Jason Unger

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Searching for a new format war?

Look no further than HDMI vs. Component Video. Yeah, it's not a new battle, but it sure is one that's being fought pretty tooth and nail by custom installers.

In the HDMI vs. component debate, plenty of people have strong opinions on the subject. CE Pro recently solicited these opinions via an e-mail blast.

The vast majority of respondents far prefer to use component video for a number of reasons. Most of the complaints about HDMI center around distance issues, the challenge of terminating in the field, the fact that the connections easily disconnect, the fragility of the cables, the large connector size and HDMI’s far greater expense.

There were also a number of complaints about compatibility issues, the lack of HDMI standards, HDCP issues and a negligible quality improvement.

In the Unger household, we use both: component from our cable box, and HDMI from our upconverting DVD player. It's a pretty simple solution and we haven't yet run into any problems.

But for guys who are making their living setting up home entertainment systems, non-functioning equipment is a huge problem. And as much as you may argue otherwise, a lot of it has to do with HDCP (the content protection scheme used in HDMI to "prevent piracy."

When I caught up with Steve Venuti of HDMI Licensing at EHX, he pretty much admitted that a lot of the early problems could have been avoided if HDCP didn't exist.

HDMI would have entered the market easier without HDCP, but the studios wouldn't have let it happen. "It's a situation not everyone is happy with," he says. "But the reality is, they own the content."

So if I buy a Blu-ray disc, they still own the content? That's the problem with content "protection" in general: it assumes that consumers are thieves. What business gets away with treating its customers like that?

Component video does not have HDCP. And that's one of the big reasons installers like it — there's no handshakes to go along with it.

But this war is not new: it's not like component video has come out as an alternative to HDMI — it's been around for much longer. So think of it more as SACD vs. CD — which one do you buy?

Exactly.

PS - thanks to Gordon for making the comparison to HD DVD to me, which inspired this post.

Image by John Brillon

Freakonomics, one of my favorite blogs (and a great book, too), has gathered up a group of "smart people" — as they say — to discuss what the technology industry and consumers can learn from the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war.

What Are the Lessons of the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Battle? A Freakonomics Quorum

So what are we to make of this format skirmish? We gathered up a group of smart people who think about such things — Shane Greenstein, Andrei Hagiu, Michael Santo, and Pai-Ling Yin — and asked them the following:

Is the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray really over? What can we learn from it?

Honestly, there's nothing really ground-breaking in this analysis. Warner's decision was the tipping point, Toshiba and Sony should have come to an agreement back in 2005, and digital downloads are still on the horizon.

Greenstein is the only one who really takes the Freakonomics view of the format war.

Indeed, it looks as if patient buyers benefited from waiting out this format war, and will soon experience lower prices, larger libraries, more convenience, and reduced uncertainty. Yet, as in prior wars, waiting has its risk. Patient buyers ceded control over the format choice to impatient buyers and sellers. Did earlier market participants make a choice that serves the interests of later market participants? It is difficult to say at this point.

I waited. It may have cost me some tech-cred (I'm looking at you, Ben), but in the end, I'm not stuck with an HD DVD player that I'd only use to play DVDs on.

Blu-ray vs. Digital Downloads

So much has been made about the future of high-definition media. Will Blu-ray even get a chance to become the standard? Or will digital downloads prevail?

The answer is not as black and white as it seems. Both standards will prosper, and here's why:

1. The pipes aren't ready yet. Until everyone has FiOS or beyond, downloading high-def movies is still a pain. (Even though cable is already in our homes, but that's another story.)

2. The space isn't there. The 50GB you can fit onto a Blu-ray disc will take up a chunk of space on your hard drive, even if you have a TB of storage.

3. Quality doesn't always matter. We've learned that from the digital music revolution — quality doesn't matter for a large segment of the population. A 720p download from the Xbox Live Marketplace does make some people happy, even if a true HD fan wouldn't do it.

4. Convenience is important. Again, learned from digital music — if it's easier to start watching something on VUDU then it is to drive to Best Buy and pick up a Blu-ray disc, people will do it.

The trendy argument is to match Blu-ray discs vs. digital downloads like Blu-ray vs. HD DVD. But it's apples and oranges.

You can get the same content either way — you're not locked in to one studio's movies. (Assume for the moment that, at some point, all studios will be publishing their content digitally. Which will happen.)

The format war is over. There's not another one coming.

You'd think that I'd be really happy that the format war is over. I wasn't buying into either format because I didn't want to waste the money on a useless product.

Now that it's over, I've considered jumping in with a PlayStation 3. It makes the most sense, since it is the cheapest player, is most ready for spec upgrades, and plays games too (including Rock Band).

But honestly, there's nothing on Blu-ray I want to watch.

The predicament here is that the movies available on BD are a mix of titles I could have (or did) buy on DVD years ago and new movies that, well, suck. I'm not re-buying my movies just to see them in real high-def, and I'm not buying junk just to have some Blu-ray discs.

The only title that I really want in HD is Heroes - Season 1, which is only available on the dead format. (Speaking of which, there is a horrible lack of TV shows on Blu-ray. One season of Lost, Sopranos, Smallville and Prison Break … give me more. Now!)

Sure, if the format war was still going on, that doesn't mean that there'd be anything worth watching. But Blu-ray won because it had the content studios.

I'm just waiting for them to deliver.

PS. Planet Earth is probably the only other title I'd buy, but I got tired of watching it on cable when it first aired.