Blu-Ray Beats Out HD-DVD - Time to Go Shopping
It was just announced yesterday that Toshiba will be discontinuing development of its HD-DVD players. This means that Sony's Blu-Ray is now standard for high definition movie players and discs. (More Blu-Ray talk here)
I have been waiting for this war to end which was a similar battle that occurred between VHS and Betamax years ago. Our DVD player at home recently broke and I have been wanting to purchase a high-def disc player so now I finally know which one to buy!
However, if you are looking for a deal, the price of HD-DVD players is dropping and is below $100. There are still hundreds of movies that are available in HD-DVD format and I am sure their price will be dropping very soon too.
What will also be interesting to see is how Microsoft reacts to this announcement from Toshiba. Microsoft's Xbox 360 uses Toshiba's HD-DVD format and which will no longer be supported. Sony's Playstation 3 uses Blu-Ray (since Blu-Ray was developed by Sony). Microsoft may have to do some retooling of its platform or offer some type of discount on an external upgrade that is compatible with Blu-Ray discs. Who knows what they will do.
In the meantime, I am off to pick up a nice new Blu Ray player and begin my collection of movies.
Comments
I have been waiting for there to be a clear winner. I did not feel like gambling my hard earned money on a format that may not be around in a few months. This way I know which one to pick!
Posted by: seotracy | February 25, 2008 01:14 PM
This battle of the two has been stupid. Proof that we learned nothing from the betamax wars? At least some ethics? We always knew that one was going to win out, but HD-DVD was a multi million dollar success. Thousands of those have been distributed into the market as well as hundreds of titles. These are all now collecters junk just as we had 15 years ago with laserdiscs. Its sad that our entertainment has to be that more exploited. I bought a laserdisc a few years after they discontinued em and it was worth it then, but it was before DVD. I'm just glad I never made the jump. The war began right after I replaced my movie library with regular dvds.
Posted by: Office Cabinets | March 2, 2008 10:48 PM
I'm waiting for the prices to come down before I buy a player, but once they get under $250 I'm there.
Posted by: paul | March 16, 2008 10:00 PM
I had a HD-DVD player but once I hear Warner had jumped ships I sold it straight away and now I have a PS3 which is so cool. I love the fact that I can play games (if I so desire) or watch regular of bluray films and also save things to the hard disk (like photos so I can view them easily on my HD TV). I ma breathing one big sigh of relief that I jumped ship when Warner did. Phew!
I do feel sorry though for the early adopters who went HD.
Posted by: Merrell | March 20, 2008 04:53 PM