Blu-ray/HD-DVD Battle Almost Over
 

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.

:thumbsup Go blu-ray!

DH

Blockbuster mentioned this a few weeks ago. Good deal, time to get a PS3 I'm thinking :) Now if I can just talk the wife into it.

I'm glad I've decided to buy most of my movies on blu-ray. And I thought at first that HD DVD would win the "battle". Glad I was wrong :)

I still think the PS3 sucks though, they should make a bluray drive for the X360...

Yeah there are very few good games for it :(

DH

interesting news.

I cant even tell the difference...HD and BluRay look the same to me.

BluRay for the win!
As forthe PS3, they definitly have to release some better games before my money gets thrown there way.

Neither Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will last for long. -Bill Gates, Microsoft

I have a PS3 so I've been hoping the Blu-Ray would come out on top ..

Thats not news that's some guys blog on Canoe

http://blog.canoe.ca/loadthis/loadth..._dvd_game_over

I agree. Who wants to go to a store and buy a disk when you can download it.

I have a PS3 and the 360 HDDVD add on. I don't care either way, as both offer downloadable HD movies which I've been using more and more lately.

Well as someone who bought an HD-DVD player made by Toshiba, I will expect them to ship me a free Blu-Ray player with a return pre-paid label if thats true. hehe

Question about blu ray, does it upconvert regular DVD's or not?

Regarding adult content on a retail level, Let's just hope the Blu-Ray replication plants are able to loosen up their restrictions on replicating Adult content.

It started with... No, sony wont allow us... then sony said.. we're ok with adult.

Bottom line is, it will be more difficult to find (read: more expensive) Blu-Ray plants since these plants will require new equipment... whereas HD-DVD plants could still use a lot of the current DVD replication machines.

I recall watching Talladega Nights on Blu-ray up on the Plasma in the boardroom here in the office back in the fall and I honestly couldn't see any quality difference over a typical DVD.

Maybe I'll be more impressed when the high end 1080p plasmas are out.

I hear LG has a combo player, bluray and HD-DVD, that would be the best solution for this issue. With Blockbuster now for bluray, I also think this is the fatal blow to HD-DVD ..

Beta is a superior quality to VHS too.. I have some beta tapes still.. argh.

I don't buy either until the winner is clear beyond dispute.

Blues my favorite color

I was debating to go with Netflix or the Blockbuster mailer movie rental thingie in another month or so....

This just sealed the deal for me. All things being close to equal, I chose to not support Sony, or any company significantly in bed with Sony.

Netflix for me it is.