The Day After
by Pravin on January 5th, 2008 in news.
Lots of blogs and sites that barely cover high-def disc formats are suddenly coming out with plenty of coverage now of the recent news about Warner’s end to format neutrality. In being involved with blogging for this site, I’ve noticed that the real news and information about the things you’re involved with tends to come only from the few sources that specialize in or at least pay some attention to that area. The rest of the “news” sources often generalize the information and do little to increase the reader’s knowledge of the situation. Crazy Xbox 360 rumours are a prime example, and now it’s this story.
The general trend of coverage has been to say the format war is over, and many sites have even changed Sunday’s postponment of the HD DVD press conference to a stronger term, saying that it’s cancelled. There’s a difference in the words and meaning, and it’s completely logical that the event needs to be rescheduled.
For one thing, I’m sure Warner was going to make presentations at the HD DVD news conference on Sunday, and the overall presentation needs to be adjusted now to go on without them. I’m sure this affects more than just a few Powerpoint slides or brochures that were going to be handed out.
More importantly, the HD DVD team has to provide answers about what they’re going to do for 2008, and you can bet that the strategy has had to change in a big way. They need a little more time now to make a complete presentation that answers a lot of questions, and postponing the HD DVD news conference is the logical move. Cancelling it is not.
Having said that, I don’t know how useful it is to have a press conference days into the show. These are usually held the day before or on the first day, because they help set the tone for visitors to the exhibit booths. In the end, the conference could end up being as good as cancelled if it can’t happen sometime during the show.
As with just about everything else, we’ll just have to see what happens next. There are a lot of ways that this can turn out.
Here’s something to remember about your HD DVD player and collection:
- They still work
- There are still discs coming out
- You can buy stuff cheap from the people who are running for the hills
A good place to vent, ask questions, or get the latest discussion is in the various internet forums, and here’s that list again from the last story:
Those who came to gloat already know where to go and do that. I’m certainly not entertaining it here.
