Guest editorial: HDTV Magazine publisher and HD pioneer Dale Cripps finally votes for Blu-ray, but never wanted the choice in the first place!

By Dale Cripps

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/4/07 — The motion picture industry and consumer electronics manufacturers have asked me to decide which high definition DVD format will be used in the future. What? Why me? Well, beyond my job, I am a consumer.

I read in the newspapers that the consumer, of all people, is to decide on which high-definition format will be used in the future. The professionals who developed it could not make up their minds before they went to market. I keep asking why they would leave such an important decision up to moi? They didn’t offer me any decisions for HDTV.

After everything was decided in HDTV they offered some compatible transmission/reception formats, such as the 720p and 1080i, but the selection of either did not isolate me nor leave me a potential technical orphan, as does a decision for either of the high definition DVD formats in the market today.

It seems to me that this kind of decision should be left to the experts. I didn’t decide to have 60 cycle power frequencies for my home either and I am not the worse for wear. So, why is my decision now so eagerly sought for this high-definition DVD format controversy?

Well, since you insist that it is my job as the consumer I best get on with it and save everyone a lot of grief by being decisive. The good news is that to me it makes very little difference which format is selected. Either has its own cost of entry for me and each has a little balancing advantage here or there. And, they are both getting cheaper. When I (the consumer) make a decision the big commodity makers will produce it at a fraction of what either sells for now.

So, I cannot find “cost” as a reason to choose one over the other. Nor can I find picture and sound quality the differentiating reason to choose one over the other (and I have a 104 inch wide screen and great front projector that shows everything). Fancy features never have impressed me and I see by various surveys that I am not alone. Yes, of course, I do like some features, but I don’t see why one format should outdo the other in features, unless it has something to do with capacity.

So, if it’s not picture quality nor features then my format decision has to be based on something else. I had heard that the higher cost of professional entry for the Blu Ray pressing plants was a clear-enough reason to choose HD DTV. You can modify existing DVD plants to press HD DVDs. So, I went to Spokane, Washington this weekend to see the newly formed Blue Ray Technologies LLC Company.

Blue Ray Texhnologies is a private firm with IPO ambitions whose principals have been big in standard DVDs for years and they have just invested a bunch in three Blu-ray disk making and pressing machines. They also have several HD-DVD pressing machines. They laugh heartily and long at the notion of cost being a barrier or being any cause at the pressing level for dismissing the Blu Ray. They have invested millions with this confidence in the format. The one Blu Ray machine I saw working at the facility was
forming and stamping out 18,000 finished BD copies per day with a 16,000 copy good yield. It took minimal human attention to create this massive stack of $1.50 to $2.00 (wholesale) disks. The defects were caused, said the plant manager, James Schumacher, from impurities in the raw materials and
are not an inherent flaw in the machinery or in its design. He explained that these raw materials are not yet purchased in large enough quantity to be refined and commoditized.

The Spokane company is prepared to convert their HD DVD making equipment to standard DVDs once Blu Ray is a clear consumer choice, or as orders dictate.

So, based on the little I do know, I (as the consumer) make Blu Ray the high-definition format of choice! Now, please don’t throw any sharp objects at me or denounce me as a heretic Satanist. In the end capacity and headroom for future growth within an immature format is what won me over…just as it did with HDTV (when an extension of NTSC in the form of EDTV was under consideration). Let’s end the needless controversy and get on with serving the public with a tight focus on one outstanding format.

If you don’t like my choice, take away my option to choose.

Return that responsibility to the professional ranks where it has always belonged and stop asking unqualified people to do your work. Or, take this decision, unqualified as it may be, and run with it.

Dale Cripps is Founder and Co-publisher HDTV Magazine, Co-founder AHDAS

Ed note: Shortly after Mr. Cripps visited the Blue Ray Technologies plant, an open house was held for Hollywood execs and media. Click here for report:

BlueRay Technology opens new production center
KXLY – Spokane,WA,USA
SPOKANE — Chances are the next movie you buy on DVD or a Blu-Ray disc will have been made right here in Spokane after BlueRay Technology opened up a new …