B – no
• Bridge to Terabithia (USA) – A – yes
• Broken Arrow (Finland) – B – no
• Broken Arrow (USA) – A – no
• Brothers Grimm (USA) – A – no
• Cars (USA) – ABC – yes
• Casanova (USA) – A – no
• Casino Royale (Finland) – B – yes (NOTE: Uncut version, 2hr 24min 34 sec)
• Casino Royale (USA) – A – no (NOTE: Cut version, 2hr 24min 12sec)
• Casino Royale (UK) – ABC – yes (NOTE: Another cut version, 2hr 24min 20 sec)
• Catch and Release (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Chain Reaction (Finland) – B – no
• Chicago (USA) – ABC – yes
• Chicken Little (USA) – ABC – yes
• Cinderella Man (Finland) – B – yes
• Click! (Klik!) (Finland) – B – no
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (USA) – ABC – yes
• Closer (Iholla) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• The Company (USA) – A – no
• Con Air (Finland) – B – yes
• Corpse Bride (USA) – A? – yes
• Courage Under Fire (Finland) – B – yes
• Crank (USA) – A – no
• Crimson Tide (Purppuravyöhyke) (Finland) – B – yes
• Cruel Intentions (Julmia aikeita) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Curse of the Golden Flower (USA) – A – no
• Dark Water (USA) – A – no
• Day of the Dead (USA) – A? – yes
• Dawn of the Dead (Romero) (USA) – A? – yes
• Death Sentence (Scandinavia) – B? – yes
• Deep Blue (Japan) – A – no
• Deja Vu (USA) – A – no
• Departed, The (USA) – A? – yes
• Descent, The (USA) – 1 – yes
• Destiny’s Child Live in Atlanta (USA) – A? – yes
• Devil’s Rejects, The (USA) – 1 – yes
• Die Hard (Finland) – B – yes (BD+)
• Die Hard 2 (Finland) – B – yes (BD+)
• Die Hard 4.0 (Finland) – B – no (BD+)
• Dinosaurus (Dinosaur) (Finland) – B – yes
• District B13 (USA) – A? – yes
• Disturbia (USA) – A? – yes
• *NEW* Diving Bell and The Butterfly, The (Perhonen lasikuvussa) (Scandinavia) – B – yes
• Doctor Strange (USA) – A? – yes
• Edward Scissorhands (Finland) – B – no
• Eight Below – Seikkailu etelänavalla (Finland) – B – yes
• Entrapment (Finland) – B – no
• Eragon (Finland) – B – yes
• Evil Dead II (USA) – A? – yes
• Exorcism of Emily Rose, The (UK) – B – yes
• Eyes Wide Shut (USA) – A? – yes
• Fantastic Four (Finland) – 2 – no
• Face/Off (Finland) – B – yes
• Face/Off (UK) – ABC – yes
• Face/Off (Japan) – ABC – yes
• Fifth Element, The (USA) – A – yes
• Fifth Element, The (Remastered) (USA) – ABC – yes
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (USA) – ABC – yes
• Finding Neverland (USA) – ABC – yes
• First Blood (i.e. Rambo) (USA) – 1 – yes
• Flatliners (Raja tuntemattomaan) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Flight of the Phoenix (Finland) – B – no
• Flight of the Phoenix (USA) – A – no
• Flightplan (USA) – A – no
• Flyboys (USA) – A – no
• Four Brothers (USA) – A? – yes
• *NEW* Funny Games (UK) – ABC – yes
• Ganes (Scandinavia) – B – yes
• Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Japan) – A – no
• Ghost Rider (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Gridiron Gang (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Guardian, The (Meripelastaja) (Finland) – B – no
• Guardian, The (USA) – A – no
• Halloween (USA) – A? – yes
• Hart’s War (Finland) – B – yes
• Hellboy (UK) – ABC – yes
• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The (USA) – ABC – yes
• Hollow Man (USA) – A – yes
• Hollywoodland (Finland) – B – no
• Hostel (UK) – B – yes
• Hostel: Part II (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Hostel: Part II (USA) – A – no
• House of Flying Daggers (USA) – A – yes
• Ice Age (Finland) – B – no
• Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (Finland) – B – no
• Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (USA) – A – no
• Identity (USA) – ABC – yes
• *NEW* I’m not there (Scandinavia) – B – yes
• Immortal Beloved (Ikuinen rakkaus) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Infernal Affairs (Hong Kong) – A? – yes
• Initial D (USA) – A – yes
• The Invisible (USA) – A – no
• Isiemme liput (Flags of Our Fathers) (Finland) – B? – yes
• King Arthur: Director’s Cut (Finland) – B – yes
• King of New York (USA) – A? – no
• Kingdom of Heaven (Finland) – 2- no
• Kung Fu Hustle (Finland) – B – yes (99min 25sec)
• Kung Fu Hustle (Japan) – A – yes (99min 25sec)
• Layer Cake (Finland) – B – yes
• Letters from Iwo Jima (USA) – A? – yes
• Linnunradan käsikirja liftareille (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) (Finland) – B – yes
• The Lives of Others (USA) – A – no
• The Lookout (USA) – A – no
• Masters of Horror: season 1 volume 1 (USA) – A? – yes
• Masters of Horror: season 1 volume 2 (USA) – A? – yes
• Masters of Horror: season 1 volume 2 (USA) – A? – yes
• Meet The Robinsons (USA) – A – no
• Memoirs of a Geisha (USA) – ABC – yes
• Men of Honor (Finland) – B – yes
• M:I:III (Japan) – A? – yes
• M:I:III (USA) – A? – yes
• Monster House (Monsteri Talo) (Finland) – B – yes
• Nature’s Journey (USA) – ALL – yes
• Night at the Museum (USA) – A – no
• Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You In Time (USA) – A? – yes
• Nip/Tuck: Season 4 (USA) – A? – yes
• No Country for Old Men (USA) – A – yes
• Oldboy (USA) – A? – yes
• Omen 666, The (Finland) – 2 – no
• Open Season (Karvakamut) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Open Season (USA) – A – no
• Pan’s Labyrinth (UK) – B? – yes
• Paprika (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Paprika (Japan) – A – yes
• Pathfinder (Finland) – B – no
• Pearl Harbor (Finland) – B – yes
• Phonebooth (Finland) – B – no
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Finland) – B – yes
• Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man’s Chest (Finland) – B – yes
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (USA) – ABC – yes
• Pirates of the Caribbean II: Dead Man’s Chest (USA) – ABC – yes
• Pirates of the Caribbean III: At World’s End (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Pixar Short Films Volume I (USA) – ABC – yes
• Pixar Short Films Volume I (Finland) – B – yes
• Planet Earth (USA) – A? – yes
• Planet of the Apes (Finland) – B – yes
• Premonition (USA) – A – no
• Prestige, The (Finland) – B? – yes
• Prestige, The (USA) – A – no
• Primeval (USA) – A – no
• Project PAPO (Japan) – A – no
• Protégé (Hong Kong) – A – yes
• Puhallettu 60 sekunnissa (Gone in 60 seconds) (Finland) – B – yes
• Punisher, The (USA) – 1 – yes
• The Pursuit of Happyness (Onnen potkuja) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• The Queen (USA) – A – no
• Thirteen Ghosts (Finland) – ABC – yes
• To Kill a King (USA) – A? – yes
• Ratatouille (USA) – A – no
• Reign of Fire (USA) – ABC – yes
• Rescue Me: Complete Third Season (USA) – A – yes
• Reservoir Dogs (USA) – 1 – no
• Rocky Balboa (Finland) – B – no
• Rocky Balboa (USA) – A – no
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Finland) – B – yes
• Rikidozan (Japan) – A – no
• Rising Sun (Finland) – B – yes
• Robocop (USA) – A – no
• Sahara (USA) – A? – yes
• Saw II (USA) – 1 – yes
• Saw III (USA) – 1 – no
• Scary Movie 4 (Uncut & Unsanitized) (Finland) – B – yes
• Searchers, The (USA) – A? – yes
• Secret Window (Salainen ikkuna) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• The Shining (USA) – A? – yes
• Silent Hill (USA) – A – yes
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (USA) – A – yes
• Sky High (Finland) – B – yes
• Sky High (USA) – A – no
• Species (Finland) – B – no
• Speed (USA) – A – no
• Spider-Man Trilogy (Australia) – ABC – yes
• Spider-Man Trilogy (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Stargate (USA) – 1 – yes
• Starship Troopers (Finland) – B – yes
• Starship Troopers (UK) – ABC – yes
• Stranger Than Fiction (USA) – A – no
• Sunshine (Finland) – B – no (BD+)
• Surf’s Up (USA) – A – no
• S.W.A.T. (Finland) – B – yes
• Talladega Nights (USA) – A – no
• Talladega Nights (Finland) – B – yes
• Tears of the Sun (USA) – A – yes
• Tekkonkinkreet (USA) – A – no
• Terminator, The (USA) – A – yes
• Terminator 2 (USA) – 1 – yes
• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (USA) – ABC – yes
• The Art of Disney (Japan) – A – no
• The Big Hit (USA) – A – yes
• The Fountain (Finland) – B – no
• The Hills Have Eyes: Unrated (Finland) – B – yes
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Finland) – B – no
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (USA) – A- no
• The Marine (Finland) – B – no
• The Patriot (Extended Cut) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• The Rock (Finland) – B – yes
• The Sentinel (Finland) – B – yes
• The Sixth Day (USA) – ABC – yes
• The War Within (USA) – A? – yes
• The World’s Fastest Indian (USA) – A? – yes
• Thirteen Ghosts (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Total Recall (USA) – 1 – yes
• Transporter, The (Finland) – B – no
• Transporter 2 (USA) – A – no
• Twilight Zone: The Movie (USA) – A? – yes
• Ultraviolet (USA) – A – yes
• Underworld Evolution (USA) – A – yes
• Underworld Evolution (Finland) – B – yes
• Vacancy (USA) – A – no
• Valtion vihollinen (Enemy of the State) (Finland) – B – yes
• Vertical Limit (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (USA) – A – yes
• Warriors of Heaven and Earth (USA) – ABC – yes
• Wild, The (USA) – A – no
• We Own The Night (USA) – A – yes
• Wild Things (Villit kuviot) (Finland) – ABC – yes
• Weeds: Season 1 (USA) – A? – yes
• Weeds: Season 2 (USA) – A? – yes
• Windtalkers (Finland) – B – yes
• X-Men III The Last Stand (USA) – A – no

