If you’ve ever followed or studied the stock market, you’re probably aware that certain companies and products end up being good indicators about what’s coming a few months later in the economy for a particular industry. For example, an increase in orders for construction materials means that more homes or buildings are being built, which means that business conditions for people buying homes or buildings must be improving as well. Or let’s say a company makes a kind of machine that’s used in manufacturing electronics equipment. Higher sales of their machines means that their customers (consumer electronics manufacturers) are ramping up production of whatever products they make with these new machines. In either case (construction or electronics), it means that consumers will be getting those products a few months later, and a few months after that, we’ll hear that the industry had a good sales period.

In a similar way, you might have heard about the following products on the gadget websites in the last few days or weeks (or months):

• Toshiba Qosmio Laptop gets 0.5-inch HDDVD-RW Drive
• Acer announces HD DVD-equipped laptop with 20-inch screen
• HP Pavilion dv9000t HD DVD-equipped laptop gets good reviews (Editor’s choice at PC Magazine)
• Alpine and Toshiba demonstrate automotive HDDVD player

What’s important about these products? Especially that last one, which isn’t even coming out for over a year? (more…)

Technology has the annoying habit of never standing still for too long. Just as you’ve decided to embrace a new gizmo, it turns out that something even newer is right around the corner. It’s a major let-down to find out that the gadget you just bought is about to be leapfrogged by something better – and probably for a cheaper price! It stinks, but what can you do? That’s just the nature of technology. I think the only thing you can do is wish for a healthy dose of good luck and discretionary income.

Luckily, some of that good luck has already headed your way if you have an HDDVD player.

One of the nice things about HDDVD players is that ALL of them come with ethernet connections allowing them to connect to the internet. The most common reason to be connected is to download supplementary content for a movie you might be watching, but a more practical reason is for upgrading the player. You are probably accustomed to updating your browser, operating system and other software on your computer, and in the world of HDDVD, you can do the same for your player!

These downloads are called “firmware” updates. Firmware is the software running in your hardware (but I don’t think that’s why it’s called “firm”). To a certain extent, support for new features is only a firmware update away. As long as new features do not rely on specific hardware components, it’s very likely that firmware updates will allow even a year-old HDDVD player to continue to keep up in many ways with newer models.

Let me repeat an important part of that statement about future-proofing: it only applies as long as new features do not rely on specific hardware components. That’s not the kind of upgrade you can get from firmware alone. Remember, firmware is just the software that drives your hardware.

You might have heard that there have been issues with some discs not working on some players. (more…)

If most of your friends have chosen a particular format, guess what? They’ve chosen the format for you too, and you hadn’t even realized it yet!

Get the same HD format that your friends have. It’s as simple as that! Your friends probably like the same kinds of things that you like — that’s how you probably became friends in the first place, isn’t it? It follows that your friends share your taste in entertainment, and being the good friends they are, I bet you’ve already borrowed movies from each other now and then. Do the logical and practical thing, and extend this into your HD choice!

You’ll live happily ever after, loaning movies to each other, recommending titles, exchanging tips about products and technologies, and on and on. It’ll even bring you closer together. (Or further apart if you insist on bragging that their movies are better on your home theater system).

Next up, are your family members, your acquaintances, and associates at work, school or whatever organization(s) you’re involved with. These people come into your life—not entirely by your own choosing—however they’re there and their selection of movies is something you can probably freely borrow from (that one was for the Grammar Natzees in ‘da house!).

In short, don’t sit on the Hi-Def fence when you don’t have to. The format war has barely even started, and it’s not likely to be decisively won or lost any time in the next 12 or 24 months. By continuing to “sit on the fence,” you’re missing out on a lot of good content for your home theater investment. If you’ve already got friends, family, or associates to trade with, then you’re definitely not coming out ahead by waiting and waiting.