Living as I do in a suburb of LA, it's hard to avoid movie news. The local rag, the Los Angeles Times, is awash in it. Its theater listings take up an entire section of the paper, which on Friday and Sunday can feature huge, double-page ads for major releases. So if a movie opens to big notices and reviews, good or bad, it's hard to avoid hearing about it around here.

Which is why I wonder how I missed the releases of sure-fire hits such as Starship Troupers 3: Marauder, Doomsday, Step Up 2: The Streets, CJ7 and Never Back Down. OK, to be fair, I did see trailers on television for Doomsday, and Never Back Down was reviewed on, Ebert and What's His Name At the Movies? (soon to be At the Movies With What's His Name and Who's That?).

Some of these titles may have seen very limited release, with no publicity, but others might belong to a new class of video release: Direct-to-Blu-ray.

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Most movies made over the last 60 years were not filmed with HD formats in mind. It’s possible to re-process a film into HD resolution, and the studios are doing so with many movies. However, it’s a manual process, and the results for older or less popular films are mixed. So, before you run out and buy a player, read some unbiased reviews for the titles you plan to re-purchase. Also, keep track of which of your favorite TV shows were recorded in HD, as there’s little benefit to buying the Blu-ray version of a show shot in standard-def!

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I recently spent a weekend cleaning up my home office, the retreat where I write much of my deathless prose. I hadn't rummaged through some of my files for several years, but had to make room for the piles of new stuff that have managed to build up to the point where I couldn't find things. This sorting process invariably takes longer than you plan, as you find things that require instant action (as they did two years ago) and others that demand to be re-read and enjoyed again.

OK, so I'm bad at throwing things out. I found tax records older than some IRS trainees. But buried in the mess I found some long-forgotten gems. One of them was a small collection of audio-related cartoons drawn by the late Charles Rodriguez, who livened up the pages of Stereo Review (now Sound and Vision) from its founding until he retired in the 1980s (I believe—I don't have the exact date). I scanned the best one, above, which I suspect may date from as far back as the 1960s. The presence of an older salesman and the fact that salesman and customer are wearing suits and ties is something of a giveaway, given the rarity of both today.

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You might not find that precise definition in your Webster's, but it's the one that applies to our little corner of the world. It's also one of the most important characteristics of a video image.

But there are a number of ways to measure contrast—more precisely contrast ratio—and that's where the problems begin. One method is so-called ANSI contrast, which measures the contrast between peak white and total video black when both are present on the screen at the same time, usually from a standard checkerboard pattern of black and white squares. The presence of white and black together is the toughest test for contrast ratio, since the white areas inevitably compromise the black.

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I can't say I'm as big a Star Trek fan as some. I love the stories and characters, but I'm not into the minutiae. I don't know which deck sickbay is on, couldn't tell you the date the first Enterprise was launched (actually it was Stardate 1814, if you can believe Wikipedia), and don't know a word of Klingon.

I'm also far different than most fans in that my favorite Star Trek series is Voyager (the only Trek to really put its crew totally on their own), and I actually, sort of, enjoyed Enterprise (which, incidentally, looks so good on its HDNet HD widescreen reruns that even the nay-sayers might enjoy it). I also feel that the best Trek film after First Contact was Galaxy Quest. What, you didn't think that was a Trek film? Oh ye of little imagination. In any event, such radical opinions would get me tossed out of any self-respecting Trek convention, unless I went disguised as a Tribble.

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You're got two displays; perhaps a plasma on the wall for day-to-day viewing and a projection screen that drops down in front of it for serious movie watching. Or you want to feed HDMI video to a small screen on your equipment rack as a monitor. Or…whatever. Up to now, it's been difficult to find an affordable device that will split an HDMI source in two. There are a number of such products on the market from companies like Gefen, Key Digital, and PureLink, but they tend to be expensive solutions to a relatively basic problem, often providing more flexibility than you need.

A few new high-end A/V receivers and pre-pros offer dual HDMI outputs, but often they can't output the signal from both HDMI ports at the same time. If you need to do this, they're not a solution—even apart from the issue of having to buy a new, expensive receiver you might not need.

Into the breach charges Accell, a company that was new to me last fall when I heard about its one-in, two-out UltraAV HDMI (1.2a) Splitter ($119.99). It's a small device: bigger than a postage stamp, smaller than a CD case. The single input and two outputs are located on three of its four sides. An LED for each output illuminates when a video display is connected to it. Power comes from a small wall-wart transformer. It has no controls of any kind.

It works well—or at least most of the time. Of the several displays I tried it with, only the Panasonic TH-58PX750U plasma sometimes refused to display an image. I suspect this was an HDMI handshake issue. HDMI has been both good-cop and bad-cop in its performance with various displays, sources, and switchers (with the good-cop behavior prevalent in my experience), so I would never claim any product such as this will unequivocally work with any and all sources and displays. But there's a better than even chance that it will.

I did discover one particularly bizarre example in which the Accell splitter actually went beyond its intended function to overcome HDMI's sometimes-fickle nature. I was reviewing a NuVision Lucidium 52" LCD for Home Theater magazine. For some as yet unexplained reason, the set refused to play HDMI sound on its internal audio system from two different Blu-ray players. But when I put the Accell splitter in the circuit, there was sound! I'm not claiming that the splitter might be a cure for HDMI blues in addition to its splitter chores (nor does Accell), but you never know.

One thing that the Accell splitter's HDMI 1.2a design will not do is pass the new high-resolution audio formats in bitstream form, specifically Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. Or at least it would not do so with my Integra DTC-9.8 pre-pro. For that reason, I don't recommend positioning it upstream of an A/V receiver or pre-pro. But that's an unlikely location for a splitter; you're most apt to use it downstream, between the receiver and the displays and after the HDMI has already passed through the receiver and the sound retrieved.

With respect to picture quality, the Accell was transparent on the displays I tried it with, including a Pioneer PRO-150FD plasma and a JVC RS-1 projector together with a 78" wide Stewart Studiotek 130 screen. I saw no loss of detail and no color problems. The black and white levels were undisturbed.

The only downside here is the splitter's physical configuration. While small and inconspicuous by itself, the HDMI cables on three of its sides do make for a somewhat ungainly overall package. But that's unlikely to matter since you're probably going to hide it behind your equipment rack.

If all you need is a simple two-in, one-out switcher, Accell has you covered there as well with its UltraAV HDMI (1.3a) Switch ($99.99). Unlike the larger splitter, the switcher is self-powered by the input signal—no wall-wart is required. There's an LED for each input, and while there are no controls on the unit itself, it comes with a small (easy to use, easy to loose) two-button remote.

There's nothing much more to say about the switcher. It performs every bit as well as the splitter. In fact, I even cascaded the two together to form a relatively inexpensive two-in, two-out switcher-splitter—but remember that the combination will share the splitter's limitations with bitstream high-resolution audio. The combination is also rather clunky, what with HDMI cables sprouting out every which way. And the switcher can't be easily hidden if you want it to respond to the IR remote. But it works, and the price—for either device or both—is definitely right.

Accell Corporation (www.accellcables.com) also offers other larger, more conventionally configured, and more complex and expensive HDMI switcher/splitters.

So now we have a single HD disc format. Hallelujah. No more excuses for sitting on the fence. No more "my upconverted DVDs look almost like high definition" claptrap. The clouds will part, angelic choirs will sing, and…oops, wrong blog.

