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HD Format War Nearing an End?
By Dave | January 5, 2008
Yes, I’m following up the last two posts about video with a post about… video. Indulge me; this is a passion of mine. In case you didn’t hear, yesterday’s big news was a thundering shot in the HD disc format war. Warner Brothers, owner of a huge catalog of films, past and present, has gone exclusive with Blu-ray. With this move, 70% of all HD disc content will be available on Blu-ray. And this year’s Consumer Electronics Show is getting interesting before it even begins. Last night, Engadget reported that the HD-DVD folks had cancelled their planned CES press conference, after the Warner announcement. Toshiba, the company behind HD-DVD, is pretty ticked off with Warner, which has been supporting both formats. Their press release carries an intimation of breach of contract. Guess we gotta keep the lawyers fed, right?
Each side has its fierce backers, but the overwhelming percentage of the purchasing public has been correctly cautious, realizing that a purchase on either side could easily become unsupported by content producers within a year. Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits has been predicting an eventual victory for Blu-ray for quite a while now, and I think he’s got some good reasons to back up his position. Yes, the HD-DVD players are cheaper than the Blu-rays, but a one-time savings can’t overcome a lack of content to play on the machine. And that was driven home this past holiday shopping season when Blu-ray players outsold the cheaper HD-DVD ones.
Warner has committed to delivering their already announced HD-DVD titles through the end of May this year. But I can’t imagine sales will be too great on them. There could still be some twists and turns in this showdown, but I think it’s all over now except for the shouting (there’ll still be plenty of that!). I’ll be surprised if HD-DVD is much of a presence (if available at all) in stores next December.
Topics: Video |
January 5th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
But can you promise me that when the war ends a sailor will kiss a nurse in Times Square?