(Column) - Last week, HD DVD had a lot going for it. People were calling it sensible; it had its two biggest backers, Microsoft and Intel (plus HP), pretty much reprimanding the other Blu-Ray standard manufacturers regarding the changes they would like to see before the association of Blu-Ray supporters made it’s final decision. You would think that with so much going for HD DVD, the outcome was a no brainer, but apparently not.

A few days ago, Paramount Pictures confirmed its support for Blu-Ray. Later, Warner Brothers chose Blu-Ray as its standard of choice. With Warner Brothers, Pixar would automatically be in the Blu-Ray camp as well. Since Pixar is the supporter, Apple is most certainly there and so is Sony with MGM and Columbia Tristar all on Blu-Ray’s (hereafter BR) side. Suddenly, from a festive spirit, HD DVD (hereafter HD) suddenly appears to be in the doldrums, but the big question is - can the BR side rejoice?

It most certainly can, as the support is there, but unfortunately the support they have is neither exclusive nor lifetime.

Warner Brothers mentioned that it would be supporting BR "also", which means they are definitely supporting HD, and the trend is the same with the rest of the non-backers. Since the industry isn’t sure about the "ultimate" standard, it’s hedging its bets. The reason for that is twofold. First is that no one knows which standard will come to be the industry wide standard; also, they would rather be with HD (read Why Microsoft Backed HD DVD Standard for more on that), but since Sony has tie ups with so many studios (read content owners), it would be unintelligent to write it off. If Sony says Blu-Ray, it’s surely going to be pig headed about it (remember Memory Sticks?), and they are very well stocked up on content, so people wanting to watch their content will end up buying the Blu-Ray players anyway and might not really want to buy another one that supports HD.

One thing I always fail to understand is why can’t manufacturers, sitting on the fence, bundle in two heads? The way it’ll work is this: you insert the disc; the special sensor recognizes the appropriate format and the appropriate head is called into service. Sure it might make the unit a bit bulkier, but it would play everything and majority of the users might not mind paying a slight premium for it (just like we saw with multiple format DVD writers). Simple enough, isn’t it?

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