Friday, October 21, 2005

High-Definition DVD Format Wars Over

I'm probably calling this early, but it's over. Blu-Ray will be the sole high-definition DVD format. Warner Brothers announced yesterday that they're supporting both formats. So basically it's the world against Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel, and they won't hold out for long.

Here's why I think this is over. One, I don't think there's a single movie studio left that isn't going to support Blu-Ray. The HD-DVD format doesn't have a single studio left that's supporting its format exclusively. Second, and I think this is much more important, take a look at his quote from Toshiba (courtesy of The Inquirer):
Toshiba said that it was understable for Warner Bros to listen to a wide array of opinions and "to continue to make technical evaluations of each format."

Toshiba continued: "We are more than confident this will not affect timely introduction of HD DVD content to the market."

It continued: "Voices from within the Blu-ray camp have recently called for adoption of key features already in HD DVD," including iHD and Mandatory Managed Copy which allows "secure DVD ripping."

When Toshiba says "Voices from within the Blu-ray camp have recently called for adoption of key features already in HD DVD," that's a concession speech. That's laying the groundwork for them to throw in the towel but claim victory because their "key" features were included in the Blu-Ray standard.

I think this will be over by Christmas or soon after. Thank goodness. Having two standards would have been totally idiotic. Hopefully the draconian digital rights management issues will be resolved in more consumer-friendly ways than they have been up to this point.

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