High Def War OVER

In case you missed it, there was a "war" going on between HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs as the format of choice for high-definition movies. And just this month, according to my sources in Techno-Geekdom, Blu-ray finally won out. Why should you care? I'll tell you why - compatibility. Blu-ray discs don't play in HD-DVD drives.

Personally, I don't know how I feel about high-definition. Sure, it makes it seem like you're really there ... but that takes away some of the magic. The Fantasy of Television will be much more difficult to maintain once we can count our favorite actors' nose hairs. Like the Rise of Mac, however, I fear that succumbing to high-def is inevitable. That's why this "war" is such a hassle - if you're going to make me switch, at least tell me what to switch to. Not since the "VHS or Beta" debate of the late 70's has incompatibility been so relevant to our day-to-day lives.


Ah, Betamax ... I'm sure there was something good about you.

Blu-ray had been pretty much kicking HD-DVD's ass, pwning 77% of the market shares. The killing blow was struck at this year's Consumer Electronics Show on February 19th. There, Sony (the backers of Blu-ray) announced a $400 million deal with Time Warner for the media giant to switch exclusively to their format. Soon big names like Paramount, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Netflix were hopping on the Blu-ray bandwagon. At the end of the day, Blu-ray claimed 93% of the market shares and HD-DVD had no choice but to throw in the towel. Toshiba and Microsoft, the original proponents of HD-DVD, announced that they would no longer manufacture/support HD-DVD drives.

For all of you who invested in HD-DVD drives, look on the bright side. Sony's Playstation 3 plays Blu-ray discs. That's as good a justification as any to finally buy yourself a gaming console. Who's up for a little Guitar Hero?



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Thanks to my brother for all the information. More can be found here.