That article at I4U news that you linked to is an example, there are many others. The weeks following and leading up to E3 have unleashed a chain of announcements/articles that have all been very disappointing and dis-hearting for BD fans. You go to message boards, etc now and you start to see that even the most vocal BD proponents are now subdued, now nervous – if not outright angry/insulting to Sony and all the poor news that has been unveiled for their format.

The change is extremely surprising to those of us who have followed the war from the start and who always used to passionately argue either for or against BD. Now those arguments are much more calm. Hah, amiable even.

While I agree that statistics can often mean little or nothing (many enthusiasts in the forums would argue that that even looking at sales numbers may mean nothing and that ultimately the war will be won by the first side that garners enough “positive perception penetration” – in other words the first brand that successfully establishes it’s name as the next cool/lavish thing to own by the general public) – I’d be surprised now if the statistics didn’t keep gaining/rising in the favor of HD DVD. Funny, that I’d easily have predicted the exact opposite for every day leading up to the past 5 weeks.

Now HD DVD seems to have a momentum that will not slow down. New surprise titles are announced to be coming soon practically every week. I expect soon that the HD-A1 will have a firmware update. Then Batman Begins. Then Kong. Then a price drop. Etc.

All this and there’s a very serious question as to whether BD’s single-layer, MPEG-2 compressed (in Sony titles) movies will even look as good as the high standard set by HD DVD releases.

There’s even a serious question as to whether BD will be around AT ALL to counter any of it.

And BD with it’s $1000 price tag. A tag that’s even seemed to turn many of the craziest/richest early adopters off in favor of the A1.

If Sony doesn’t have a compelling counter (whether they release or not – I’m talking about in terms of content/price/etc also) to Toshiba’s momentum prior to November – a situation I never would have predicted but one that now seems incredibly plausible…then I’m not sure how they will recover in the eyes of those of us who don’t have money to burn, who would want to choose a side because of it.

The amount of things Toshiba could release or do to gain ground between now and November is staggering. At the very least it seems that Batman Begins/Kong/firmware update are inevitable. But now they could potentially have things like the LotR trilogy, Friends:S1, Sopranos:S1, etc, etc, etc – as at least a time-exclusive for their format. Things less than these have swayed people in the past.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I don’t know about you, but I was extremely impressed with Toshiba and all the releases (many surprises) that ending up coming out during this month of May. Lord knows, if they can keep this volume/momentum up, – then their long-chided under-dog status may prove to be one of the the most ironic labels the media has yet to give.

That article at I4U news that you linked to is an example, there are many others. The weeks following and leading up to E3 have unleashed a chain of announcements/articles that have all been very disappointing and dis-hearting for BD fans. You go to message boards, etc now and you start to see that even the most vocal BD proponents are now subdued, now nervous – if not outright angry/insulting to Sony and all the poor news that has been unveiled for their format.

The change is extremely surprising to those of us who have followed the war from the start and who always used to passionately argue either for or against BD. Now those arguments are much more calm. Hah, amiable even.

While I agree that statistics can often mean little or nothing (many enthusiasts in the forums would argue that that even looking at sales numbers may mean nothing and that ultimately the war will be won by the first side that garners enough “positive perception penetration” – in other words the first brand that successfully establishes it’s name as the next cool/lavish thing to own by the general public) – I’d be surprised now if the statistics didn’t keep gaining/rising in the favor of HD DVD. Funny, that I’d easily have predicted the exact opposite for every day leading up to the past 5 weeks.

Now HD DVD seems to have a momentum that will not slow down. New surprise titles are announced to be coming soon practically every week. I expect soon that the HD-A1 will have a firmware update. Then Batman Begins. Then Kong. Then a price drop. Etc.

All this and there’s a very serious question as to whether BD’s single-layer, MPEG-2 compressed (in Sony titles) movies will even look as good as the high standard set by HD DVD releases.

There’s even a serious question as to whether BD will be around AT ALL to counter any of it.

And BD with it’s $1000 price tag. A tag that’s even seemed to turn many of the craziest/richest early adopters off in favor of the A1.

If Sony doesn’t have a compelling counter (whether they release or not – I’m talking about in terms of content/price/etc also) to Toshiba’s momentum prior to November – a situation I never would have predicted but one that now seems incredibly plausible…then I’m not sure how they will recover in the eyes of those of us who don’t have money to burn, who would want to choose a side because of it.

The amount of things Toshiba could release or do to gain ground between now and November is staggering. At the very least it seems that Batman Begins/Kong/firmware update are inevitable. But now they could potentially have things like the LotR trilogy, Friends:S1, Sopranos:S1, etc, etc, etc – as at least a time-exclusive for their format. Things less than these have swayed people in the past.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I don’t know about you, but I was extremely impressed with Toshiba and all the releases (many surprises) that ending up coming out during this month of May. Lord knows, if they can keep this volume/momentum up, – then their long-chided under-dog status may prove to be one of the the most ironic labels the media has yet to give.