Noticed a rather worrying trend. Lionsgate used to leave their catalog titles without region codes, but the latest shipment had two Lionsgate titles out of three region coded. The coded ones are Reservoir Dogs and American Psycho; you can’t get much more catalog than that.

7.6.2007: I was certain all 20th Century Fox titles would be region coded, but the latest batch of Finnish titles proved me wrong.

28.10.2007: New titles from Fox contain a small warning text in the rear cover informing the consumer that the disc is copy protected and may contain BD+. Of the five new titles only two have BD+ protection on them, however.

01.04.2008: The list is being updated again, after a longish break. I’ll keep adding titles whenever I have spare time. Oh yeah, Fox is again region coding even their catalog titles, so beware.

23.07.2008: Long time between updates, yeah, I know. Been very busy with work and all that rubbish. Added a few Scandinavian releases, in case anyone outside Europe wishes to do some importing :)

28.07.2008: Added two new Scandinavian releases, both region free.

Delay is not always a bad thing: European BD30 ships with DIVX support which was initially absent from the US version. Panasonic has probably already included the feature in a firmware upgrade for the US model. Maybe.

The box contains two Blu-ray Discs, Cars and Ratatouille. Kudos to Panasonic, since those two titles offer incredible video and audio — and Ratatouille happens to be the best movie of 2007, in my humble opinion.

BD30 supports SD/SDHC cards, AVCHD and hires JPEGs. I had shot some concert footage with my Panasonic HDC-SD7 (15mbps AVCHD/1080i) so I took the SDHC out of the camera and inserted it into BD30′s card slot. A press of remote’s BD/SD button switched the player to memory card mode. A few seconds later contents of the card were displayed on screen. I selected the first file, pressed enter and ta-dah, concert footage played without problems. And it looked pretty darn good, too.

Nothing really special in the rear panel. HDMI, S-video, optical & coax digital audio out, composite and component video, stereo & 5.1ch audio outputs. I haven’t read the manual yet (well, duh!) so I don’t know if analog audio outputs can be configured for 7.1ch output.

