HI-DEF!

[TheGingerWarrior]

I havent really got the money for a blue ray player or a ps3.

Im just gonna wait till the price goes right down like it did with DVD players 

Cause im poor.

[Dave Mack]

My Blu ray came tonite! Lady asleep, I'm gonna "fire it up! Fire it up!"  (whoops! Wrong film!)

Warriors in HD! My old block on 100th st in HD....!

[Tantive7]

[glow=red,2,300]WELL IT'S OFFICIAL[/glow]
[glow=blue,2,300]BLU-RAY HAS BEATEN HD-DVD[/glow]

Blu-ray scored a big win in the DVD format battle with Wal-Mart's
decision to phase out high-definition DVDs.
The news came after Best Buy and the online DVD rental service Netflix
also decided to carry Blu-ray over rival HD.



[glow=red,2,300]R.I.P.[/glow]

NOW THAT THIS WILL BE THE OFFICIAL DVD FORMAT..
It makes you wonder what will happen to all of the people who brought HD-DVD..
Talk about a waste of money!!!!

[Tantive7]

[glow=red,2,300]This is a Follow-up to my previous comment..
For anyone who is intrested..[/glow]


[glow=red,2,300]Here is further information on The Format War,that has now ended
For anyone who is interested..[/glow]


[glow=red,2,300]R.I.P. HD-DVD[/glow]

[glow=red,2,300]Blu-ray beats HD DVD -- now what?
The Blu-ray format always offered more capacity over HD DVD
[/glow]


February 19, 2008 (Computerworld)

So the high-definition DVD war's over, and to the victor go the spoils.

Now that Sony's Blu-ray Disc DVD format has beat out Toshiba's HD DVD , the question arises: Just what spoils are there? Many consumers have been put off by the high-definition DVD format wars, leaving sales of both formats sluggish at best. Some are speculating that because of the end to the war, sales will pick up. Let's look at some of the numbers.

Last year, about 32 million DVD players were sold in the U.S.; of those, only 4%, or 1.5 million, were high-definition DVD players. Blu-ray Disc players accounted for 578,000 of that number, and HD DVD accounted for 370,000, according to Adams Media Research Inc. That's almost a 2-to-1 ratio. After Warner Bros. pulled its support of HD DVD last month, the percentage of Blu-ray to HD DVD sales skyrocketed. Blu-ray accounted for 93% of high-def DVD hardware sales in North America in the week after Warner Bros.'s announcement -- although the overall number was small: 21,770 players. Multiply those sales out over the full year, and you're still looking at just over 1 million high-def players sold.

After the news broke yesterday that HD DVD was about to raise the white flag, geek news site Slashdot.com put up an impromptu poll for its readers, asking, "Now That Blu-ray Has Won ...?"

Almost half of the 28,000 respondents at the time of this story's publishing said they still aren't convinced that high-definition DVD is worth the upgrade from traditional DVD technology. The next biggest group of respondents said they are still waiting for high-definition downloads. Geeks tend to be early adopters of technology, so this poll could be very telling.

[glow=red,2,300]So, what was the big difference between HD DVD and Blu-ray?[/glow]

In a word: capacity. HD DVD offers 15GB capacity on a single-layer platter, while Blu-ray offers 25GB. More capacity means more data; more data generally means better images and better sound when it comes to high-def movies.

From a manufacturing standpoint, HD DVD had it all over Blu-ray, in that machines used to press standard DVDs could also be used to produce HD DVD discs with just minor tweaking. Blu-ray, on the other hand, required DVD manufacturers to change out their disc-pressing equipment, vastly increasing start-up costs. That also explains how HD DVD made it to market before Blu-ray.

[glow=red,2,300]What pushed Blu-ray to win the format wars?[/glow]

Over time, more and more movie studios, electronics manufacturers and retailers began throwing their weight behind Blu-ray. Many studios, such as Warner Bros., which had supported both formats, recently pulled their support of HD DVD for Blu-ray exclusivity. Others quickly followed Warner Bros.'s lead. As of last week, Blu-ray had the exclusive support of Twentieth Century Fox and Walt Disney, as well as major electronic manufacturers such as Apple, Dell, HP, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp. Wal-Mart, Netflix, Target and Blockbuster also sided with Blu-ray.

"People buy high-definition DVD players to watch movies, and without the support of the studios, there was no way HD DVD could survive for long," explains ABI Research analyst Serene Fong.

Will Toshiba offer support for discontinued players?
Yes. According to Toshiba, it will continue to support its existing HD DVD players for the foreseeable future. Customers seeking technical support can dial (888) 694-3383.

[KissTheRain]

Yeah I did my disertation on the format war between HD-DVD/Blu Ray and it was really interesting. I think the reason I was supporting the HD-DVD format was because, yes, it was slightly cheaper (Also because my Xbox happened to have the kind of drive)

In the long run prices will come down as it did with video, CD and DVD and soon another format thats bigger and better will come out and we'll all have to go through it again. As is life I suppose.