But not everything is just hunky-dory. (Sorry, I just watched the beautiful new Disney Blu-ray release of Crimson Tide and couldn't help myself.) Now that the war is over, it's time for the Blu-ray group to clean house.

Neither HD format had the patent on trouble-free operation, but HD DVD came closer to it than Blu-ray. This was largely because one company, Toshiba, built all of the hardware and could establish and enforce strict controls. All HD DVD machines played all discs from the get-go, and if they didn't, Toshiba was quick to issue firmware updates to correct the situation. The only missing pieces on some early models were the ability to play back all the advanced audio formats and 24 fps operation. And those oversights were corrected in either additional firmware updates or new players, which hit the market with striking regularity; a year and a half into the format Toshiba was on its third generation of HD DVD hardware and, in my opinion, was poised to launch a fourth very soon when, as they say, events intervened.

HD DVD players weren't perfect, but they were a dream compared to the issues that have afflicted Blu-ray. Only the PlayStation 3 escaped serious criticism for its overall functionality, since it was ready on day one and played virtually all discs flawlessly. But even the PS3 lacked some desirable features. It still doesn't offer bitstream out for Dolby TrueHD, and won't play back DTS HD Master Audio in any form.

But there don't appear to be any old or new BDs that the PS3 won't play. You can't say that for most stand-alone BD players. The big roadblocks appear to be BD's aggressive copy protection and BD-Java, or BD-J, issues. The copy protection is here to stay, but BD-J's three different, so-called Profiles have caused a lot of heartburn. We have Profile 1.0, Profile 1.1, and Profile 2.0. Profile 1.0 won't play all of the special features on some new discs, Profile 1.1 will, but not those features that require Internet connectivity. Profile 2.0 does it all, or should, but only the PS3 currently has Profile 2.0 capability.

While those 1.0 players will, in theory, play the movies on 1.1 and 2.0 discs and only hiccup on the advanced features, in some cases the movies themselves have refused to play properly some 1.0 players. Firmware updates have usually fixed the problems, but left in their wake a lot of grumpy Blu-ray owners. And we've seen updates that have fixed one problem while causing a new one.

Now it's time for the Blu-ray group to lay down the law. All future players should be Profile 2.0, or at least 2.0-capable with the addition of outboard storage in the form of a flash drive or memory card. All players must be built to the same strict standards, and software manufacturers must be held to those standards. If a disc won't play on a fully compliant player, no more firmware updates should be issued to make do; the disc itself must be remastered to comply. Standards have to begin somewhere.

Firmware updates (which are a nuisance for the more mass-market users the format must attract to succeed) should be limited to significant feature upgrades. Even then, the upgrade should be sent to all registered owners on a simple, playable disc. Insert disc, push play, update installs with no further actions required. The first company that does this will earn a lot of PR brownie points. Not everyone wants to, or can, fiddle around with an Internet connection in the home theater room. Some potential BD customers don't have a high-speed Internet connection, or a home network. Some don't even have home computers—though obviously this doesn't include those reading this blog!)

In addition, more than a few HDMI problems still need to be worked out. For example, I've used a number of player-display combinations that constantly break HDMI lock at the transitions between studio logos, trailers, and menus at the beginning of a Blu-ray disc. Even though the situation (usually) stabilizes by the time the main menu arrives, this constant flashing on and off is annoying, and a reminder that HDMI is not yet a perfectly seamless interface, 1.3 or not. As if we didn't know that already.

And please, studios, if you want Blu-ray to be perceived as the premium format it is, stop cluttering up the front-ends of your releases. I love trailers, but can do without a dozen of them prior to the main menu, particularly when they can only be skipped one at a time. Worse, we get the same trailers over and over on every disc issued within a two-month period (or longer). I love every Disney-Pixar film, and the Wall•e trailer was a hoot the first time I saw it. But if I hear "Waaleee" once more I'm going to find me a robot so I can strangle it. Give me the trailers, but put them in the menu as a feature. Kudos to the studios, such as Warner Brothers, however, whose BDs are mastered to get to the movie as soon as possible, sometimes with little more than the FBI logo and the menu.

And when will Blu-ray mandate that its resume feature, which lets you stop then restart play from where you left off, be required on all BDs. Some studios lock it out. In fact, the discs with the most trailers and promos up-front, or those that take the longest to load, seem to be the worst offenders here. If you stop the disc, intentionally or otherwise, they make you start again at the very beginning and slosh through the mush all over again.

Speaking of load times, while most enthusiasts will put up with the 2-3 minute loading times some discs require, the general public will not, particularly if they then have to sit through trailers for another 12 minutes (or skip them one at a time) to get to the movie. If the PS3 can load quickly and sell at competitive price, why can't stand-alone players? If it takes a Cell processor (the brains of the PS3) or something equivalent to provide this for all players, do it.

Finally, we come to price. The elephant in the room. We want a packaged high definition format to succeed, and that now means Blu-ray. There will always be premium players for those that demand them. But until the price of the average BD player comes down to a level that the typical consumer will consider (my best guess here is $200-$250), Blue-ray will remain a niche product while DVD continues to prosper for the "good enough" crowd.

Blu-ray software is still too expensive as well. If the DVD of a movie lists for $25, the BD should be $30, tops, not $35 or $40. Early adopters and enthusiasts may pay that sort of premium, but only for a title they really want. J6P won't even consider it. Fox recently dropped the prices on a few of its $40 BDs to between $30 (for older catalog releases) and $35. It's a start.

I wrote those words yesterday. Today, the end is here.

Early this past weekend, rumors flew that Toshiba was contemplating pulling the plug on the HD DVD format. And it's now official. Toshiba has thrown in the towel. It has announced that it will no longer promote the HD DVD format. It will no longer build new players, though it has promised to provide service support for players already in the hands of consumers. I would not, however, expect Toshiba to devote resources developing new firmware updates for existing machines.

We've watched the pressure mounting on HD DVD over the past weeks. First, Warner Brothers announced that they would no longer release discs in the format, starting in May. Then, in short order, retailers Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, and (in the U.K.) Woolworth dropped or cut back drastically on their support, Netflix and Blockbuster went mainly Blu-ray. New fire-sale, desperation prices were announced for HD DVD players. And Sonic Solutions, a major developer of mastering software for both formats, dropped its support for HD DVD as well. The Warner decision had triggered a tsunami.

HD DVD was already falling well behind in sales when Warner let the dogs out. It reportedly lagged 3:1 in player sales in the U.S., 10:1 in Europe, and 100:1 in Japan. To be fair, those figures likely include PS3 sales and don't take into account the sales of high def player/recorders, which are more popular in Japan than play-only machines. (Apart from computer drives, HD disc recorders remain unavailable here in the U.S. due to pirating paranoia.)

So why am I about to pull the trigger on a new Toshiba HD DVD player? Well, for starters, the price on our review sample is definitely right. But most important, I have over 100 HD DVD titles that I'd like to continue enjoying (including a number of test discs), not to mention using them as familiar source material for video reviews. I need a player that will continue to fully support them. My first-generation HD-A1 lacks important features I need, such as support for 1080p/60 and 1080p/24, but it will continue to soldier on as a backup.

