I hate quoting myself but..(Link see Comments 31/10/2007)

One company could end the debate over formats in a heartbeat and that is Warner Brothers, if they chose a single format instead of supporting both, the game would be over.

Yesterday January 4th 2008 Warner Bros have announced they are going to pick Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, thus ending the raging format war between the two camps Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Just to point out the obvious they waited a full 10 days after Christmas 2007 to announce this, milking the last out of early adopting HD types.

Being a PC guy I would have chosen HD-DVD as my preferred choice. Microsoft also chose this format for PC and Xbox 360. So I would have guessed wrong but I would have been in good company. Microsoft, Toshiba etc.

Interestingly both Dell and Apple chose the right format (Blu-Ray). I think HP offered both.

Well the good news all the format nonsense is now over. Sadly there are millions of consumers stuck with the “Betamax” of this century.

So lets look at the lay of the land.

Standard Def DVD: By far the most dominant by miles. It looks great and is inexpensive to buy titles and players.

Blu-Ray: There is no and I mean no low cost route into Blu-Ray. You need either a Sony Playstation 3 or a dedicated Blu-Ray player. These are currently going to set you back £250 upwards. Until the hardware is between £49-£99 your average consumer is going to run a mile.

Digital Downloads: Hi-Def streaming and downloads are just around the corner. In the UK Sky have just signed up major movie studios so this is going to take off in 2008. Likewise Microsoft will weep momentarily about HD-DVD then fill the Xbox market place with more HD content for download. Finally iTunes will start renting movies this year.

The Blu-Ray HD format is now dead in the water. It is going to be beaten savagely by the aging Standard Def DVD format in the coming years. During those years Digital Downloads will slowly take hold.

The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war a good thing, it kept driving down the cost of Hi-Def to the consumer.

Blu-Ray is the new laserdisc, Standard Def DVD is the new VHS