"HD Talk" - DVDTalk's New HD Column

[Josh Z]

First column is live:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/highdef_re...elcome_to.html

Discuss.

[lizard]

Re: First High-Def Revolution column.

Wow! What a wonderful wrap-up of high def discs and the format war to date! I am VERY impressed.

Only nit I would have to pick would be the lack of spacing between lines (at least on my Firefox browser). It would be easier to read if there was a half space or so between each line.

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by lizard

Re: First High-Def Revolution column.

Wow! What a wonderful wrap-up of high def discs and the format war to date! I am VERY impressed.

Thanks!

Only nit I would have to pick would be the lack of spacing between lines (at least on my Firefox browser). It would be easier to read if there was a half space or so between each line.

I think that must be browser-specific. I don't believe I have any control over that. Do other columns or reviews look the same to you?

[Adam Tyner]

Firefox:


IE 6:

[Supermallet]

Great work, Josh. I can't wait to read the next one!

[Drexl]

It's a nice article, even though I didn't really learn anything new.

The only line spacing issue I saw was right at the top with the title. The big "g" in High... overlaps the "No" in Notes... at least on my browser (Opera). I checked it in IE and it didn't do that. It's no big deal; I see things like that once in a while with Opera.

[PornoStar]

Very well written article to start off. Very keen and to the point and while some may see a little HD-DVD favoritsim in it, most of us know that you are just telling it like it is. Everything that was said was absolutly spot on. Very good job and I look forward to your next article.

PS..

[Hammer99]

Great job, looks very nice and lots of good info, thanks!

[Spiky]

Hmm. No abnormality on Firefox 2.

Iinteresting choice for a first article. I like it! Not the same ol' crap.

Sounds like you have an inside slant, though, like you'd have to be on HD forums every day to fully understand the article. (which all of us posting here are) I wonder how it sounds to HD newbies. Definitely not for J6P. Maybe that's your aim. I'm a little confused after the "Fallacy" section as to whether you think the companies or their customers are more stupid.

Definitely interested in seeing the next one.

[MrChaos]

Excellent, informative read Josh! Keep it up

[HiFiLux]

Absolutely SPOT ON.

You hit the nail on the head with your analysis. Very good article.

I think that Execs from CE companies and the movie Studios should read this and truly contemplate the situation.

Thank you, Josh.

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by PornoStar

while some may see a little HD-DVD favoritsim in it, most of us know that you are just telling it like it is.

I made this analogy on AVSForum but I'll repeat it here.

You go to 2 restaurants and order the same meal at each. Restaurant A has reasonable prices and the food tastes great. Restaurant B charges twice as much and the food tastes like wet cardboard.

The next day someone asks you which restaurant they should go to and you relate your experience exactly as it happened. Does that make you "biased" for Restaurant A, or just honest?

The fact that Restaurant B improved the quality of their food six months later but still charges twice as much does little to change the analogy.

[The Bus]

Hey Josh I sent you an email about the logo. What do you want it to look like or do you want me to just send a few ideas? Reply here or by email.

[Spiky]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

I made this analogy on AVSForum but I'll repeat it here.

You go to 2 restaurants and order the same meal at each. Restaurant A has reasonable prices and the food tastes great. Restaurant B charges twice as much and the food tastes like wet cardboard.

The next day someone asks you which restaurant they should go to and you relate your experience exactly as it happened. Does that make you "biased" for Restaurant A, or just honest?

The fact that Restaurant B improved the quality of their food six months later but still charges twice as much does little to change the analogy.

That all depends on your job description. Is it the writer's job to give unbiased reports or to give advice? Take your pick and stick with it. Most reporters will only report on one product at a time, taking out comparisons and bias. A food critic would likely always be a profession filled with bias, so that is only a good analogy if that is the method you want for your column.

As a columnist, you will always be questioned and accused of bias, even if you write completely unbiased material. So a thick skin is probably the best thing to have.

[lizard]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

...I think that must be browser-specific. I don't believe I have any control over that. Do other columns or reviews look the same to you?

The only reason I mentioned it is that I don't see the same thing when reading reviews and the like. I use Firefox because it allows me to expand the size of text on the fly (using [Ctrl] +). And that leads to very crowded text on your column, in part because it is coming up in boldface. The really weird thing is that when I click on the "HD Talk" link in the columns menu, your column appears in normal text (non-boldface) and is easier to read. I haven't the slightest idea why your link above and the column menu link would give a different font appearance except that it is easier to read when I use this link:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html
and harder to read when I use this link:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/highdef_re...elcome_to.html

(I am running Firefox/1.5.0.8, perhaps I need to upgrade.)