The war should have been over months ago. Toshiba was never able to generate a broad-based support for its format. Most observers commented on this, but focused on HD DVD's narrower studio support, even though the number of released titles is roughly the same for both formats. That's largely because Warner and Universal have dominated HD DVD releases with their massive film libraries. Finding great titles among those releases did require separating a little wheat from a lot of chaff, but that charge could be leveled at both formats.

HD DVD has, however, offered up some genuine hits: the Complete Matrix Trilogy (a Warner Brothers release, but still unavailable on Blu-ray), Seabiscuit, Heroes: Season One, all three Bourne films, Star Trek: Season One (the original series), Peter Jackson's King Kong, and Transformers. It will be a while before the dust settles and these and other HD-DVD exclusive titles are re-released on Blu-ray.

But software support was only one side of the equation. I commented over a year ago that the Achilles heal of the HD DVD format was lack of hardware support. Toshiba was the only manufacturer producing significant numbers of HD DVD players (and re-badged players for other companies).

The one-supplier paradigm made for rapid resolution of the sort of compatibility glitches that have plagued Blu-ray. But one hardware supplier does not a format make. If, for example, Panasonic decided to stop making Blu-ray players tomorrow, it would barely be a passing shower on Blu-ray's parade. But now that Toshiba has stopped building players, the HD DVD jig is up.

This decision would appear to free Paramount/Dreamworks and Universal, the remaining major studios supporting HD DVD exclusively, from any contractual commitments to continue support for the format. I would expect Blu-ray announcements from both of those companies in the coming days or weeks. But it will take more weeks, or even months, before we see a significant number of titles from them. Paramount will probably come first; they have recent experience with Blu-ray. Universal is starting from scratch (there have been reports that its HD DVD masters are incompatible with Blu-ray and may have to be redone), but I would be surprised if it didn't already have plans in place.

With just one HD disc format remaining, once the dust of consumer confusion clears from the format war the market potential for packaged high definition media will take a major step forward. You can take that to the bank.

The Digital Transition Before the 2008 elections candidates will avoid discussing the coming 2009 analog over-the-air TV shutdown like the plague.

The government will issue $40 discount coupons to everyone for analog converter boxes, even to consumers who get their programming from cable and satellite and don't need them. Following distribution of the coupons, the price of the converter boxes will increase from $60 to $100.

After the transition, television news outlets will run feature stories on how to hook up your digital converter box. Those who need the help won’t be able to receive the broadcasts.

Music on Blu-ray A small, innovative music company will decide to release a few multichannel music-only titles on Blu-ray in either 24-bit/96kHz PCM or Dolby TrueHD.

Audiophiles will immediately insist on reissue of the recordings with 2-channel tracks.

Digital Amplifiers The weight savings possible with class D amplifiers will prove irresistible to receiver manufacturers, who have largely avoided them so far because they require a major redesign of their circuitry. (And you thought that they redesigned their amplifier stages with every yearly model change!) At the high end they will add thicker, heavier sheet metal to retain perceived value with customers who equate lightweight with cheap.

Rear Projection Rear projection sets will still be available from one or two manufacturers, but they will not promote them much beyond mid-year. The only exception may be laser projection, currently being pursued among major manufacturers only by Mitsubishi, which began researching laser technology long before flat panels caught fire (metaphorically speaking). Whether or not lasers become viable for consumer displays remains an open question. Another SED story-in-the-making, perhaps?

Front Projection The possible demise of RPTVs could generate a few ripples in the front projector market, since the slowing demand for imaging chips might impact their cost and production. I would not expect any major changes, but manufacturers might be a little less inclined to major price reductions.

On the other hand, lower projector prices might lead to increased demand. When consumers become aware that they can get a decent projector and screen for not much more than the price of a good flat panel, and a much larger image in the bargain, a significant number might be tempted to join the big-screen brigade.

For that to happen, however, retailers will have to improve the state of in-store projector demonstrations, which is currently abysmal. I’ve seen great projectors set up so poorly that I wouldn’t watch a movie on them that way if you paid me. Well maybe I could grit my teeth for two hours for a $500 gift certificate.

Flat Panels The prices will continue to drop, though at a slower rate than over the past couple of years. There must be a floor on them somewhere, so savings to the consumer will increasingly come in the form of a bigger set for the same price.

LCD sales will continue to dominate, but plasma will retain a small but loyal following. If this year’s CES was any indication, look for thinner sets in both flavors to start appearing this fall. The question is, where are they going to hide the drive electronics in that inch-thick chassis?

Don’t look for breakthroughs in new technology. OLED appears to be the next up-and-comer, and offers huge advantages in thinness, potential picture quality (great black levels) and energy savings. But it’s more than a year off—if ever—in sizes and prices that could allow it to take off as a consumer product.

Watch for ominous grumbling about the energy consumption of LCD and, in particular, plasma designs from the same group that has decided to kill off the incandescent light bulb. New mileage—er—energy efficiency standards might sound great, but they could seriously degrade picture quality before technology catches up again.

The Format War The song is over, but the melody lingers on. Toshiba’s recent decision to spend several million dollars advertising on the Super Bowl may indicate an admirable feistiness, but also a disregard for the consumer. It can only prolong the death throes of HD DVD, which will continue to keep many average consumers confused and on the sidelines.

Blu-ray is spending its advertising dollars wisely, concentrating on cable channels which cater to more likely buyers. I find it amusing that Universal, which still supports HD DVD, is carrying advertising for Blu-ray on Universal HD.

The jury is out on how these changes will affect the prices of Blu-ray hardware and software. The biggest upside move Blu-ray can make, in my opinion, will be to lower the retail process of BDs by at least $5. They are still too high to generate a wider market appeal—particularly since their biggest competition will soon come from standard definition DVDs of the same films and TV series selling for far less.

The bombshell dropped yesterday, the day before I was to drive to CES. And I don't mean the deluge that hit LA and tested the leaks in my roof (they still work!). It was Warner's decision to go Blu-ray exclusive starting this coming May. Why they aren't doing so immediately is a bit of a puzzle, but is likely due to contractual obligations and to keep from scrapping product already in the pipeline.

Of course, that begs the question of who will buy the remaining stocks of HD DVDs. It's hard to see how this development as anything less than the nail in HD DVD's coffin.

Of course there is still Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks. I suspect they are under some sort of contractual obligation to continue to support HD DVD until who knows when. They, and Toshiba, may decide to tough it out for a while. But a single hardware manufacturer and two studios does not a format make (though Universal does have a very deep catalog).

I'm not dancing in the street. I am rarely disappointed with what I see and hear from HD DVD. Its most significant shortcoming is data space, making titles with high resolution, lossless audio far more rare than on Blu-ray. HD DVD tried to sell this by claiming that Dolby Digital Plus is high resolution. It isn't, really. Though it can sound very good, it is not lossless. HD DVD also does not offer whiz-bang special features that Blu-ray claims, but that Blu-ray is only beginning to deliver—and only then on newer players and a few discs.

But I do hope that this ends the format war. The film studios probably hope so also. Movie revenues were relatively flat in 2007, and DVD sales continue to taper off. They need a new format to sell. Not only are downloads still scarce on the HD side, but the potential for the Kazza-ization of movies gives movie moguls night sweats. (Speaking of Kazza, I on the drive into Vegas I heard on the radio that a single mother was just convicted and fined $220,000 by the FCC for posting 24 songs on the Internet).

