The future really is Blu ...

• January 5, 2008
• James Skemp
• dvd / movie, technology

Catching up on the news, it seems Warner will be switching over to Blu-ray, exclusively, after May 2008.

What surprises me is that they're just now saying that this is ending the format wars. The fact that Warner was supporting both, while Fox, Disney, Lion's Gate, MGM, and Sony were only Blu-ray (compared with Paramount and Universal going HD DVD, after Paramount was effectively paid-off) suggested, to me, that the 'war' was already over.

(Of course, I'm biased since I have a Playstation 3.)

But, that's not to say that Microsoft has completely lost out. After all, the Xbox 360 doesn't contain a HD DVD player out of the box, rather, it's an add-on. This actually seems to leave Microsoft's option open a bit more than Sony's, if the Blu-ray format had failed.

However, I've yet to see any numbers of actual sales of HD videos; is Blu-ray really selling better than HD DVD? I know I've seen a lot more adverts for the former, on both online and television. In fact, other than the odd DVD release commercial, I don't think I've seen a single HD DVD (player) commercial ... online or on TV (which is limited to local channels, so perhaps cable channels air these commercials).

Not being old enough to remember when VHS won, especially not what happened to the market, it'll be interesting to see what happens. Depending upon what contracts were signed by Paramount (and potentially Universal), we may see the format 'war' being drawn out just because of that. It may also be interesting to see what happens outside of the U.S.; I unfortunately have no idea what's going on outside of the U.S., as regards the new formats, save that a number of cheap HD DVD players are being produced by foreign companies.

• playstation