Today will go down in history as the day the format war of high definition video discs was won. Finally. Yippee..
After around four years of bitter fighting that effectively hindered consumer adoption of high definition video discs, Sony and its Blu-ray format has triumphed over Toshiba’s HD DVD. Toshiba announced today it will no longer be developing new HD DVD equipment. This comes after a series of defeats for HD DVD the last of which was Walmart’s decision to exclusively support Blu-ray. Ouch!
In the 1980’s Sony lost the videotape format war. Its superior Betamax tapes lost to JVC’s VHS. This time Sony won. We the consumers also apparently got a better result: Blu-ray is the better format as it holds more data.
If you are interested in a historical background of this format battle I recommend this engadet link.
What will happen now is a speeding up of market development for high definition players and content. Consumers have been reluctant to buy into the new era of video as this war of the formats raged. Most people who bought those nice HD LCD TV’s have been using them to watch stinky old DVD’s. What a waste of pixels.
Now the DVD’s days are numbered.
I wonder, however, how long this whole “disc” business will last. Downloadable high definition video is already being offered by the like of Apple. Online distribution of video will make this whole plastic disc thing a relic from the past.
One final note. This battle has an interesting branding aspect. “Blu-ray” is a totally new name, while HD DVD tried to come across as more familiar. “You know.. it’s like the DVD you know and love but with High Def”.
In the end, the “new” Blu-ray name won. The branding jury will surely be discussing this for some time to come..
Comments
7 responses to “And the winner is: Blu-ray”
I’m with you when it comes to physical media. I haven’t purchased an actual CD in over 3 years; I only purchase digital (read portable and versatile) music online. I think Blu-Ray will have a place in many people’s homes, but it’s only a matter of time before all movies will be format-less.
Sony – Toshiba …. Crazy Jap’s ….
I discovered blu-ray yesterday, Orange DVD 5th circle has a whole section and marketing it with PS3 that they sell as well… With a Pizza restaurant nearby for the same owners, you can entertain yourself with the delivery service they have!
However, the blu-ray quality is something I ve never experienced before
)
يا رجل ،الدنيا والمنطقه راح تطربش علي رؤسنه ونتا مضيع وقتك علي شئ لا راح يقدم ولا يئخر
So, maybe we should drop everything and form a militia, to get in the groove… to be real
)))))))
Both are losers. The winner is online distribution. Discs will seize to exist (as the popular method of media transportation) soon.
The fact that the war took 4 years is evidence that the market itself is in flux – and looking at Disc sales numbers for this year, we know this flux is downhill.
You mentioned Apple, but Amazon, Blockbuster, & Netflix are all moving to online distribution. Dish & Cable companies offer some form of on-demand-video. And further, just go to surfthechannel.com or stage6.com, and you can see all these movie real time for free!
I don’t this discs will disappear… but they will become “secondary” means of carrying media. Too bad, because I really like CD artistic covers.
woooohoooo.
I have been following this closely and I knew they won when Warner Brothers went blu ray .
Ok so we have a PS3 and let me tell you, the blu ray picture quality BLOWS me away every time.
So most probably whoever bought an HD player are kicking themselves in the butt. At least with the PS3 you don’t care if they win the war or not cos you can still play games on it.