We'll find out more this week. The Warner story promises to dominate the news at CES. It will be interesting to hear the press conference spin by companies that continue to support HD DVD—and who perhaps planned on making HD DVD the centerpiece of their displays. The HD DVD group has already cancelled a press event.

I just hope there aren't any companies showing new HD DVD players at the show. And where all this leaves dual format players is also a good question.

We'll be reporting all the news, about this story and others, plus info on all the new products, in our show blogs. Visit early. Visit often.

It's possible. Sales of such sets, known as microdisplays (as opposed to rear projection CRTs, which are now virtually gone from the market), have been shrinking, as more and more buyers grab ever-cheaper flat panel LCDs and plasmas. The big-box television, as a main feature in the living or family room, is no longer popular. It probably never was, but consumers tolerated it when that was the only practical way for them to get the big-screen experience at home.

It's a shame, really, because what rear projection sets lack in space appeal they make up for in value. I've just completed a review of the Sony KDS-50A3000, which may be up as you read this. If not, it will be soon. While this SXRD rear projection set can't quite match the overall quality of the best flat panels I've checked out recently, it lists for less than half the price.

In fact, rear projection sets in general offer a lot of value if you don't demand hang-on-the-wall flatness. The Sony, for example, provides a level of performance that will cost you a lot more in a flat panel. And the value quotient increases with screen size (though never assume that review comments about a 50-inch set can be directly applied to its larger siblings—there are just too many variables involved).

Fortunately, that review won't be obsolete as soon as it’s posted. Dealers will continue to have stocks of the set, and Sony will continue to support it with service as needed. In fact, there might just be some real buys out there in the next few weeks, not only from Sony, but from other manufacturers who must compete with Sony's closeout prices as we approach the Super Bowl and March Madness.

I also suspect that those other manufacturers will continue to build and support rear projection sets, at least for the foreseeable future. Mitsubishi, for example, continues to invest heavily in R&D for rear projection laser displays, and appears serious about bringing them to market.

Sony says it will continue to support front projection using its SXRD and LCD technologies. I worry, however, that the economies of scale that allowed them to bring out high-value SXRD front projectors over the past couple of years may now be compromised by the closing of the rear projection assembly lines. Or if further R&D on SXRD can be justified for front projectors alone now that the bigger payoff in rear projection sets is gone. And if makers of DLP rear projection sets eventually drop out, how might that affect the DLP front projector market? It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

OK, just kidding about the Sing Along and Day Timer. But these sets are loaded, and you can spend literally, hundreds of dollars for them. Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, will set you back close to $300, even with the deepest discount you can find.

But you can also make your own “boxed sets” by combining single season sets. And that’s sometimes the only way to go if a series is still running.

Take of our favorites around here. Battlestar Galactica, a vastly better and different show than its 1970s namesake, is arguably the best dramatic program on television. But it takes season-long breaks between seasons. For fans of the series, or would-be fans, the first 2.5 seasons are already on DVD (Season 1.0, Season 2.0, and Season 2.5—don’t ask). Season 3, however, which ran on the Sci-Fi channel last spring, won’t be out on DVD until early in 2008, just before the fourth and—sob—final season of the show airs.

But to keep fans of the show from terminal withdrawal waiting for the show to continue, the SciFi channel ran Battlestar Galactica: Razor last weekend—a new, two-hour BSG movie. It was also released this week, just a few days after it aired, as an Unrated Extended Edition DVD from Universal.

I knew the DVD was coming so I decided to wait for it. If SciFi’s telecast ran true to form, it’s video quality on cable was probably grim. The DVD had to be an improvement, and the lack of commercial breaks is an added bonus.

In addition to the broadcast version of the film, the DVD set also includes the extended cut (the one I watched), a commentary track, a preview of season 4 (not very revealing), and other bonus features. And if you buy it at Best Buy, you get a second disc which includes a good “Making if,” featurette.

More like two episodes of the show strung together than a movie, Razor takes us back to the invasion of Caprica by the Cylons and gives us more background on the Battlestar Pegasus, which played a major role in one of the series’ most compelling story arcs. The film fleshes-out the details of Pegasus’ escape from the initial attack and how it survived in the post-invasion chaos.

The plot jumps around in time quite a bit (perhaps too much), even flashing back to Admiral Adama’s experiences in the first Cylon war. There’s also a (slightly murky) story line about the Cylons’ first attempts to produce a human/Cylon hybrid.

There’s plenty of the character development here that the series is so good at, but Razor is also loaded with action. Along the way you’ll see some of the best special effects ever seen in televised science fiction. They will blow you away.

All of this is helped considerably by an excellent DVD transfer. Apart from some occasional noise, the video is pristine. It’s sharp, detailed, and holds up to scrutiny even on a big screen. This the best video quality I’ve yet seen from this show, short of its high definition reruns on UniHD.

Just don’t expect bright, cheery cinematography; that’s not what this show is about. It’s a dark vision, and that’s what you get here. You also get an almost obsessive use of the shakey cam—the one thing about the look of the show that I could live without.

The audio is very nearly as impressive as the video, with powerful bass, convincing but not overdone surround envelopment, clean dialog, and a great recording of Bear McCreary’s superb, percussion-heavy score.

Just one warning. Don’t buy this as a gift for anyone who hasn’t been following the show. You really need to watch BSG from the beginning to understand what’s happening. But Razor would make a fine gift for any Sci-Fi fan if you package it together with the boxed sets for the series’ first three (OK, 2.5) seasons. And with the whole series on hand, your giftee won’t need that Day Timer to keep things straight.

Postscript: Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica has also just been released on HD DVD—report coming soon.

Sponsored by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment but involving all the major studio supporters of the Blu-ray format, a so-called "Blu-ray Festival" was held in Hollywood over the past two days (October 29th and 30th).

Yes, there were a few of the usual shots fired at the competition. At the entrance to the first day's breakfast session, a posted copy of a blog from online columnist Nikki Finke quoted prominent players in the Blu-ray camp who seriously questioned the reported sales statistics of the recent HD DVD release of Transformers (100,000 on the first day alone). The blog, however, also included comments from Paramount/Dreamworks, the studio that released the Blu-ray disc, defending their numbers.

During the visit by the assembled press to the Fox lot, Michael Dunn, president of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, noted the widely speculated-on, heavy payment that Paramount reportedly accepted for going HD DVD exclusive. He also suggested that a certain "800 pound gorilla" was supporting HD DVD in hopes that a long-running HD disc format war open the door for the dominance of pay as you go, on-line movie downloads—an outcome that could greatly profit said gorilla. He wasn't specific in naming names, but he didn't need to be.

It has been reported elsewhere that Daniel Silverberg, Vice President, HD Media Development at Warner Brothers Home Video, commented at the event that Warner was reconsidering its dual format policy and was talking up Blu-ray as the frontrunner. But Silverberg did not make this statement to the assembled press. In fact, he did not formally address the group. It is possible, however, that he made this statement in a private conversation with the parties who reported it. The same Dan Silverberg, however, stated in a panel discussion at the DisplaySearch HDTV 2007 conference in early October (reported on in the blog just below this one) that Warner had no plans to change its dual format release policy in the foreseeable future. But the only thing certain in Hollywoodland is that nothing is certain!