[Show as slideshow]

This Ultimate HD Edition of James Cameron’s seminal action blockbuster was designed and authored by Imagion AG, a German company responsible for Elephant’s Dream, officially the first European HD DVD release. Imagion has pioneered a number of HD DVD (and Blu-ray) related technologies and innovations, created their own authoring tools and applications, and are without a doubt one of the top authoring shops on the planet. T2UE takes advantage of Imagion’s DynamicHD which uses the internet connection of your HD DVD player to add content to the title at any time over the intarwebs. The server for T2UE’s internet features is not activated before March 20th (T2UE’s official release date) which very effectively stopped me from testing the connectivity features.

So, in goes the disc to my Toshiba HD-XE1. First up, Kinowelt’s logo with DTS-HD HR audio, followed by Imagion’s logo accompanied by a rather bombastic DTS-HD MA soundtrack. An announcement flashes by, something to do with “accessing Skynet”, but Skynet is still down. Then… 30 seconds of black screen. No warnings, announcements, zip, nada, and the player looks like it’s doing nothing. Turns out the time was spent moving a bunch of code to player’s memory for the rendering of quite an elaborate main menu. It looks very nice indeed; metallic gray, high definition, with video and audio playing in the background. And menus are in English – which is nice. Unfortunately Kinowelt’s goodwill towards (remaining) HD DVD enthusiasts around the world runs out quite soon after that: most of the text within the special features is in German. One nice little touch is the info box which tells you which audio and subtitle is currently selected, and which chapter of the movie you’re viewing at the moment.

Some tech specs, then. The movie happens to be the Director’s Cut, with a runtime of approx. 153 minutes. It’s got four soundtracks, two of which are dubbed in German. The primary English audio is encoded in DTS-HD High Resolution. I haven’t been able to play the disc on a PC yet, so I haven’t a clue about its bitrate, but hunch says it’s somewhere around 2mbps. Secondary English audio is specially encoded to create some sort of a surround feel when listened to on headphones.

The DTS-HD HR track… well, Terminator 2 has never, ever, before sounded this good. The 7.1 (oh, indeed!) channel mix has oodles of dynamics, it’s crisp and crystal clear, with well defined surrounds and a nicely enveloping sound field. The sound mix during the first brief battle actually made me laugh out loud. It’s like the sound (re)mixer wanted to draw attention to the fact that this is a real 7.1 channel mix by pumping a massive explosion into the two rear surrounds. Well, he succeeded admirably, I can tell you that much.

There are two commentary tracks. First one is a compiled from almost 100 separate interviews, featuring James Cameron and the cast and crew. Second commentary was recorded in 2003 for the DVD release of Director’s Cut. Cameron is accompanied by William Wisher, who co-wrote the screenplay.

Oh yeah, picture quality. It looks better than ever, certainly, but let’s face it, T2 has never been a slick, ultra-sharp movie when it comes to picture quality. It was shot on Super35 and contains a large number of very grainy shots. One can’t expect a razor sharp transfer when the original footage was never nowhere near that. This Ultimate Edition looks better than any of the earlier releases, HD or SD, but don’t expect reference PQ.

In addition to regular viewing mode there’s a selection of four special viewing modes. Quiz mode asks the viewer 76 multiple-choice questions during the movie, ranging from incredibly easy to simply easy. A scoreboard on top of the screen keeps tally of how many you got correct or incorrect. Inside T2 mode is the equivalent of U-Control and In-Movie Experience. Windows pop up every now and then, displaying production photos and video interviews. Spy mode is quite amusing, as it points out the numerous mistakes and blunders that found their way into the final movie. First we get a text description of the error (in German, meh), after which playback pauses for a moment while the offending detail is pointed out by cropping the image to highlight it. There’s also an Interactive mode, but that relies on DynamicHD so I couldn’t test it yet.

You can also view the movie in script form (in English), in storyboards only, and as a combination of script, storyboard and the finished film. There’s also a number of deleted scenes for your viewing pleasure and most of them offer optional commentary. Luckily for the non-Germans among us, Kinowelt has not gone through the trouble of dubbing commentary tracks in German.

