DVD Blu-ray war is a battle of surpassing egotism

THERE IS A CURRENT WAR on between the two next gen DVD standards, HD DVD and Blu-ray. Each promises something better, cheaper, easier or nicer than the other, depending on who you ask, how you ask, and what your vested interest is. Now, both are trying to make peace and have a single standard, but from what I see, it appears to be an ego war with neither side wanting anything less than complete victory.

Think US Congress for a good example of the childish tantrums that I see coming from both sides.

Now, people are saying that if there is no compromise, the world will end, and there will have to be two types of movies on the shelf for each title. Oh shock, oh horror, that will end the world. People are saying that one side will bite the dust quickly, in the same way that Betamax took a few decades to bite the dust in Japan.

Each consortium will have movie studios in their pockets, and both will play the exclusive content card to the detriment of you and I. Now, who cares when the giants fight? If you want to legally purchase content, you should, but then again, that could be the biggest ace in the hole for either side.

Now, both sides are building in really nasty DRM mechanisms, anti-piracy measures, and other technologies that will get cracked within hours. Do you think that DVDdecryptor or AnyDVD will not have something for HD DVD and Blu-ray about the second they are released? Think the protection will stand up to a barely post-pubescent European teenager for more than an afternoon? Me either.

Here is the secret weapon that one side can use to win the format way, piracy. Piracy sells players and burners to early adopters, and others who are collectively known as influencers. There are studies all over the place saying that for every influencer, they tell X people about a product, and those X tell Y more, leading to hundreds or thousands of sales for each early adopter.

Now, if you want to make your format win out, let the geeks pirate with it. Build in a gaping hole in the protection mechanism. Build in direct unencrypted digital out, or better yet, don't use any DRM. You will sell them faster than you can make them. If one side allows copies, even if they are illegal to actually do, and the other doesn't, which one would you buy? Really, is it even a fight, much less a fair one?

So the side that wants to win, court the underground. Make a hole,and post it on the web sites that care about these things. Make the 'problem' known, and you will sell tons and tons of them. As soon as a model of DVD player is know to have a region free backdoor, it sells like hotcakes Now you know what to do to win the war, absolutely and quickly. µ