But for the most part the presentations were Blu-ray promotions, not format war slugfests. There were, of course references in the formal presentations and printed press handouts to the usual numbers: Blu-ray has 2:1 software sales advantage over HD DVD, 17 of the top-selling 20 titles have been on Blu-ray, 3 million Blu-ray discs have been sold through September 2007, the theatrical runs of upcoming Blu-ray titles generated $1.6 billion in domestic box office revenues, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But the event featured a lot more, including formal visits to Fox Studios and the Panasonic Hollywood Labs (PHL does the mastering for many of the top Blu-ray titles).

During the visit to Fox, studio representatives demonstrated many of the special features expected on a number of premier Fox titles scheduled for the remainder of this year and early next, including The Day After Tomorrow (already out), Independence Day, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, I, Robot, the Die Hard films, and Sunshine. They were so pumped about these features that we had to ask to get them to actually show a few minutes from one or two of the films, which they did!

Asked about additional titles from Fox (a studio that went "dry" on Blu-ray releases for much of 2007), they only said that there would be a "lot" of them in 2008.

One unique new feature will appear on Fox's DVD re-release of Independence Day on November 20 (but not on the Blu-ray scheduled for the same day). The set will include a separate, standard definition transfer of the film that the user may download from the disc a maximum of twice, most likely to a computer and a portable entertainment device. The download should take about 5 minutes. The audio will be LtRt, not 5.1, and the operation is Windows only. While the 1.6Mb/sec data rate of the downloaded version is considerably lower than typical DVD data rates (and the resulting resolution was said to be slightly less than DVD's 720x480), it looked quite respectable when demonstrated on a very big screen.

This feature appears to be a test run; Fox does not believe that it will result in piracy issues (the transferred file will carry copy protection) but clearly will be watching closely for signs of abuse. It may also be significant that it's appearing on an older catalog title, not a hot new release.

The PHL visit featured the formal launch of a new Panasonic Blu-ray player, the DMP-BD30 ($500, available November 12). Despite being considerably smaller, lighter, and cheaper than Panasonic's first and now discontinued first BD player, the DMP-BD10, the new machine produces a clearly superior picture, if the side-by-side demonstration shown to us were representative. For more on this player, go here.

But the main reason for the Disney-orchestrated festival was celebration of next Tuesday's (November 6) launch of both Cars and Ratatouille on Blu-ray (and the DVD release of the latter, as well). A big, loud launch party for both of these titles capped it off on its final night.

The highlight of the scheduled events, for me, was held earlier that day—a Q&A session with Brad Bird (shown on the left in the above photo), director of both The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

Brad raved about the (um!) incredible image quality on Ratatouille—a comment that appeared to be sincere (in fact, nothing in the session smacked of prepared or random hype). There are details on the Blu-ray, Brad noted, that were not visible in most theatrical presentations. (I saw it screened in digital projection, so while I haven't yet seen the Blu-ray version I have a pretty good idea what is talking about here.) He also noted that the producer of the Blu-ray disc also produced the outstanding DVD of The Incredibles (no word from Bird on when that title might be released on Blu-ray).

A perfectionist and, for that reason, a self-admitted pain in the *** to work for, Bird insisted on fixing a few shots for the BD/DVD release that could not be fixed in time for the theatrical run. For example, keep an eye out at the end of the disc for Remy in a tiny chef's hat—the hat was not there in the theater!

Asked to name some of his favorite non-Pixar animators, Bird's first reaction, among living animators, was Miyazaki. He also mentioned the late Chuck Jones as a key influence in his own development. Not exactly unexpected choices. And when asked if Pixar pre-plans for the extras on their discs as early as the actual production of the film, he noted that they began doing this on The Incredibles.

In a subtle dig at the competition, he also noted that Pixar chooses voices for the characters based on those that best fit the part, not on the popularity or fame of the voice actors!

Bird's next directing gig will be the live-action 1906. But when asked if he planned to abandon animation for "serious" filmmaking, he definitely said no—good news for animation fans.

DisplaySearch is a company that produces technology assessments, surveys, studies, and analyses of the current state of video display technology. Every year for the past four years they organize a two-day HDTV event. This year's, the DisplaySearch 5th Annual HDTV Conference, was held at the Hilton hotel at Universal City, CA.

While the conference covers a range of topics, I was most interested in two separate seminars covering the ongoing battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray. The first, "The Format War Is Over! No Wait, This Just In…" on day 1 and "Next Gen DVD Hardware Outlook" on day 2.

I wish I could say that a battle royal ensued, after which the losers slinked away and the winners hoisted a victory flag atop Mount Hilton, the highest point in the Universal City complex. No such luck. But some interesting information surfaced, as well as some polite but mildly heated exchanges.

Day 1 was the more staid. The discussions included representatives from Warner, Paramount, Sony, and Disney, plus Pioneer, Microsoft, and moderator Russ Crupnick from the NPD Group (parent company of DisplaySearch). Notable by their absence were two major studios, Universal and Fox.

Russ Crupnick kicked it off with some interesting stats. About 66M (million) consumer households are expected to have HDTV by 2011. And an estimated 40% of packaged media sold that same year will be in HD. That means HD on disc.

But 32M current HD households don't currently have a next-gen HD disc player. (Next-gen appeared to be the event's preferred, non-denominational term for both HD DVD and Blu-ray.) What's more, only 11% of them have expressed an interest in acquiring such a player within the next 6 months. Still, if they all do so, that's an additional 3.2M players in the field—more than the current total, including PS3.

But why is the interest in next-gen players so low? A heavy percentage of HD owners perceive HD as mainly a sports experience, slightly more, in fact, than rate movies as their favorite HDTV programming. Also, many HDTV owners feel that DVD already fits the bill—and in fact believe that ordinary DVDs are already high definition!

While it wasn't specifically stated in so many words at either session, manufacturers also appear to have shot themselves in the foot with excessive hype about the glories of standard definition, upconverting DVD players. Some of them even shamelessly suggest, either indirectly or overtly, that such players upconvert standard DVDs to high definition.

But the major disincentive to next-gen players, however, appears to be price. This came up again and again at the sessions—though the HD DVD side, which currently offers he lowest priced players, hit on it the hardest.

Of those who have bought next-gen players, however, an astounding 90% declare themselves highly satisfied with the purchase. In addition, it's expected that 2 out of 3 of future software purchases by current next-gen owners will be HD discs. This despite the nagging freeze-ups, slow loading, and other problems that still haunt the formats to one degree or another (though I must say that, to date in my experience, Blu-ray has been far more prone to such glitches). We early adopters are remarkably tolerant of such things, particularly given the often astounding picture and sound quality both formats offer. But the bugs need to be ironed out before either format can go mass market; the average buyer will bring a disc back in a heartbeat at the first freeze-up—and will bring the player back at the second!

In this first panel session and the Q&A that followed there were few surprises. Pioneer's Andy Parsons buzzed about Blu-ray's 2:1 sales advantage in software for much of this year. He downplayed the current limitations on full Java interactivity, arguing that this is coming soon but that high quality picture and sound are paramount—no pun intended.

Microsoft's Kevin Collins suggested that the lack of region coding is a real plus for HD DVD, since the collector can mail-order HD DVDs from overseas vendors, including some titles available here only on Blu-ray, or not at all. He also suggested that while Blu-ray titles may be outselling HD DVD in sheer numbers, the number of discs sold per player sold is higher on HD DVD (the so-called "attach rate"). Pioneer's Parsons immediately took issue with this, noting that HD DVD is including PS3 player numbers in that stat. Later during the sessions, in fact, surveys were referenced which show that most PS3 buyers never use their machines to watch Blu-ray movies.

