I ran into industry icon Joe Kane at Warner's Total HD glitz and glam event, and among tha many things I learned in the conversation was that the HD DVD version of Digital Video Essentials is on hold again.

Ben Affleck drunk, and wearing tights- threat or menace? Actually Hollywoodland reminded me that we once knew Ben Affleck's name because of his acting talent and not the sheer tonnage of projects he was involved with or who he was engaged to. This well crafted movie tells the story of the death and then life of George Reeves, the Superman of 1950s camp TV. Coming in I knew nothing of Reeves' mysterious death let alone his life beyond the tights. Hollywoodland weaves through Reeves' life by way of a private investigator's look into his death, a character the film's creators acknowledge is an amalgam of several people and not a real person. The other chracters names have apparently not been changed to protect the innocent (or guilty).

This morning's Ask the Editors panel was another fun and engaging event full of excellent questions and (hopefully) informative answers. At one point the subject of separate systems optimzed for two-channel audio vs video and surround sound came up, offering me a chance to get my own message out there on this subject, and to admit to you all that I am in fact a card carrying analog druid. I do not have two systems and I sacrifice nothing in performance for either.

Not all high-definition video—or audio—is created equal. There isn’t an upgrade of any kind that you can make in any part of your system that will allow it to take a lower-quality source and deliver the kind of performance you’ll get from Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray features the highest bandwidth, best-in-class high-definition video currently available to consumers. And it serves it up with a chunky side order of lossless audio that’s miles beyond the lossy compressed audio we’ve had in theaters and at home for the past decade and a half. Buying a Blu-ray Disc player isn’t the minefield it was just a couple of years ago, but we’ve still got some tips and tricks that will help you get the best Blu for your buck.