It's an old government trick - release unpopular news on the evening before a Bank Holiday so that newspapers don't print it.  

At first, it seemed like the HDMI licensing organisation might have been playing the same game when it announced a new standard for 3D TV connection just as everyone was going home for Christmas. But then it started to look more like a PR gaffe than a corporate conspiracy, especially as the HDMI has twice now fumbled its PR by holding press briefing sessions in London and failing to invite most of the press who would benefit from attending.  

HDMI Licensing is the California-based consortium that controls the high-definition connection standard, and on December 23/24 it announced important changes to the “3D Requirements Within the HDMI Specification Version 1.4”.   

“The addition of the new format will secure the application of 3D for broadcasting, in addition to the existing applications for Blu-ray and gaming,” said HDMI Licensing president Steve Venuti.   

But the announcement - including news of an additional 3D format “tentatively named Top/Bottom” - made next to no sense because it relied on a mysterious Appendix H, which was missing and could not to be found on the HDMI Licensing web site.   

“Top/Bottom” was not explained and only those closely involved in the industry will know that it refers to a new method of recording or transmitting the left and right images of a 3D pair within a single picture frame.

The usual way is to put the two images side-by-side (as was done with some early 3D 35mm film prints) and the new option is to put the L/R images one over the other, at the top and bottom of the picture frame.  
  
“Unfortunately, the HDMI spec is confidential and only for licensees and so I cannot send you the actual Appendix H,” Mr Venuti finally had to admit after I and others had wasted days over the Christmas holiday trying to find it.   

“What I hear from broadcasters,” Mr Venuti then explained, “is that Side-by-Side is better for interlaced content (sports, for example), and Top/Bottom is better for movie content. These are both formats that are suited for the broadcast content world... the HDMI Consortium has relaxed the requirements.”  

The bottom line is that this relaxation should make it much easier for Sky to broadcast a mix of 3D sports and movies.  

Mr Venuti has now decently apologised for the mistake of issuing an important statement on the eve of Christmas and failing to explain that a document needed to make sense of it was missing because it was confidential.  

If this mistake had been made by the same PR people who messed up the invitation list to the press briefings that Mr Venuti had travelled from the USA to London to give, maybe it would be time for those PR people to try their hand at some other job. Like sweeping snow from the streets, perhaps?