Saturday, January 05, 2008

The High Definition Format War

Appears to be over with. Warner Brothers, the biggest studio supporting both Blu-Ray and HD DVD has chosen to support Blu-Ray exclusively. This is a major blow to HD DVD as a future format. What it also means is that you will be able to get some great bargains on HD DVD players and movies very soon!

If there will ever be mass consumer adoption of a HD format it is popular opinion that there needs to be one unified format. I believe that the format war could have lasted for years if the Warners had stayed neutral.

It isn't so much a war as very good competition. They both pushed each other further to become better products. It is great that it has lasted as long as it has in fact. I don't own either but when I was ready to buy I was going to purchase both at the same time to be neutral. All you had to do at that point was just go buy the movie you wanted.

Both formats had identical picture quality. One looks as good as the other. HD DVD is a bit cheaper, Blu Ray has more storage. They have advantages in their own way.

If you have HD DVD don't worry. The movies will still work, the format will still be around for some time to come as there are studios that exclusively support HD DVD. When I am ready to purchase a HDTV I'll still be purchasing both formats at the same time and they will be around.

HD DVD will probably not be the format of the future but it is here now and will be a great value for a long time! Blu Ray is a great format as well and if it is going to enjoy broad consumer support will have to get cheaper which I am sure it will very soon.

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