OTHER TECH

Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD are doomed to failure. The vast majority of Americans are going to be happy with the current DVD format for quite some time, and the format war will make this a difficult launch. As we found with DVD-Audio and SACD, one has to make a compelling argument to get a major percentage of the public to adapt to a new format when they're more or less content with an existing one. Only early adopters will embrace HD DVD and Blu-ray, and even many in that camp will be reluctant to gamble on a format war! I have a perfectly useless Sony/Microsoft Ultimate TV receiver I bought a few years ago when DVRs were first coming out, and I wish I'd waited for the market to settle before I made that purchase. ROBERT J. MORRISON VIA E-MAIL

You can pass this on to the HD DVD and Blu-ray manufacturers: Guys, you've already lost me. You've lost me to previous format wars - DCC vs. DAT, VHS vs. Beta, SACD vs. DVD-Audio - and to the high prices of the new discs and players. (Nobody's going to pay $35 to watch Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.) But, mostly, you've lost me to the already available high-def channels. I'd buy into HD DVD or Blu-ray if the discs and players were the same price as their DVD counterparts and if I were sure I wouldn't be caught on the wrong side of the format fence. BOB MAGGIO VIA E-MAIL

I just read "The Format War Goes Nuclear", and I have two questions for anyone who cares: How do we afford this? And why don't they have all the bugs worked out by now? Don't advertise a product until it's set to go. All of us want the best, but we don't want to pay $500 to $1,000 for a player while putting out another $30 to $40 for the new discs. Isn't that why DVD-Audio and SACD didn't work? Good luck with the new high-def discs, but I think I'll sit this one out. BILL SEELEY DEARBORN, MI