There’s a huge amount of content under the main menu heading Departments. If you happen to own some or all of the previously released Laserdisc and DVD Special Editions, you’ve already seen all this content in one form or another. The presentation of it deserves a mention, though. Imagion has created a very slick and easy-to-use menu system, and also done one hell of a job assembling it all into a pleasing whole. Like I mentioned, most of the text within this section is in German, but there are lots and lots of photos and undubbed videos to view. According to Imagion, the disc contains also a number of Easter Eggs but I haven’t had time to search for them yet.

Time for a wrap party, then. This is most definitely the definitive HiDef release of Terminator 2 – and I say this before seeing any of the internet-enabled special features. It’s got good picture quality, absolutely smashing audio, cool menus and more bonus features than you can shake a stick at. Granted, some of it is in German, and you can’t switch to English audio in some of the special viewing modes which can diminish the fun quite a lot… but this is a German release, after all. And at this stage of HD DVD’s lifecycle beggars really can’t be choosers, now can they?

Terminator 2: Ultimate HD Edition (HD DVD)
Video: 1080/24P (VC-1), AR 2.35:1
Audio: German DTS-HD HR 7.1 & Headphone-Surround, English DTS-HD HR 7.1 & Headphone-Surround
Subtitles: German and Turkish

I received my review copy a few minutes ago. My first action was to try to play it on a PC, but that didn’t work. PowerDVD 3319a was unable to render the main menu, though it did play the background video. I hit Enter a couple of times, image went black, and PowerDVD crashed. A newer version might work, but I’m loathe to update PowerDVD because Cyberlink was forced by AACS to remove support for BD/HD playback from hard drive.

Next stop: Toshiba HD-EP35. Works like a charm. Well, apart from the black screen which endures for 10-15 seconds while the rather cool looking main menu is being prepared for display. Or something. I noticed that my EP35 has an ancient firmware so I told it to fetch the latest one from the internet, which is what it’s doing now. I’ll do a proper review of the title this weekend, with photos and all.

Remember how I wrote that consumers would have been better off with HD DVD? And how the ending of the format war would be bad for the consumers? According to an interview published at Betanews, analysts at market research firm ABI Research are of the same mind.

One of my more bone-headed predictions had to do with Blu-ray players getting more expensive if Toshiba/HD DVD drops out of the war. I was at the time suffering from a severe flu and running a high fever, which might have something to do with not thinking things through properly.

But guess what? Los Angeles Times published an article which says pretty much the same thing. The article interviews Richard Doherty, research director of technology consulting firm Envisioneering Group, who says that we might see prices of Blu-ray players going up this summer.

I wonder if Mr. Doherty was feeling a bit feverish while giving that interview… :)

After the almost lethal blow that was Warner going Blu-ray exclusive, Toshiba and the HD DVD camp were left reeling. Their last gasp came in two parts: 1) an expensive TV ad during the Super Bowl and 2) further price reductions on all HD DVD players. Neither managed to excite the masses, however. The final blow came in the form of Best Buy, Netflix and Wal-Mart all announcing their exclusive support for Blu-ray. The jig was well and truly up, fat lady was spotted waddling towards the stage, and Microsoft was making noises that could be construed as faintly positive towards a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360.

It will be very interesting to see what Paramount, Dreamworks and Universal do now. I’m fairly certain all have clauses in their contracts, freeing them from any and all obligations towards HD DVD if Toshiba throws in the towel. Paramount will probably dig up their already-authored Blu-ray masters and have Transformers BD in stores quick as a flash. Dreamworks will surely follow suit.

Universal, however… now that’s tricky. There’s been a lot of bad blood between Sony and Universal in the past. To be honest, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Universal announced they would take a break from Hi-Def altogether. That’s right: no HD DVDs, no Blu-rays. They could quite easily claim that releasing on Blu-ray is not commercially viable at the moment, thus thumbing their noses at Sony. They’d naturally anger a couple of million consumers at the same time, and that’s something they probably wish to avoid.

Universal will more than likely announce that they will start releasing Blu-ray titles, but it will take them a while to gear up production. 6-12 months, maybe. We’ll see.

