Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD war is over: Blu-ray wins!
Posted on January 6, 2008
Filed Under News
Yeah, that’s a bit of an overstatement but it’s still going to be true. Warner Bros. just announced they will be offering HD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray format by the end of 2008. That leaves only 2 major studios offering support for HD-DVD, Universal and Paramount. Worse for HD-DVD is that Universal has no exclusive agreement with HD-DVD, they just haven’t bothered to release anything in the Blu-ray format… yet.
With this latest announcement, its only a short matter of time before Universal starts putting titles out on both formats (or perhaps drops HD-DVD) leaving consumers with an obvious choice when shopping for a next generation DVD player.
This is fantastic news for Sony who has been counting heavily on its inclusion of a Blu-ray player in the Playstation 3 to increase the game consoles appeal outside of their core audience. With prices of stand alone Blu-ray players only about $100 cheaper than the least expensive Playstation 3 console, they are hoping younger (under 40) consumers will opt to buy the Playstation to play movies just in case they decide they might want to get a game or two in the future. If everyone did this also loaded up the Folding @ Home client it would rock as the computing power of the PS3 has greatly enhanced the groups efforts.
Another nail in the HD-DVD coffin may come later this month as rumors have it that Apple will upgrade its Superdrive to include Blu-ray support. This makes since since Steve Jobs is on the board of Disney, a Blu-ray partner. The issue here is cost. Even if the upcharge was as little as $100, would that be too much for most Mac buyers to stomach? I know I never have the urge to play movies on my computer, and when traveling I’m not really interested in watching super high quality movies on my notebook either, a DVD rip is just fine.
It all comes down to the movies though, and Blu-ray now has (or will at the end of 2008) the largest selection by far. I guess it’s time I got a PS3.
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