Ken Graffeo plays dual roles in the HD DVD world: he’s the co-president of the North American HD DVD Promotional Group, as well as Executive Vice President of High-Def Strategic Marketing for Universal. Ken’s whole world is all about high-def and BetaNews.com was able to score a lengthy interview with him that brings out a great deal of much-needed insight into recent events with the format.

I’m only going to mention a few tid bits from the interview here, but do yourself a favor and read the whole thing over at BetaNews. Here are some of the highlights:

• Warner’s decision was completely unexpected and came out at the last minute while most of these execs were on their flights to Las Vegas. (This is also mentioned in a piece over at Gizmodo). There was no time to retool the HD DVD presentation for Sunday night at CES, and Graffeo didn’t want to put on a half-hearted effort that left too many questions unanswered, quote: “I hate to stand in front of someone and say I don’t have an answer, I don’t know what’s going on.”
• Graffeo asserts that all those initial rumors about Universal and Paramount were unsubstantiated, and that both parties plan to go on with “business as usual for us and there are no plans to make any changes…We also have a lot of other things planned.”
• While he can’t speak for other studios and what they might do in the future, Ken Graffeo reports that CES meetings with retailers were encouraging and that they openly said they’d wait for consumers to make the final choice. To that end, Graffeo talks about $85 up-converting players owning the market right now, and how consumers are very price sensitive. He also mentioned needing better consumer education on exactly what high-def is all about.
• Digital downloads will improve over time, but it’s not going to take over next year or the year after that because it’s not as plug and play as DVD players already are. Also, people like to collect and share, and they can’t do that with digital downloads. Consequently, physical media and disc ownership is going to be around for quite a long time.

There’s plenty more to read and Beta News did a great job in landing this interview. Please head on over and see for yourself what Ken Graffeo had to say about reaching compromises with Blu-ray, CH DVD – the Chinese HD DVD format, and more.

• Ken Graffeo interview at BetaNews.com
• Juicy info about studio support at Gizmodo.com