HD DVD vs Blu-Ray
Looks like the Blu-Ray camp is making an attempt to end the format war. Warner Bros just signed on as an exclusive, meaning now about 75% of studios are Blu-Ray exclusive.
I still think this is a bad idea, because the lack of a combo format means stores will have to stock two SKUs for every movie for the next ~10 years, but if it means we can just pick a format and move on, then maybe we’re better off.
Warner’s reason is a good one - that they believe consumers are going to sit on the fence until this gets sorted out, so the industry needs to choose a clear winner to remove this uncertainty - but Ithey’ve picked the wrong winner.
January 6th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Hey Steve,
I agree about the combo disc thing, but an even bigger drawback of Blu-ray compared to HD DVD from a non-US point of view is the region coding. If Blu-ray wins and HD DVD is phased out then it effectively means that we here in Australia will be limited to discs released in our region (unless we buy a US player).
I have the HD DVD add-on for the 360 and about a dozen discs (all from amazon.com), and I’m totally sold on HD DVD, so Warner’s decision really bummed me out.
Matt
February 4th, 2008 at 2:06 am
I agree, but I think the real tell-tale sign here of who was going to win was when Disney signed exclusively on BluRay awhile back. Honestly I wanted HD-DVD to win also, I got the player for my 360 too. Heck I still haven’t gotten my 5 free movies yet, and I’ve already given up on the format.