Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits has posted another one of his Blu-ray pep rallies. As I started to read it I thought his writing was surprisingly unbiased and had a twinkle of journalistic merit to it. I mean, reporting an EMA panel by Universal EVP for Marketing Ken Graffeo and comparing it to a recent article on Sony’s PR-in-disguise blog Hollywood In Hi-Def. And while the two stories really only intersect at a basic level (Universal, Blu-ray, HD-DVD), he spins a few quotes from Graffeo into mixed feelings within Universal management about the continuation of the format war. Bravo, I say, if he wants to take that slant. I think it was a stretch to say parent company GE disagrees with Universal’s position, but it’s an interesting bit of writing nonetheless.

But here he starts to slip up. First he tries to justify his argument by referencing an article on Variety mentioning GE putting on the pressure, but it doesn’t say that at all – it rather states the pressure is coming from the statistics of Blu-ray sales over HD-DVD sales. Normally, in business, one would look at a 2-to-1 advantage as a significant discrepancy in revenue, right? Well, everyone knows the install base of HD players, both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, is so small, and software sales are so insignificant at this point, a 2-to-1 margin isn’t a reason to throw in the towel just yet.

Bill goes into a theoretical discussion on how Universal decided to pull back Spielberg films such as Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park because “[Spielberg] wants to wait until there’s more penetration,” and then uses Sony’s announcement of Close Encounters of the Third Kind to dispute their argument. Now, “personally approved the high-def transfer of the film” doesn’t mean that Spielberg had any say in the film’s release, it just means he saw the transfer and said it was to his liking. It doesn’t even mean that if he didn’t like it, Sony wouldn’t have released it anyway, but I would imagine even if Sony had complete control they would try to make the most powerful man in Hollywood happy. No one can say, other than the corporate lawyers at Sony and Universal, what kind of rights Spielberg holds on his films for those studios. Perhaps because Close Encounters was the only film for Columbia, and was done in the late ’70s, he might not have the same rights as with Universal. I’m speculating as well, but it’s not a stretch to say when he went back to Universal and signed a long-term deal, he negotiated rights to not only future films but prior films done for the studio as well. Or it could just be that Universal is holding back on his films for HD-DVD as a gesture of goodwill. Again, purely speculation.

He starts on how Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean were also announced at Comic-Con, and HD-DVDs only major announcement was Star Trek: The Original Series. First, we’re talking apples to oranges here, because the Blu-ray announcements were recent theatrical films while Star Trek was a catalog title (from Paramount, not Universal, mind you). And second, the Star Trek announcement was in conjunction with the whole J.J. Abrams reboot, which was bigger than anything out of the Spider-Man camp. Universal had a great summer as well, but you don’t see him mentioning hits like The Bourne Ultimatum, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, and Knocked Up from Universal; and 1408 from the Weinstein group, which will all be exclusive to HD-DVD.

Then he throws in the recent article of how the Blu-ray version of 300 is outselling the HD-DVD version 2-1, but all that does is show HD-DVD isn’t slipping any because those numbers are consistent with the yearly sales figures. And then he starts throwing anecdotal evidence around that it reminds him of when DVD took over DIVX, because of “readers who have decided to get into high-definition, and want our advice on purchasing the right Blu-ray player.” Um, don’t you think it’s because you have the big banner link on your site that states, “The Digital Bits chooses Blu-ray Disc – Click here to read why in The Soapbox”, people might think you are not as much of a supporter but merely an “expert” on the format? Yeah, an expert who once again brings up the Target “exclusive” story again, even though it’s been proven to be untrue.

Whatever Bill says, the reality is that these two formats will co-exist for some time, and even though Blu-ray might exceed HD-DVD in overall sales, there isn’t a compelling reason for Universal to drop its cause anytime soon. After all, there are studios like Warner Bros. actively supporting both formats and claiming victory because of it.