Sony's Don Eklund stated that the message they're getting from retailers, loud and clear, is that they don't want two HD formats.

Warner's Silverberg commented that his studio, the only one now releasing in both formats, would continue that policy for the foreseeable future. He noted that 50% of the sales of next-gen discs are of new releases, with Warner's 300 the best selling title to date, triple that of he second place finisher.

In response to an audience question on the risk that neither format will win, but rather that video on demand will come to dominate the market, the Disney rep replied that the collectability and durability of packaged HD discs will keep them viable in the market, and a catalyst for growth in the home video business, for at least the next 10 years.

As to the movie download issue, Kevin Collins remarked that he uses the "drive to the video store" equation. People often want their movie fix now, so if it takes longer for the movie they want to show up on VOD (perhaps weeks) or to download it (sometimes hours for a still limited slate if HD options), than it will take to make a trip to the video store, they'll go with the packaged media at the store.

On a question about the possibility that both formats will fail in the market, all the panelists, not surprisingly, disagreed!

The sessions were equipped with wireless audience polling equipment, so there were instantaneous responses to a number of closing survey questions. On the question of which format will win, 50% of the audience guessed Blu-ray, 22% HD DVD, and 6% thought both will fizzle. As to who will decide the format war, 46% said the studios, 38% the retailers, and only 16% the technology. On the deciding factor for winning, 40% said price, 38% said more public awareness of the formats, and 10% the technology. As to which factors the consumers will appreciate most, 86% said picture, 5.5% said sound, and 6.4% answered features.

To put this in perspective, however, an earlier survey question revealed that 46% of the conference attendees don't yet own an HDTV—and these were industry insiders!

Day 2 brought the next session and a mostly different set of panelists, from Sony, Pioneer, Toshiba, and LGE (the latter representing dual format players). Also participating were Microsoft (Kevin Collins, the only panelist to participate in both seminars) and DisplaySearch's Paul Erickson.

Paul Erickson presented data showing that next-gen players currently represent only 1.3% of the disc player market. But beginning last spring, the sales trends for these players was beginning to follow the same curve as DVD did at a similar time in its march to market dominance. As of the end of July 2007, there have been 1.95M Blu-ray players sold (including PS3) and 452K HD DVD, including the Xbox outboard player.

Erickson also joined the chorus that pointed to price as the critical factor in a purchase decision.

Chris Fawcett of Sony made the hardest-sell presentation at either session, emphasizing the 2.4M Blu-ray movies that have been sold and the format's 2:1 advantage over HD DVD in that regard. He also remarked that 52% of HDTV owners are aware of next-gen players.

Pioneer's Chris Walker was lower key, but had the more interesting numbers. Whereas Chris Fawcett made the promotion of Sony players the centerpiece of his presentation, Walker emphasized the wide variety of Blu-ray players available from many different manufacturers, players either on the market now or coming soon. He noted that Blu-ray players introduced since the format's launch, plus those known to be coming soon, number 30 different models from 14 different brands (not all of them available here).

Walker also mentioned three upcoming Blu-ray movie releases that will have BD-Live features, including Sleeping Beauty (the first Disney legacy animated title on Blu-ray), National Treasure, and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. He also emphasized the fact that Blu-ray is far ahead of HD DVD in discs with lossless soundtracks (either uncompressed PCM, Dolby TrueHD, or DTS HD Master Audio).

Chris W also noted that although HD DVD discs are said to be cheaper to make than Blu-ray, this does not necessarily include the mastering costs. In a recent (unnamed) release, he noted that to press all the worldwide HD DVD versions, with the required regional requirements and languages, required 10 different HD DVD masters. Because of Blu-ray's higher capacity, however, the Blu-ray release required only 2.

On the HD DVD side, Toshiba's Jodi Sally emphasized the lower prices of HD DVD players, plus the fact that it has had a full slate of its promised interactivity features since the beginning. She also noted that this interactivity has been consistent across the board in all players released to date, which was a bit obvious since all HD DVD players released to date have come from Toshiba, either under its own brand or rebadged by other makers (unless you count the LGE dual format players)! She also attempted to make the best of the software sales stats by pointing out that HD DVD was ahead of Blu-ray—for early September 2007 (but not up to and including early September).

Tim Alessi of LGE made the case for all-format players, with the company's BH200 due in stores later this month. He noted that 50% of HDTV households were holding out on a next-gen player because of the format war. Obviously LGE hopes that dual format players will break the logjam, despite their current high prices.

I could not attend all of the other sessions, some of which were mainly concerned with sales trends and statistics. But one additional session I did attend was "Enhancing the HDTV Experience." Representatives from DisplaySearch, Dolby, Analog Devices, SRS, and THX discussed developments in each of their main areas of interest. As you might imagine, much of this was about audio as it relates to HDTV viewing in the home. But not all. Patrick Dunn is Director of the new THX Display Technology division, which will be evaluating and certifying video products. THX has been certifying software for years, but this is their first dive into the challenging waters of video hardware.

In his presentation, Dunn said that THX believes there is a need for a third party to help sort out consumer confusion in the HDTV market, an "agnostic organization to make the purchasing decision easier for the customer" based on industry standards and best practices.

To that end, THX is developing a broad battery of tests, some of them proprietary, to check for such performance parameters as contrast, color, resolution, viewing angle, convergence, video processing, and much, much more.

We check for most of the items on the THX evaluation list in our reviews here at UAV. The main difference is that many of our observations, such as the difference between good and fair performance on video processing tests, are based on the on-screen evaluation of program material, both real world and test patterns. This is, by its nature, at least partially subjective. THX is developing its library of tests in hopes of making them more objective (though it will be interesting to see how well they can do this for a highly visual medium like video).

Products that meet THX certification requirements will include a special THX mode, much like the Movie, Standard, Dynamic and other modes that are now featured on most televisions. But the THX mode, in theory at least, should have a better shot at providing a more accurate picture.

We'll be anxious to see how this all turns out. So far, among one-piece sets, only Sharp offers a couple of THX models, and for now only in Japan. The one downside I can see is the problem of demonstrating the video advantages of THX in a store, among a sea of super-bright displays all screaming, "Pick Me! Pick Me!"

More and more manufacturers are putting detailed color temperature adjustments in their on-screen user menus. By this I don’t mean a simple selection options such as Cool, Middle, and Warm. We've seen these on sets for years, and these setting are usually wrong if you want to see programming the way the content provider intended (though manufacturers are doing a better job getting close to the correct standards today than in the past). Instead, I mean controls that provide the ability to adjust red, green, and blue to alter the grayscale in almost infinite ways. ("Grayscale" is the term used to describe the trend of the color temperature across the entire brightness range)

But there are only one or two correct ways to do this. The first is to dial in a color temperature of 6500K, or more precisely a specific white point called D6500, from the darkest grays to the brightest whites. D6500 is the correct setting for color programming—the white point for which the material was produced. But a color temperature of 5500K is actually more appropriate for black and white material. If you're a regular viewer of classic B&W films you might want to consider that as an alternate setting.

