FRED MANTEGHIAN BLOG

A month ago, I wrote about how the HD side of the Stroker Ace combo disc didn't play in my brand new Toshiba XA2. Shane asked if I'd bothered to upgrade firmware levels, which, of course, I hadn't. When I did, supposedly to release 1.6, I still had a problem with the disc. I put in Children of Men, another combo, and that wouldn't play on the HD side either. A week ago, I ran the firmware update request again. It took a few minutes (as opposed to about 20 minutes the first time) and then, well, I forget what it did then, but my Toshiba still thinks it's at release level 1.6.

Except now, all the combo discs I've tried work just fine. So let's just put problems with combo discs down to teething pains. On the other hand, I know someone that's on their third HD player, so maybe, just maybe, it ain't the disc.

Now that that's settled, or not, we can revert back to the regular question of the week: Who is winning the format war?

Fox's hesitancy releasing anything in the BluRay format may have been mitigated to life a few weeks ago when Fox announced that a BD+ Technologies LLC product would be used as an extra layer of protection beyond AACS (Advanced Access Content System), the default security scheme with all current BluRay releases. What convinced them was the "extra layer of protection" provided by BD+, like a new and improved antiperspirant that keeps your security scheme from stinking it up.

Meanwhile, as Shane already reported, Sony is responding to calls that their BluRay players are too expensive by cutting prices by $100 on their Sony BDP-S300 BluRay player (new MSRP is $499) and throwing in five free BD movies with the purchase of any BD player (including the PS3!), just like the boys at HD-DVD have been doing for two months.

And speaking of PS3 consoles, thank God you no longer have to run into light poles in the parking lot of Walmart to get one. Rumors abound that both Target and, shortly, Circuit City will be cutting the price of those critters to $499 as well. According to Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb over at G4TV's X-Play, the newer PS3 games no longer suck, so now might be the time to pick one up. I wouldn't be surprised if Sony announced some sort of official price cut for the PS3 at the E3 show next week. Of course, the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut will continue to sell them for $999 in their Wampum club. I think you still have to run into a pole in the parking lot before that seems like a good deal.

And finally, check out this guy's video on how long it takes to watch a BluRay movie. Sharp plans on addressing the lousy start up times with something they call "Quick Start". Sharp's BD player will start playing a movie in a few seconds. Not like the one used by our hapless Youtuber.