HD-DVD: game over?
The "shades of Betamax vs. VHS" war between HD DVD and Blu-ray could be nearing an end. And it looks like HD DVD might end up keeping Beta company in the graveyard of failed formats.
The writing's been on the wall for a few months now: Availability of movies on Blu-ray disc continues to outpace HD DVD offerings, Blu-ray penetration has a solid leg up on HD DVD thanks to the PlayStation 3's ability to play Blu-ray movies, and prices on stand-alone Blu-ray players are falling rapidly (so much so that the PS3 will soon no longer be the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market. Hopefully by the time that happens there will be some compelling games for the thing.)
But the final nail in the HD DVD coffin could well be Blockbuster's announcement today that they'll limit their selection of high definition DVD rentals to the Blu-ray format only. (Blockbuster veep Matthew Smith was speaking only of the U.S. stores, but it's safe to assume Canadian outlets will follow suit.) When the continent's biggest video rental chain backs one format over the other, it's the beginning of the end.
This is good news for just about everyone except Toshiba, Microsoft and the handful of other companies that were backing HD DVD. Sony bet the success of the PS3 on Blu-ray becoming the standard, and had it failed, it would have been a serious blow to the PS3's long-term appeal. For consumers, having two competing formats just muddies the waters and slows adoption of either. The sooner one goes away, the better.
This doesn't mean your HD DVD player (or HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360) is suddenly obsolete. But to me this signals that the wind is strongly blowing in Blu-ray's sails, and I think it's only a matter of time before the last couple of HD DVD holdout studios like Universal start releasing movies in Blu-ray too. If I were planning to take the high-def DVD plunge any time soon, I'd be heading into the Blu.
Go blu-ray!
DH