Re: Universal Preparing Titles for Blu-ray
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Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet
There's a certain irony in suggesting that Bill's endorsement damages Maxpower's credibility given that Bill Hunt has been one of most accurate predictors of HDM events over the past year... though I'm certain that the fact that Bill has been honest about his preference for a strong single format is viewed as "agenda" by many.
I'll leave my own association in your comments for others to regard in whatever way that they may.
-dave
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What I see going on is a lot of Monday morning armchair quarterbacking, in many cases by those who have limited contacts with the industry. The bottom line is that outcome of this format war wasn't hard to predict by anyone who had sufficient and regular contact with a wide enough sampling of industry professionals to form a complete picture. That so many people got it wrong I think reflects a lack of industry connection, and also the degree of success of those who were paid to spread FUD and disinformation during the last two years.
The sad fact is, track records don't count for much online these days. Anyone who speaks loudly enough and often enough can (and does) call themselves an expert. Plenty of people here and at AVS and elsewhere have accused me personally of being paid to shill for Blu-ray, of only believing what the BDA wanted me to believe, of only getting one side of things, etc. All completely baseless and untrue. I have hundreds of long-time contacts at every level of the industry, on both sides of the format conflict and at many service companies in the industry that were neutral and in-between. I spend significant time every single weekday talking to them, via e-mail, phone and often in person, one-on-one. Many are trusted friends I've known for years. Conversely, all too many other so-called experts were basing their opinions and predictions on woefully incomplete information from a handful of insiders, in many cases seeing or being given only a very small portion of the complete picture of what was really going on in this conflict. Sadly, there was a lot of deliberate feeding of misinformation as well, on both sides, and all too many people simply didn't or weren't equipped to see through it. That's why it pays off in such times to have a long history with - and the trust of - a large pool of impartial insiders, who can fact-check and balance out the agendas of those who are paid to promote, sell and obfuscate for just one side.
I'll tell you something I know for a fact: There are a lot of industry professionals who used to visit, read and participate in online discussion forums like this one, who no longer do. And the reasons why are fairly apparent. It's simply not worth the aggrivation, especially when people continue to believe what they want to believe, and hurl all kinds of accusations and insinuations. I've seen industry professionals make completely factual statements about events and subjects in which they are directly involved, be told in various forums (by folks who often have no involvement in the industry whatsoever, mind you) that they're a--holes, idiots and shills who clearly don't know what they're talking about. To call this sad state of affairs silly is an insult to actual silliness.
