Susanne Ault

NY Times Gloom

Bloggers are freaking out over a New York Times article that suggests neither high-def format is getting off the ground. The writer makes the argument that it doesn't really matter if there is a format war, because no one is really there to witness the fighting, choosing to shrug the whole thing off with still satisfying standard definition DVDs. Many of the major format war players participated in the story, including BDA's Andy Parsons and Universal/HD DVD Promotion Group's Ken Graffeo. I'll bet both don't really appreciate the story's underlying pessimism.
It's true that overall retail sales of high-def hardware might seem puny compared to relatively hotter electronics categories like GPS systems or digital picture frames (I'm guilty of giving the latter to the parents for Christmas). And high-def software is still considered just a few percentage points of studio DVD division's revenues. But I would counter that it's still too early to know one way or the other with high-def, because a good number of people probably just got their set-tops and/or PS3s, Xbox add-ons as gifts. Then tack on all those free disc offers that come with their players, and we might not see heavy accompanying high-def software purchasing till February, marking a reasonable amount of time for new owners to view their 5-10 free titles. 
But I do see the New York Times point that the two formats are splitting what fledgling fans there are for high-def at this point. Maybe we'll get some further enlightenment about where the formats are going at the just-around-the-corner Consumer Electronics Show. At last count, there were nearly 10 press conferences scheduled for Sunday from the HD DVD or Blu-ray manufacturers.

Posted by Susanne Ault on January 2, 2008 | Comments (4)