Intrigue in the format war continued Wednesday with the Blu-ray Disc group announcing that while it would allow mandatory managed copy, it would not (for now) adopt iHD-based interactivity. Hewlett-Packard (HP) had officially requested that the Blu-ray group incorporate both technologies, which are supported by Toshiba's HD DVD format and are key reasons that Microsoft and Intel have thus far supported HD DVD and not Blu-ray Disc.

If you ever want a snapshot of what's hot in consumer electronics at any given time, or perhaps even a glimpse of the future, take a look at the connectivity of the current crop of A/V receivers. Onkyo announced in October that it was shipping the TX-SR603X, the immediate successor to its best-selling AVR, the TX-SR602. The new receiver not only offers more power than its predecessor (seven channels of 90-watt power), it requires only a "Connect-and-Play" antenna to receive XM satellite radio and connects directly to Onkyo's DS-A1 iPod dock/charger.

Toshiba is apparently going to attempt to swamp the market with HD DVD players ahead of the arrival in stores of standalone Blu-ray disc players or PlayStation 3, but is taking a high-risk route in doing so. The HD DVD developer and backer reached an agreement with and licensed their technology to Chinese manufacturers, opening the door to inexpensive players and the kind of price wars that have turned current standard definition DVD players into ubiquitous commodity items.

Committees in the House and Senate have both agreed that 2009 is to be the year that analog broadcasts end in the US, but many details, including the exact date of the inevitable transition to DTV, aren’t yet resolved.