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The last month and a half has not been good to the HD-DVD format. On January 4, Warner announced that it would support Blu-ray exclusively beginning June. Its sister companies, New Line and HBO, soon followed suit. Despite reports to the contrary, Paramount and Universal, the last two major studios supporting HD-DVD, held fast, or at least did very well at keeping their lips sealed. However, problems have only continued to snowball. Since then, minor film studios in Europe have been dropping like flies. This week, the issue seems to have come to a head. On Monday, Netflix announced it too would support Blu-ray exclusively, and Best Buy, the nation's premier consumer electronics retailer, announced it would be promoting Blu-ray over HD-DVD. Finally, today Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the country, announced that it will drop HD-DVD as well.

There are also many rumors floating around. One rumor says that Toshiba, basically the only producer of HD-DVD players and the number one supporter of the format, will drop it as well. Other rumors say that Paramount and Universal will drop the format before the beginning of April. In light of this week's news, however, it would not be at all surprising if the studios jumped ship before then.

Before November, I could have cared less which format survived. In the end, I am very glad that I picked Blu-ray in November. It already looked like the winner then, and things have only gotten better from there. I'm just hoping that I will be able to pick up There Will Be Blood, a movie distributed by Paramount in the U.S., on Blu-ray before long. I'm already signed up for the Amazon pre-order of No Country for Old Men.

Posted by nick.steinbaugh at 11:46 AM
Filed under: Movies

In general, I really enjoy travelling. I don't even mind doing it every week. I love getting to see different parts of the country, and hopefully I'll eventually be able to travel the globe for work as well. Unfortunately, there are people who can invoke the precisely opposite feeling. My trip to Sacramento on Sunday evening involved three such people. The night began the same as any other Sunday night had for the past two months, with me driving to the airport, going through security, and getting on the plane. The plane was hot and stuffy, and grew ever more uncomfortable as passengers boarded. Eventually, a man and his son appeared; they had the seats next to me. I had the aisle seat, so I got up to let them in. The father then proceeds to redirect all of the A/C nozzles at him and his son, including mine. He also shut off my reading lamp. I waited a few minutes and then returned the apparatuses to their original states. Luckily, the man slept through most of the flight, so I wasn't bothered any further. Later, as I was waiting for the rental car bus along with fifteen or so other people, a kid and his dad decided it would be a swell time to light up cigarettes. Right there in the middle of everyone. Lucky us.

I was in for some luck that evening, however. It would appear that the rental car gods finally decided to shine on me. This week Hertz gave me a Mustang. Of course I would have preferred the 350Z that they gave out on occasion in Tucson, but at least it's not the terrible HHR that I have been getting recently. This is the first time in quite a while that I've driven a sports car, and it's a pleasant experience. I'm actually toying with the idea of getting something similar for myself. I've currently got my eye on the next-gen Camaro. At any rate, I won't be looking to buy a new car for at least a year. My Civic still serves me well, and I'm saving up for a place to live before I start worrying about new wheels.

Posted by nick.steinbaugh at 10:28 PM

Well, I realize it's been a while since my last post. In fact, just two days after my prior post, I learned that I wouldn't be going back to Tucson anymore, as IBM's contract ended, and the expected extension was not signed in time to keep the team on the project. However, one of the partners was able to get me on something else right away, so I'm now going back and forth to Sacramento every week instead. The flight is a little bit longer, but that just translates to a little more reading time.

Aside from work, though, not much has happened. I took off last week for Christmas, and I fly back tomorrow night. I was able to see Matthew and Angie for lunch down in Denver, as they came to town for the holidays as well. We went to Maggiano's, and of course I had to have the superb tiramisu again.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm planning on posting more frequently, but for now, happy new year!

Posted by nick.steinbaugh at 12:01 AM