HD Format War Over

For anybody in the video world, the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD has been an item of interest over the last few years. Well beginning around two weeks, the war rather quickly came to an abrupt halt. Many people point to different tipping points to this battle, which is reminiscent of the video tapes wars of the 1980s (VHS vs. Betamax).

So Blu-ray has won. What does this mean? How did it happen? Is this a good thing?

What does it mean?
Simply speaking it means that HD-DVDs will disappear from shelves over the next two months. Those with HD-DVD players will still have some new titles coming out, but by the end of summer, one cannot expect to find anymore new titles in this format. Blu-ray discs and players will likely drop a little in price, but without competition, many free giveaways will probably end. Also more titles will become available, including some that were exclusively HD-DVD.

In a related note, PS3 sales will skyrocket, as it is one of, if not the, cheapest Blu-ray players available. This is bad news for XBox 360, though rumors are already around that an add-on Blu-ray attachment is in the works.

High definition movies will probably see a surge in sales generally, since people will be more willing to invest now that one format has won. Especially since some put figures around 30% of households with a capable HD television set.

How did it happen?
A lot of companies throwing their weight for Blu-ray made this all but a done deal. The real end happened when Toshiba announced early this week that they would discontinue the manufacture and sales of HD-DVD. But in the weeks leading up to this announcement, many important changes happened. Walmart and Target both decided to be Blu-ray exclusive. Netflix and Blockbuster decided to stop carrying HD-DVD. Warner, who had been making discs in both formats, decided to only produce in Blu-ray. They joined six of the nine major Hollywood studios to be Blu-ray exclusive. Since the Toshiba announcement the other two studios, Universal and Paramount, have also become Blu-ray exclusive.

This means that the two largest commercial distributors, the two largest rental companies, and all the major Hollywood studios lined up on the Blu-ray side. No wonder why Toshiba pulled the plug.

Is this good news?
For the nervous consumer, sure this good news. For now. If you want to buy a Blu-ray player go ahead. It will be the only High Definition DVD format, probably ever. Probably even the last physical medium ever used for media. All the talk now is about direct download media, which is already a reality - but will become even more prevalent over the next three years. Services like Apple TV/iTunes already both sell and rent HD movies. On-demand services for cable have been around in one form or another (remember Pay-Per-View..it is the same thing!) for most of the last decade. DVRs which especially in the last two years have become more standard in households allow you to tape many shows for watching at your convenience, and have such useful things as commercial skip buttons.

And don't forget that it will take a while for people to convert completely over to High Definition DVDs. Do you know the year that DVD sales overcame VHS sales? Are you ready for this?

2006! Yes. As in two years ago.

If you want any more info about this stuff (or you want to fact check me) just do a google search and see how many articles are being written about this topic this week.