I've never been entirely comfortable with having these adjustments in the user menus. It does make calibration easier—no having to jump in and out of a service menu to make sure your settings "stick"—but if you don't have the correct test tools you can seriously mess up the picture in setting the controls by eye. (Fortunately it's not hard to reset them).

For this reason, most manufacturers still put these adjustments in a code-secured service menu. Most sets have such service adjustments, but they aren't always useful to aftermarket calibrators. Sharp has been the most visible no- show with respect to providing readily usable gray scale adjustments. While its service menus have such controls, they can only be set properly at the factory, using a specialized computer program.

Some of Samsung's rear projection sets are also hard to calibrate, but for another reason. They provide extremely flexible calibration menus, but they are difficult to use properly. (Samsung's recent flat panels provide more typical and easy to use—but less flexible—controls).

But in Sharp's case this is about to change. On its upcoming 2008 sets (but none of their sets currently on the market) Sharp plans to provide a special calibration menu (code-protected, but separate from the usual factory menu) to make life easier for calibrators (and reviewers!)

It’s why they are doing this that's the interesting part. Best Buy is one of Sharp's largest vendors. And Best Buy is getting into the calibration business. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!

Back in late July I blogged about a demo kiosk at my local Best Buy. You can scroll down and read about it. It was set up in a DirecTV promotion kiosk, but it wasn't clear whether or not it was also intended to promoting Best Buy's new video calibration services.

It's now two months later and the same demo is still there, though it's now using two Panasonic 50" plasmas instead of the earlier Samsung LCDs.

And it's still just as misleading. Even though one of the displays is labeled "high definition," and the other standard definition, they both come from the same SD DVD source. As before, they were using the HDTV Calibration Wizard DVD from Monster Cable and the ISF. But this time they were using the scene designed to help set the proper black level. (This image has little movement, so we're looking at an almost certain case of permanent burn-in!)

As before, the main difference between the two images was that the "standard definition" image was poorly adjusted. This time the blacks were badly crushed. Shadow details were much clearer in the "high definition" image. But the reason was that the set with the standard definition image had its brightness control (black level) set too low, not any fundamental difference between the standard definition and pseudo "high definition" images. In fact, no experienced observer would be fooled into thinking that either image was HD.

There was another difference as well, which I hadn't noticed earlier. The "standard definition" set was receiving either a composite or an S-Video signal on its Video 2 input (the backs of the display and player were not readily visible). The "high definition" set was receiving a component input from the same standard definition source!

The upcoming video calibration services from Best Buy will be performed in cooperation with the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF), which will train selected Best Buy personnel to do the work. But as I write this, the service has not yet been officially launched. So the demo I saw (which again was only making a sideways reference to calibration, far less prominent than the HD vs. SD hoopla) was not part of an official, approved promotion for the upcoming Best Buy/ISF calibration service.

Let's be generous here and call the shell game I've described an isolated case, restricted to an overeager or simply poorly informed store manager at a single Best Buy outlet. Perhaps that manager thinks that the component output, upconverted to 1080i, really is high definition! Wouldn't be the first time. If any of you find similar demos in your area, however, let us know.

Setting up a fair, up-front, in-store demo of SD vs. HD isn't trivial. You need two identical high definition players, one with an HD disc and the other with the SD version of the same film. Or, since this was, after all, a DirecTV kiosk, you could go with two DirecTV receivers, one set up for an SD station, the other the same material on HD. In the latter event you have less control over the programming. But with either case you have to monitor the display constantly to be sure the sources are still running and synchronized. Both TVs must be properly calibrated, with identical setups. You might also have to worry about the content rights police. Do you have clearance for public display of the material?

When Best Buy finally gets around to offering official calibration services, we'll be there to see how they handle it. It won't be easy. The differences that calibration makes won't be simple to demonstrate convincingly in a brightly lit store. In fact, since a calibrated image is often less bright and in-your-face than the usual in-store setup, a fair demo might actually turn the average Joe or Jane against calibration.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

I still remember my first CEDIA show in 1995 in Dallas (as I recall, they didn't call it Expo then). It was dominated by a wide range of training sessions that are still a big part of the show. Back then you could cover the entire exhibit floor in less than a day, with time out for long, leisurely lunch.

But what began as a small get-together for the custom installation trade in the early 1990s has grown to be the second largest consumer electronics trade show in the U.S. By last year it had grown so big that it expanded from three days to four—the same number of days as CES. CES, of course, could last for six days and you still couldn't cover everything. Four days is a good run for CEDIA, but for the media those ubiquitous press conferences manage spill over from "press day" to eat up much of the first day of show itself as well. In the time it takes to attend one press conference I could visit a half dozen booths—some of them the size of the original CEDIA exhibit floor!

In his latest blog Shane Buettner runs down some of the new products we've been alerted on, or have reason to expect. New projectors all around, of course, from most of the major players.

The projector market has become cutthroat in the past year or so. Rumors have been finding their way onto the various on-line forums about Sharp's future commitment to the video projector market. Projectors make up only a fraction of that company's video display business, which is dominated by LCD flat panels. I'm anxious to find out Sharp's plans, since their current 1080p XV-Z20000 s one of the best in the business.

I also wonder what Yamaha's ongoing plans are in the video display market. A year after nearly everyone else launched single-chip 1080p DLP designs, Yamaha's still does not offer a 1080p model. They can't sustain a decent market share with a 720p flagship that sells for more than much of the 1080p competition.

I hope Yamaha stays in the projector game; that 720p, DPX-1300 was one of the best, if not the best, 720p projectors I've ever reviewed.

It will be interesting to see if there are any newcomers to the projector market. It's a small business but growing fast as prices become more competitive. But the falling prices do make it difficult for a small company to compete.

I don't anticipate anything in the one-piece television arena that we haven't already seen or heard about; most new models were announced at manufacturer's line shows last spring and earlier this summer. But there's always a surprise or two. We'll all need supplemental oxygen in Denver's thin air if there are any announcements about SED displays!

We'll definitely see a wave of new HD disc players, too. We're now getting two generations of them, or more, every year! And I would be very surprised if more HD combi players that play both Blu-ray and HD DVD don't make an appearance.

Frankly, I can't see the point in spending more for a combi player than you would for separate players in each format. Must be either a lack of space or a psychological thing. With one player, it's "see player…put disc in player…press play." With two or three players (including that legacy "universal" player for your vast collection of SACD and DVD-Audio discs), it's "see players…choose the right player… insert disc… press play…oops, wrong player, disc ejects (or the player freezes up)…repeat."

On the audio side, I don't anticipate many new free-standing speakers, though a few will probably turn up. CEDIA is mostly an in-wall/on-wall kind of show, and there will certainly be a flood of new designs in those categories.

I also expect to see a lot of new AV receivers, from the cheapest to new state-of-the-art designs. If a new feature is out there, someone will have it. And no new receiver is likely to make much of a splash unless it also offers HDMI 1.3, including HDMI audio and the ability to decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. Assuming, of course, we can get the bitstreams from those formats into the receivers' HDMI inputs.

The show doesn't officially open until September 6, but Wednesday afternoon, September 5, will be filled with back-to-back press conferences. We'll all be burning up the UAV keyboards, reporting in real-time from September 5 to September 9.

Stop back early and often for all the hot news.

