![\"blog-high-def-war.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/blog-high-def-war.jpg\")
No, this isn\u2019t an entry about adopting babies! The phrase early adopter commonly refers to persons who\u2019re enthusiasts buying into technologies that are newly emerging and before they become mainstream. Early adoption has its benefits; you get to play with the newest stuff, mingle with like-minded enthusiasts, and best of all, enjoy the online \u2018wars\u2019 when there\u2019s another competing early technology.<\/p>\n
The one I\u2019m referring to is none other than the recently-ended high-def format war<\/a>. What was that about? Well, in a nutshell, for the last 2 years, there\u2019s been two competing formats for the distribution of pre-recorded high-definition entertainment: Blu-ray<\/a>, and HD DVD<\/a>. Hollywood studios were divided into both camps or choosing to be aligned to neither, and several changed sides in the 2 years too. There\u2019s been many major \u2018events\u2019 and turning points throughout, but the absence of a clear winner was hurting mass consumer adoption of one standard. i.e. who\u2019d like to spend thousands of dollars buying new media for one format only to see the other format eventually become standard?<\/p>\n What\u2019s been especially fun though has been watching the war online. Gamers, movie-lovers and online advocacy groups have all taken sides and gotten involved. In fact, in order to stop the flaming and arguments from spilling into the forums where participants had no desire to bicker, several web sites even have Smackdown forums where folks went specifically <\/em>to fight. I don\u2019t enjoy bickering and I haven\u2019t flamed since my Usenet<\/a> days in 1993. But it\u2019s nonetheless fun to watch from a spectator\u2019s point of view. There\u2019s wit, sarcasm, the usual cussing, scrutinization of press-releases and sales data, and Nostradamus-like predictions on who\u2019d win (or lose).<\/p>\n All that said, the format war eventually reached its closure<\/a> early this week when the HD DVD format capitulated with Toshiba, the forerunner leading the format, announced that in light of recent developments in the war, they\u2019re stopping production of hardware for their format. All that\u2019s good news for consumers, since mass adoption can now properly begin with the format that\u2019s emerged the winner. The Smackdown forums are now slowly winding down in activity too since there isn\u2019t much to smack the other fellow about now. But if you\u2019d like to see what the fuss was about, here\u2019s a good place<\/a> to start. To get to the most fun stuff though you\u2019d have to backtrack from around the Christmas week from last year.:)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No, this isn\u2019t an entry about adopting babies! The phrase early adopter commonly refers to persons who\u2019re enthusiasts buying into technologies that are newly emerging and before they become mainstream. Early adoption has its benefits; you get to play with<\/p>\n