It isn't a big deal. The important thing is that your column is terrific!

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by lizard

I haven't the slightest idea why your link above and the column menu link would give a different font appearance except that it is easier to read when I use this link:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html
and harder to read when I use this link:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/highdef_re...elcome_to.html

There is indeed a difference between those two pages. You'll note that the end of the first section ends with "These are the questions that bring us to…". I originally ended that sentence with an elipse... It screwed up the formatting on the page so I submitted an edit to change that to a colon. The update only took on this page:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html
But not this page:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/highdef_re...elcome_to.html

I also bolded the text at the very bottom of the article, which again only took on one version but not the other. The welcome_to.html version seems to be locked in to my earlier draft.

I may have also adjusted the fonts, I don't recall. They look the same on my browser. For the next column, I'll try to standardize the template to avoid these problems in the future. If the http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html page is the one that looks best to you, we should be in good shape.

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by Spiky

That all depends on your job description. Is it the writer's job to give unbiased reports or to give advice? Take your pick and stick with it. Most reporters will only report on one product at a time, taking out comparisons and bias.

Where did you come up with that idea? Never heard of a comparison review before? How is comparing two similar products a bias? You should tell that to Consumer Reports, all they do is compare similar products. I guess every article in their entire history as a publication has been biased.

We're not "reporters" here. We're reviewers. A review by definition must incorporate subjective opinion as well as objective facts.

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by The Bus

Hey Josh I sent you an email about the logo. What do you want it to look like or do you want me to just send a few ideas? Reply here or by email.

I'm open to all sorts of things. I ultimately chose the title "High-Def Revolution" because it encompasses multiple meanings. There's the revolutionary transition from Standard-Def to High-Def. There's the ongoing war between HD DVD and Blu-ray. And there's the fact that a video disc revolves on a spindle inside the player.

So, you know, try to find something that incorporates all of those.

[bboisvert]

[PornoStar]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

I made this analogy on AVSForum but I'll repeat it here.

You go to 2 restaurants and order the same meal at each. Restaurant A has reasonable prices and the food tastes great. Restaurant B charges twice as much and the food tastes like wet cardboard.

The next day someone asks you which restaurant they should go to and you relate your experience exactly as it happened. Does that make you "biased" for Restaurant A, or just honest?

The fact that Restaurant B improved the quality of their food six months later but still charges twice as much does little to change the analogy.

I absolutly agree and like I said in my post everthing was spot on. The reason I said some may see a little HD-DVD favoritism in it is because if someone reads that post but isnt farmiliar with the everyday events of this format war then it may very well seem like its favoring HD-DVD. As I said tho that it not the case and everything that was said was spot on correct. The article isnt biased, its 100% accurate.

PS..

[lizard]

Originally Posted by Josh Z

There is indeed a difference between those two pages. You'll note that the end of the first section ends with "These are the questions that bring us to…". I originally ended that sentence with an elipse... It screwed up the formatting on the page so I submitted an edit to change that to a colon. The update only took on this page:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html
But not this page:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/highdef_re...elcome_to.html

I also bolded the text at the very bottom of the article, which again only took on one version but not the other. The welcome_to.html version seems to be locked in to my earlier draft.

I may have also adjusted the fonts, I don't recall. They look the same on my browser. For the next column, I'll try to standardize the template to avoid these problems in the future. If the http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html page is the one that looks best to you, we should be in good shape.

I'm glad to know that it isn't just me. I suggest that you change the link you have in the first post of this thread (and the one in the "DVD Talk Headlines" at the top of the page) to the one that seems to work best:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html

[DthRdrX]

It's a great article Josh, and I agree with everything you said regarding the two competeing formats, SD v.s. HD, and how Blu-Ray screwed up their launch.

I can see the CEs on the Blu-Ray side groaning when you mention bringing the prices of the hardware down. They tried their best to price fix the HD market at $1K and above and are now being undercut by game consoles and Toshiba's aggressive pricing scemes.

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by lizard

I'm glad to know that it isn't just me. I suggest that you change the link you have in the first post of this thread (and the one in the "DVD Talk Headlines" at the top of the page) to the one that seems to work best:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html

The problem with that is that the "index" link will always default to the most recent column. The "welcome_to" link is specific to this article.

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by bboisvert

Awfully large for a banner, don't you think?

[Supermallet]

And really, The Grinch?