I happened to be in Japan when Toshiba launched their first HD DVD player and naturally, being a purebred technowanker, I had to buy one. It’s kinda hard to believe that was ~22 months ago. HD DVD, we hardly knew ye.

Mind you, this is not based on any insider information or gossip, but purely my own speculation.

What’s the worst thing that could happen to a Japanese person? Losing face and honour. I think it applies to Japanese companies as well, which is why I’m sure Toshiba won’t drop HD DVD like a bad stink. They are honour-bound to those million consumers who have purchased a HD DVD player. So, what’s going to happen?

1) Toshiba will make a very carefully worded announcement where they concede the war. To save face, they will promise to honour all player warranties and will make sure there are plenty of spare parts available for years to come. They will pledge to do their best so their customers will be able to enjoy their existing HD DVD libraries well into the next decade. They will also dedicate resources into further firmware development and bugfixes for current players, but they won’t be releasing any new HD DVD players. Having said that, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Toshiba announced they will be developing a combo player, perhaps with Samsung or LG.

2) Universal, Paramount and Dreamworks make a press release announcing their continuing support for HD DVD. They will keep releasing new HD DVD titles for the rest of 2008, but that’s the end of the road for HD DVD as far as they are concerned. More importantly, all three will go multi-format as soon as logistically possible, meaning we’ll see their first Blu-ray releases in a few months.

3) Microsoft… well, Microsoft wins no matter how the format war ends. They’ve got their VC-1 in Blu-ray specs, after all, and Xbox Live is churning money selling low-bitrate 720p HD downloads. They spent millions developing HDi, but I’m sure they will be able to re-purpose that for net applications. HD DVD losing the war is not a big deal for MS. They can pretty much shrug their shoulders and go “Meh.” There’s nothing stopping them from coding a Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360.

And while all this is taking place, I have a year’s worth of still shrinkwrapped HD DVDs and Blu-rays in my shelf. As before, I will keep on buying titles in both formats and when HD DVDs are no longer released, all my purchases will be Blu-ray. Nothing could be simpler.

Let’s do this the old-fashioned way, by the numbers.

1) I’m format neutral. I’m aware some readers have a difficult time believing and accepting this, but it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. I have seven Blu-ray players and seven HD DVD players. I have 291 HD DVD titles and 296 Blu-rays in my ‘library’. I’m a fanboy of High Definition audio and video; I’m a fanboy of both formats – and neither, in some cases.

2) If you find bias for either format in my rants, you’re not thinking straight. You’re probably interpreting the text through tinted lenses and find pretty much everything I wrote offensive and an insult to your chosen format. Do you send angry emails to Nielsen or Forrester Research for publishing reports that paint your chosen format in less than perfect light? (If you do, you’re an idiot.)

3) In my rants, I laid out the facts and the reasoning behind my statement of “If Blu-ray wins, the consumer loses”. Since this was obviously more than enough to get blood boiling, most missed my main point while climbing the barricades: I love both formats to bits and don’t want to see either format die out. I firmly believe there’s room for two competing HDM formats on this planet. (Why not three? Bring on HD VMD!) I also believe competition between the two camps is good for the consumer. What I don’t believe, however, is that killing one format is enough to get the masses off their arses and into stores to buy HD players and media. I’ve seen way too many bleak polls and analyst reports to believe that.

4) What I probably should have written: “If either format dies, the consumer loses”. Then continue with “…but if we’re forced to make a choice, we’re slightly better off with HD DVD.” No, stupid, I’m not comparing technical specs. Blu-ray as a whole has too much ‘excess baggage’ hidden behind the scenes. It’s too crucial for Sony as a company. It’s definitely less consumer friendly of the two formats with its draconian DRM and region coding. Also, what the hell is Pioneer doing, releasing a slow-as-molasses Profile 1.0 player 18 months after format launch with a price tag of 1600 Euros?! The mind boggles.

5) Format zealots: I hate you all. The worst thing, by far, caused by the format war is the rise of format zealots, foaming-in-the-mouth fanboys who abandon all reason and logic in defence of their chosen format. What’s in it for you, fanboys? Is it the bragging rights and infantile “HA HA, my format won, yours lost, nyah nyah!” shouting once the other format is killed off? Do you think you’ll get a nice big check in the mail and a pat on the head? 72 virgins…? Whatever the reason, fuck you very much indeed.

