As Lucasfilm Goes, So Goes HD?

First Warner Brothers announced it was going Blu, then the producers of blue movies started making similar sounds about a move to Blu-ray. Microsoft has even made some noise about the Blu-ing of xBox after the fall of HD DVD.

All this is all well and good for Sony's format (and welcome news for anyone who got a PS3 this holiday season), but it's nothing compared to the legions of geeks who're waiting--nay, clamoring--for the Star Wars saga to go HD. If that series of SF masterpieces (okay, call them blockbusters) went Blu, it would be a mammoth body-blow to the HD DVD format. Lucasfilm is officially "agnostic" at this point, but what do the series hardcore fans want? You know, the ones who dress up in wookie suits for the cons.





It's anyone's guess what will actually happen, but there is an interesting poll on the starwars.com site today, and the results are encouraging for Blu-ray owners. At the time I wrote this, Blu-ray was winning by a margin of nearly seven to one--68% for Blu-ray, versus an anemic 10% for HD DVD. As anyone who's following the Primaries knows, polls are probably only one step from damned lies and statistics. Still, the number of undecideds--those who haven't picked a format yet--is a bit smaller than independents in the recent contest in the Live Free or Die State, at 22%.

Granted, the correlation between gamers and Star Wars fanatics is probably quite high, so we're probably talking about a lot of people who use their game console as their main player, and for full HD that means PS3s (some, but not all, xBox 360s can handle 1080p signals, and that requires an aftermarket add on). It's hard to say how much of a predictor this is for the other high-def movie enthusiasts out there. Still, the Star Wars franchise has racked up phenomenal sales in every format in which it's been released.

It's early days for this poll, which runs until the twenty-second of this month, but things are looking Blu in the nerd camp. How will you vote?

Post by Sean Carroll