Sony's Blu-Ray Emerges Victorious

The Battle is Over between Blu-Ray and HD DVD

written March 2008

The dust has finally settled on the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. You might not have heard of Blu-ray or HD DVD if you don’t pay attention to home theater issues, but you’ve undoubtedly heard of VHS tapes. The format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD has been compared to the fight between Betamax and VHS adnauseam, but there are some real similarities.

VHS tapes were initially produced by JVC in response to the Betamax format. As you know, VHS won the format war and the Betamax format was relegated to technology museums and early-adopter’s trash heaps. The success of Blu-ray is a sweet bit of redemption for Sony considering that they developed the failed Betamax format more than thirty years ago.      

What’s the big deal?

If you haven’t been following the home theater world for the last few years, you’re probably wondering what the big deal is with Blu-ray and HD DVD. There are two major factors that make these formats better than DVDs: video resolution and disc capacity. They are the first high-definition video formats that can display 1080p, which is the highest video resolution currently available. They also have more than five times the disc capacity of DVD. They have yet to reach widespread acceptance, but it is virtually inevitable that Sony’s Blu-ray will one day take over the title of the most popular video format.

A winning strategy

So how did Sony do it? There are several factors, but the biggest was the success of the Playstation 3, which includes a Blu-ray player. Most consumers initially purchased the game console to play games, but as more of the public was exposed to the improvements in resolution, Blu-ray disc sales went up. The Playstation 2 had the same effect on the burgeoning DVD format when it was released. The competing XBOX 360, which is manufactured by Microsoft, chose to sell HD DVD players as external devices. Looking back, it was a mistake to not produce the XBOX 360 with an included HD DVD player.  This would have given HD DVD at least a chance to gain widespread acceptance. 

Abandon ship!

As Blu-ray disc sales went up and HD DVD sales went down, film publishing companies began to jump ship. Warner’s announcement that they were going to cease producing their films in HD DVD was the final straw. They were the last and the biggest of the large companies that turned their back on the sinking format. 

So what should you do?

This is all great news for those of us who were waiting for a victor to be crowned in the high-definition format war before spending our money on a player. For those who adopted the HD DVD players there is really only one thing to say: trade them in. There are several companies who are offering discounts on Blu-ray players if you trade in your HD DVD player. It would be best to do this fairly soon, however, as the offer is unlikely to last for more than a few months. 

If you were waiting till the dust cleared, now is as good a time as any to buy a Blu-ray player. Prices are unlikely to drop significantly in the coming months and you can now watch your favorite films in glorious high-definition without fears that your chosen format might go the sad way of the Betamax. 

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web www.home-theater-room.com