Making Peace with Blu-ray

I admit that I’ve had my share of anti-Blu-ray rants in the past. But that’s all over now. It’s time for the Toshib-ati to put away the pitchforks and accept Blu-ray as the high- def disc format of choice. After all, there’s a bigger picture at stake for anyone who loves home theater.

Sure, we know the Johnny-come-lately Sony format wasn’t complete at release and I could levy a hundred other criticisms Sony’s way. However, in the words of Marc Antony: 

I have come to bury Toshiba, not to praise it. 

The war is over! Blu-ray can now take its place among all those fine Sony media formats like the Mini-Disc for instance, which stood triumphant in the magneto-optical disc format war back in the early 90s. I hear Mini-Disc was big in Europe and as a matter of fact so was David Hasselhoff.

Now that HD DVD is brushed aside the struggle for mainstream acceptance is just beginning for Sony’s fledgling disc format. The real format war is against digital downloads not Toshiba. 

By the way Toshiba! Don’t think we’ve forgotten how you sold our secret, silent sub-propeller technology to the Soviets during the cold war. If you ask me the result of the high-def disc format was really NATO karma.

The evolution of consumer electronics for about the last decade can be seen as a struggle for your living-room. The trenches have been dug between computer operating systems and traditional consumer electronics manufacturers.

Computers are already in your office but Apple (Apple TV, iTunes) and Microsoft (Media Center, Xbox) covet the sweet spot between your couch and your new HDTV. But, traditional consumer electronics companies like Sony won’t give it up without a fight. 

For better or worse the local-disc-as-source paradigm is going to be represented by Sony. Microsoft and Apple would have you streaming or downloading audio/video from the Internet. 

The trouble with the computer home entertainment solution is compression. Today, high-def movie downloads mean Mpeg2 compressed files carrying 720P video with a 5.1 channel mix that doesn’t hold a candle to DTS-HD-Master Audio. 

Yes, it’s the classic battle between scalability (computers) and upper-end quality (home electronics). Have you seen the electronics inside most computer equipment? Any traditional hi-fi nut would shudder to see switch mode power supplies and audio output IC chips. Whether you’re a hi-fi objectivist or pricey-cable Audiophile, we have to unite to keep standards in home electronics. 

Sure, scalability in the form of portable files is cool. But only to a point! A colleague of mine once plopped a laptop in front of me playing back a downloaded copy of the Russel Crowe film, Gladiator. He bragged that he could carry his entire movie collection wherever he went. I could only shake my head in disgust.

No Maximus - I am not entertainted! 

If we don’t stand behind Blu-ray now I fear the only choice for viewing future high definition movies will be streamed over the Internet in a digital pay-per-view scheme. Who cares if we can carry movies with us on the sub-way! Most of us want to see, hear and experience home theater the way it was meant to be.