The news item is worth mentioning for a couple of additional reasons. First off, the person who wrote the news item knows very little about either format, it seems. He writes,

from a technical standpoint there’s not much difference between the file formats of HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Yeah, file formats indeed. We should probably be thankful he didn’t try to impress us by comparing the physical dimensions of players. “One’s a bit thicker!” Uh-huh, like you, I guess.

Second, and by far the more salient point, is the fact that the person in question injected his own personal opinion about one format dying off being a “blessing for the consumer”. How, exactly? According to him, it’s a blessing because the consumer has no need to ponder on which format’s player to purchase.

Oh boy. Let’s break this down a bit, shall we? You are interested in High Definition movies. You’ve got a nice 42-inch HDTV and a surround sound system at home and you’re ready to take the plunge. But wait! Some of the movies you want to buy are released on HD DVD only, and other favourites are out only on Blu-ray. What to do, WHAT TO DO?!

It’s quite simple: you buy both.

By now you’re probably screaming about not being able to afford two players, or that buying movies in two formats is silly, or something equally retarded. Shut up, you can afford two players. The format war was taking care of player prices. You could have purchased the cheaper player now and the more expensive one later once its price dropped. And let’s be honest here, what the hell are you doing, thinking about HD if you can’t afford the hobby? Get real, grow a pair and stop whining.

Multi-format, then.

This is not the first time you need to buy more than one piece of equipment to have access to all the content you wish to enjoy. If you’re into videogames and own more than one games console, I can and will call you a hypocrite. You wanted to play a game which was exclusive to PlayStation 2 so you bought a PS2, right? Then you bought an Xbox for some of its exclusive titles. Now you’ve got a PS3 and an Xbox 360, while your Nintendo Famicom, Gamecube and a couple of Sega’s old consoles are gathering dust in the attic.

So please stop whinging about buying content in two formats. You’ve bought plenty of content in various formats in the past. C-cassettes, CDs, mp3s, you’ve bought movies in VHS and DVD formats – and if you pay a TV license fee, that’s just one more content format you’re paying to enjoy.

Still mumbling about needing two players? Well, I suggest you write a stern note to CE manufacturers and demand a box which acts as a set-top box for digital TV broadcasts, while also playing DVDs, Blu-rays and HD DVDs – and fits nicely into your pocket so you can view movies on-the-go. Don’t forget, it has to be a phone and a digital camera as well. Convergence is a great idea, but let’s face it, we will always have a variety of boxes lying around the house for various tasks. One box more is not going to kill you. Unless it bursts into flame at night and burns the house down with you inside.

But seriously, LG and Samsung have new comboplayers coming out this year. Samsung announced a new UP5500 at CES for $599. That’s about half of what LG’s first comboplayer cost only some months ago. We’ll have to see what effect Warner’s announcement has on the future of comboplayers, however.

Lesser of two evils.

In part 1 of this rant, I wrote about how Sony and its partners have invested billions on Blu-ray, and how they will eventually get their money back from the consumers. None of these companies is running a charity, after all. And you know what? Toshiba is not a charity either. If HD DVD won the war, Toshiba would certainly do everything in their power to make money as well. I just happen to believe that we, as consumers, would have been better off under Toshiba’s regime.

Here’s why:
1) Toshiba does not control HD DVD replication.
2) Toshiba does not own any Hollywood studios, i.e. it has no reason to screw competing studios over.
3) Toshiba has never introduced rootkits in its software. Big corporations are evil, but Toshiba is lesser of two evils here.
4) Ramping up HD DVD replication capacity does not require multi-billion dollar investments, the bill of which is eventually paid by the consumers.

Sure, HD DVD PRG cancelled their press conference and released a couple of muted press releases, voicing their disappointment with Warner. Sure, Blu-ray has clear advantage when it comes to studio support once Warner stops releasing HD DVDs – but HD DVD is not dead yet. At least, I hope it’s not. And if you’re at all interested in High Definition, you should hope the same.

HD DVD still has the backing of Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks, Toshiba, Microsoft, the DVD Forum and several other, smaller companies. The format war is not over until Toshiba and the DVD Forum give up on HD DVD. And Toshiba has deep pockets, much deeper than Sony. It remains to be seen how badly Toshiba wants to win the war.

