Is the upcoming hi-def DVD format war over?

Tonight we held a Sony seminar on their new SXRD LCOS sets. The big chiefs at Sony brought with them their Blu-Ray Prototype and let me set up the gear and play with the new toy. The unit itself reminds me of one of the first BETA machines, as this thing weighed in at least 65lbs. The 23GB demo disk was supported in a protective magazine with the unit being drawer loaded. The outputs were limiting and tricky to set up since I-link would output video only and no audio. Optical was disabled, but Coax was active with only AC3 output. The unit had no HDMI, so the claimed 1080p output was of course compressed through I-link. Unfortunately the remote and on screen guide were in Japanese, so my joy was cut a bit short. The disk contained a cut from “Spiderman II” and the full trailer from “Stealth”. Even with the video being compressed, the quality was some of the best HD movie scenes I’ve ever seen and I thought to myself how that crap they call HD on HBO and Showtime isn’t even the same ball park. 3-D HD is probably the best way to describe how incredible movies are about to look. Customers actually cheered at what they were seeing tonight. If the picture looks this good with compressed firewire, then the un-compresed HDMI version of the player should put movie theaters in a world of hurt.

As far as what Sony was telling customers when the stand alone units will be available, was the unfortunate fact is that it won’t be ready until the HD format war is over. They don’t want any format confusion until everyone’s on board. PS3 will play the new disks and this will be the only way start early (brilliant marketing for the PS3). The movies themselves will not come in a magazine, but will be coated in a new special process that resists scratches, chemical spills and finger prints. They also described how their format will support Java script and internet to gather interactive materials and hold more data than HD DVD to make it more future proof. The ability for the player to play your old DVD’s will be supported in the future and they will include a 1080p up-conversion process. Guys, this format will do to DVD’s what they did to VHS. GET READY!!!!! :cool: