War of the Worlds

Spielberg's remake of H.G. Wells SciFi, The War of the Worlds, was a real thriller for some but you knew in the end Cruise and "we" would triumph.

If only the business world – specifically the content world -- could be that simple. But the moment content went digital the world changed. Blame Sony and Philips when they talked us into enjoying the benefits of the innocent looking CD.

Suddenly everyone wanted a piece of the action. Recently even the Tellywood (a name coined by Bob Frankenston of electronic spreadsheet fame) unions have demanded their share of mobile video action. They have no idea what it is but it smells like money...somewhere.

Over the past few years what started out as a simple skirmish for blue laser dominance has spread faster than global warming.

Seems as though consumers want more than the warlords had bargained for. People want their digital content at home and want to stream it throughout the house. They want their little music, audio and video players so they can be entertained on the train, in the plane, in class, in meetings.

Greedy people, they want their content their way, when/where they want it...and they don't expect to pay for it more than once (ok some expect it to be free).

The Importance of High Definition
The whole premise behind the blue laser firefight is that high definition video – at home – is only possible throwing more video pixels at your new HDTV set. But... Have you really seen HDTV? Is that much better?

Sure you're a techie and you have but what about real people? Can they tell the difference? Go to any big box store and ask one of the clerks to show you HDTV and explain the difference to you...lotsa luck!!!

This year In-Stat estimates there will be more than 15.5 million HDTV sets in homes around the globe and by 2009 that number will jump to 52 million.

Fantastic!

However, there are about 6.5 billion people on this orb so 52 million looks pretty puny. In the U.S. there are nearly 80 million baby boomers (born 1946 - 1964) and 10,000 turn 50 every day. Worldwide baby boomers plus the over 65 crowd is about 420 million prospective HDTV viewers.

So?

These potential HDTV buyers have one thing in common. They have bad eyes!

We could tell them SD was HD and they couldn't tell the difference. So what's all the fuss about? Oh yes...the royalties.

Battle Lines Are Blurred
With all the action going on behind the curtains negotiating alliances, special deals, new battle plan restrictions and guidelines and hidden agendas; we watch "breathlessly" as the Blu-ray and HD DVD debaters tell us why they are superior and why they will win.

While BD burners are silently shipped to software producers in preparation for the huge demand (if you can call $1,000 for a player huge), the HD DVD combatants took their show on the road.

First stop?

A beachhead advance in San Antonio, TX. Now we have enjoyed visiting San Antonio and have the highest regard for most of Texas but a San Antonio kick-off?

Remember San Antonio's history?

Right!

The Alamo!

Probably not the most auspicious starting point.

While the tradeshow and news release hubris goes on giving the media something to report, only one thing stands between the prideful warriors and content delivery peace. It isn't even a silly millimeter. It's .5mm or whether the content will be written near the surface of the disc or in the middle.

That difference is worth a lot of $$$$. It has divided communities, pit neighbor against neighbor, father against son. It is a big reason most folks will sit this out until the war has ended.

It only took seven years for today's DVD technology – introduced in 1996 -- to reach mainstream adoption. Next generation was "announced" in 1998. It still looks like a two-year campaign before one reigns supreme. That's fine with Tellywood. They still have a lot of strategic/tactical work to do to give people their content...without giving it to them.

Your vision of the perfect world is that you enjoy your content anywhere, anytime on anything. The Tellywood vision is a fortress around their content or airport security gates at both ends of your flight.

Want to watch the content at the theater? Buy a ticket? Want it in your living room? Buy a ticket? Want to watch it in two rooms? Two tickets? Video iPod? Back to the ticket counter?

The best Tellywood DRM (digital rights management) scenario is to keep the pirate flag flying...forever! Even if it is a backup copy of legal content Tellywood's objective is to protect the consumer from him/herself.

A few members of the music industry have taken a more enlightened route by saying you can make a few copies of your content but doing four, that's crossing the line.

That's a reasonable compromise...assuming it leaves nothing behind and does no harm!

After all you are bringing content into the most dangerous place in the world - your home. Kids can destroy anything!

That frees up their mercenaries (lawyers) to focus all of their legal armament on the renegades who are pillaging the content countryside. Beats the heck out of today's scorched earth approach.

Learn From History
If the BD and HD camps had known they were going to enter into an all-out conflict, they should have taken hints from two proven warriors.

Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings and Sun Tzu's The Art of War have been the bibles of warriors (military, legal, business) for centuries. Musashi had a simple no-nonsense approach...cut down one's opponents. His key to winning - and he had to be pretty good because he died of old age - was surprising the enemy, use innovative techniques, knowing the rhythm of the situation and acting appropriately.

Sun Tzu had a different philosophy...all war is based on deception. He felt that it was of supreme importance in conflict to attack the enemy's strategy. He warned that strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory but tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

That has been translated, interpreted and used for almost every circumstance...including marriage!

While the BD camp has given up a little ground in the area of content protection/security. The HD camp is hailing it as a victory. But as Douglas MacArthur said, "We are not retreating - we are just advancing in another direction."

Will BD ultimately win and be the "standard of choice?"

Sure...probably. But ultimately you'll see some of the components included as peace is made.

The BD folks after all are Samurai seasoned by technical battles.

Is BD better than HD?

Who cares?

Sony's Beta format may have been better but Panasonic's VHS format swept the lands. Panasonic's PD and DVD-RAM technologies may have been better than DVD+/-RW but...

The PC and CE industry is littered with better technology.

As BD warlords make deals to win friends and enemies the royalties become less important than bragging rights. They have tasted victory and defeat.

That makes them formidable Samuri!

In the interest of clarity, we don't wield a Katana or Wakizashi in either hand.

We see the battle's conclusion in terms of George S. Patton's observation, "Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets."

The BD camp's battle plan for the high definition package media of tomorrow will slip past next year. No one realistically sees it being significant until at least 2009-2010.

SDTVs will have to be turned off. HDTVs turned on. There are a lot of Tellywood DRM skirmishes to be fought over the consumers' use of their content.

How long will it take a 15-year-old to pick the chastity belt lock of Ms. Content and what will Tellywood do in response?

Between now and then, millions of baby boomers + will buy dirt cheap DVD burners and recorders along with very inexpensive DVD media to save family moments/memories, copy IPTV content, timeshift/archive their TV shows. They will watch all of this on their HDTV-ready sets through weaker and weaker eyes.

If the Tellywood DRM is too difficult to navigate they may stick with the free or simple DRM content to enjoy. Consumers may be so comfortable with their bad habits moving to high definition discs may be very SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW.

Or as Wayne Dyer said, "Conflict cannot survive without your participation."