According to one industry source with whom I spoke recently, the odd communication problem reported on in Part 1, below, is an artifact of CEC. CEC is a new feature offered by many manufacturers that allows the user to control various components through their HDMI connections. Often, these operations are automated.

CEC is the generic name for this feature, but in the interests of enhanced consumer confusion manufacturers have elected to come up with their own trademarked names for it. Samsung calls it Anynet+. Toshiba's name is CE-Link. Sony goes with Theatre Sync. Pioneer likes HDMI Control.

According to my source, CEC is a work in progress (I'm being kind—those weren't his exact words) and prone to the sort of glitches I have described. He is no fan of the feature, even though his company uses it. Like many who work for the US branch of overseas manufacturers, he does not make final design decisions.

We're not in a position to pass judgment on CEC in general. It might work better with some products than others. It might be less reliable, do weird things, or not work at all when products from more than one company are involved. It might presume too much about your intentions, i.e., you want to keep using the disc player even with the TV off, and it can't figure out why you'd want to do that!

Sort of reminds me of the story of the man who had his house completely automated, only to find one day that it wouldn't let him in. Could have been worse. it might not have let him out.

What we have here is one of those HDMI "features" that drives both consumers and reviewers crazy. I discovered it after my reviews of both the Samsung BD-P1200 Blu-ray player and the Toshiba 52HL167 flat panel LCD display had been turned in, ready for publication.

The player had functioned without this glitch in my main system. There it had been linked to the JVC DLA-RS1 projector by way of the HDMI switching in a Denon AVR-4306 AV receiver. The HDMI link provided both the audio and video for movies. But I used a separate coaxial digital connection to the receiver for CD, music only, playback —a setup I prefer until I'm convinced that HDMI for audio alone, with no video, involves no sonic compromises.

The problem arose when I moved the Samsung player to a system in another room for use with the Toshiba LCD. The connections were similar, but this time the HDMI was connected directly to the Toshiba. The setup here included an older Outlaw 1050 receiver that lacks HDMI switching, so a separate digital link to the 1050 was not merely a preference in this case, it was mandatory.

When I first popped a CD into the Samsung player, with the Toshiba display plugged in but turned off, the music began normally. I could also hear the clicking of relays inside the television, possibly indicating that the player was trying to communicate with it through the HDMI cable. After a few seconds the player turned itself off. It didn't just mute the music through the coaxial audio cable. It didn't just stop. It shut down completely. The entire operation, from music start to player shutdown, took only a few seconds.

If I turned the set on first, then put on a CD, it would play through without interruption (it also displayed a CD playlist on the Toshiba's screen).

If I disconnected the HDMI cable, the Samsung would also play the audio from the coaxial digital link with no problems—whether the Toshiba was on or off.

And if I unplugged the set, the Samsung played back the coaxial digital source without a hitch, with or without the HDMI cable connected.

Here's what I believe was happening. With the Toshiba TV plugged in but not turned on, it is in a low power standby mode. But in this mode it is still able to respond to a query from the player through the HDMI link, telling the player that the display is turned off. Apparently, if the Samsung player, receives this response, it concludes, "Your display is off and it's obvious you don't need me. So I'm going to sleep now." Thanks, HAL.

But if the player receives either an "On" message from the set, or no response at all (the situation with either the set unplugged or the HDMI link disconnected), it stays on and will play audio via its digital outputs.

It's by no means certain that all sets will respond this way to the Samsung. My JVC projector did didn't have this problem, possibly because it has no standby mode. It was either on or completely off.

But I did not have this problem when I tried the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-ray player into the Toshiba. This suggests that Samsung might want to look to its firmware to analyze why this occurred. Other set and player manufacturers might also want to check into it such potential interoperability issues.

No organization has done more to promote and perform good aftermarket calibrations than the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF). But when big box retailers begin to perform such calibrations, it can give the service a bad name.

I was in my local Best Buy last week when I spied a kiosk dedicated to promoting high definition on DirecTV. It consisted of two Samsung flat panel televisions side-by-side. One was labeled Standard Definition, the other High Definition. The clear intent was to show the superiority of DirecTV's HD service. But when I was there, it was being used for something else, though that was not evident, in any way, from the signage.

Instead of a satellite feed, each set was showing a clip from the HDTV Calibration Wizard DVD, a disc produced by Monster Cable in conjunction with the ISF to help consumers set up their televisions as best they can using the user-accessible controls. While this disc will not give you the sort of full calibration that a qualified ISF technician will perform (it requires specialized test gear to check and calibrate the grayscale/color temperature), it's still a very helpful and well thought-out product that the average consumer can use without experiencing techno-shock. You should be able to purchase a copy at most Monster dealers and many on-line retailers (but not, ironically, at big box stores like Best Buy or Circuit City).

For those familiar with the disc, the featured clip in the BB demo, which was being looped on the player's repeat mode over and over again, was a shot of a man in a white shirt, holding a pool cue. This particular cut is designed to help you set the contrast (white level) control correctly. You adjust this control until you can make out all the details in the shirt, including the white buttons, and you're there.

The two images in the demo were very different. The one labeled "High Definition"—which, again, it wasn't, since it was coming from a standard def DVD%#151;was reasonably well set up, or at least as well as you can tell in a brightly lit showroom. The "Standard Definition" picture, on the other hand, had the contrast setting cranked so much that the white shirt was just a flat mass of white, with no visible details at all!

When I was able to ask a salesperson what I was watching (this was not easy, since the kiosk was unmanned much of the time), she told me that they were demonstrating their calibration service, with the uncalibrated set on the left (wearing the SD label and sporting those blown-out whites), and the calibrated set on the right (with the contrast control properly adjusted)! I bit my tongue and moved on.

Three days later I decided to go back for another look. The same clip was still running. While I have no way of knowing if it had been on for three days straight during store hours, my gut feeling tells me that it had.

This is alarming for several reasons. The casual passer-by would think that it was a demo of HD vs. SD (after all, that's what all the signs clearly indicated). The (properly adjusted) HD setup sure did look better. The customer would also think that this was a demo of DirecTV. (I wonder just how much DirecTV was paying BB for this display.)

If the customer was curious enough to snare a passing salesperson, he or she would be told that the setup was not demonstrating DirecTV, but instead the benefits of the store's calibration services.

It was, of course, showing no such thing. It was more a demonstration of inept vs. proper setup of the display's user controls. Not only that, if and when the store ever got around to showing a DirecTV demo, the SD side would be skewed by the gross setup of the "SD" set.

ISF is about to begin sponsorship of Best Buy calibrations. According to the ISF, Best Buy's calibrators will be among their best and most experienced employees. The demo I saw (which was running before the official announcement and promotion of this partnership) said more about Best Buy's promotion of the service than the service itself. But such dubious promotional tactics can't be good for the ISF. Hopefully, they will monitor the situation closely.

And such sales tactics can be contagious. On the same day as my second Best Buy visit I stopped at a nearby Circuit City. There I ran across another calibration-promoting demo. This time it was not related in any way to either DirecTV or the ISF. Circuit City has apparently set up its own, independent calibration service. But here again were two Samsung sets, one above the other. They were far closer in quality this time and neither was set up incorrectly in an obvious way. But the calibrated set did look punchier and more vibrant. When I called up the menus, the "calibrated" set was in the Dynamic mode, and the "uncalibrated" set was in Standard!