FRED MANTEGHIAN BLOG

There isn't much to complain about this year, but that won't stop me.

Walmart – while my local store has not one, but two, dumpster filled with $5 DVDs in their electronics section, they have a single endcap whereupon Blu-ray and HD DVD discs are crammed. All those wives who show up to buy HD DVD players for their husbands – just like the wife in the Walmart commercial – are going to be awfully disappointed unless their husband is 12-years-old, because Harry Potter and Pirates are more than half of the available fare.

Costco – because there's more to high-def than just three-packs of movies, at least one of which you already regret owning as a standard DVD. Maybe when they start shipping back all the standard DVDs they couldn't sell at Christmas, Costco will finally get into the right spirit.

20th Fox Century – with emphasis on the "20th" for putting out 28 Days Later on Blu-ray to showcase the standard definition video tape on which it was almost entirely shot.

The Format War - because it's not hard enough to get people to adopt new technology. Now they feel they have to make a to-the-death commitment. With this only-available-on-Blu-ray-ring-I-thee-wed.

The Sony PS3 - Oh, I know, it's the best Blu-ray player out there and that's why I bought it. But I thought there were supposed to be some good games for it too?

Directv - who decided just before Christmas they would pull Universal HD and HDNET Movies out of my $9/month "high def" programming package unless I coughed up another $6/month (which I most certainly did not!)

Shameless Blu-ray promotion site - to call their chief spokesman a whore would be to unfairly besmirch the world's oldest profession.

The Perfect Vision - who shuts their print bureau down at the end of the year. Don't worry Scott, paper is way overrated!

TheDigitalTwits - I'll be the first to admit, I visit the site and read up to get the latest news, but this slavish devotion to being right about which format should succeed is indeed tiresome.

AVS Forum - Don't get me wrong. Love it. Absolutely love it. That being said, if you have to spend an hour reading 23 thread pages of contradictory, un-vetted, un-credited and un-medicated drivel to find out something, anything, that resembles the truth, perhaps we should admit; the "forum," as a concept, is broken. Viva UAV!