No matter what, one thing is certain: if Blu-ray wins, the consumer loses. Granted, Blu-ray’s the better of the two competing formats from a strictly technical point of view. Higher bitrate ceiling and larger disc capacity are certainly nothing to be scoffed at. But it’s also much more difficult and way more expensive to manufacture than HD DVD. And Sony has been, and still is, losing money hand over fist in their quest for HD format dominance.

The companies behind Blu-ray have spent billions of dollars in R&D and production facilities. PlayStation 3, Sony’s successful Trojan Horse, is sold at a loss. Blu-ray discs are slow to replicate and the yields are still dismal compared to DVD and HD DVD. Sony’s replication factories are also losing money since they charge studios less than the actual cost of replication; make no mistake, Sony has been subsidizing BD replication since the beginning of the format war. Sony has been (until Warner’s announcement, at least) making large monthly payments to Disney so they remain BD exclusive. And despite Warner’s press releases, it’s clear as crystal that both the BDA and HD DVD PRG were taking part in an aggressive bidding campaign for Warner’s exclusive support.

Then there’s the issue of replication capacity. Blu-ray factories are thin on the ground. Very thin. Sony owns most of them, and most are busy replicating PlayStation 3 games. Remember a while back when a bunch of Warner’s Blu-ray titles missed their release date? Not enough production capacity, pure and simple. It costs tens (hundreds, according to some sources) of millions to build a new state-of-the-art (and it has to be that, since Blu-ray’s tolerances are so tight) factory equipped with a bunch of Blu-ray production lines. Current DVD lines can’t be upgraded to produce Blu-rays, you see. On the other hand, practically all new DVD lines installed in the past couple of years can replicate HD DVDs at a flick of a switch. Another flick of the switch and the line replicates DVDs again. Now, imagine if Blu-ray wins and the format experiences a sudden rise in demand. The production capacity for that does not exist, so new factories and large investments need to be made. (I also wonder if studio execs have given any thought to the fact that most BD replication capacity on the planet is controlled by Sony, who happens to own a number of Hollywood studios…)

So what does all of this have to do with the consumer losing if Blu-ray wins? It’s staggeringly simple. None of these companies are in this game out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re in it for the money and nothing else. The format war has so far cost Sony & BDA billions upon billions and that expense WILL be recouped. And you know who’s going to foot that bill, don’t you? Indeed, we, the consumers.

The format war has been good to us, so far. Players have come down in price faster than anyone could have guessed 18 months ago. BDA and HD DVD PRG have sponsored several Amazon.com discount campaigns. They’ve also offered several free titles with purchase of a player. If HD DVD dies out, you can kiss goodbye to discounts, free titles and cheap players. It won’t happen overnight, but expect to see a slow and steady price increase of Blu-ray hardware and software if competition vanishes. Actually, now that my fever has gone down momentarily (I’ve got a very nasty flu), I can see things aren’t quite so bleak after all. Even if HD DVD dies out, Blu-ray will still have competition – in form of DVD. As studios love to charge premium for a new format, it will take a while for software prices to drop anywhere close to DVD, however. It’s up to the player manufacturers to drive down their prices to the point where Joe Average will rather buy a Blu-ray player instead of a new DVD player.

There are folks out there who believe the format war is to blame for the slow mass adoption of HD. Warner’s press release puts it like this:

The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers. A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry.

Personally, I don’t believe that for a second. There are some people out there who’ve been sitting on a fence, waiting to see which format survives. But they are a very small minority. They don’t matter in the large scheme of things. The format war is nothing compared to consumer apathy and ignorance. The masses are not on a fence – they don’t even know there’s a fence. They think they’re viewing HD simply because they purchased an HDTV. Yup, all their DVDs are now High Definition! They’ve got a proper HD feed coming over the cable, but their HDTV is hooked up to the SD feed. And they are satisfied with the image, because they just don’t know there’s something better out there. And then there’s the apathy. “DVD is good enough for me!”, they say. “You mean I have to buy a new TV and a new player to see HD? Nuh-uh, not me, buddy!”

Apathy and ignorance. Moving to a single HD format will not get rid of either one.