Saturday, January 5, 2008

War is Over... and the Winner is Blu-Ray

By now, you may have hard that the ongoing battle between the two competing High Definition DVD formats is over as of yesterday, following Warner Brothers announcement that they will have chosen Sony's Blu-Ray Disc as the exclusive format for Hi-Def DVD distribution.

This is not only significant, but historic, coming on the eve of CES and it effectively delivers a one-two punch to the rival competition Toshiba's HD DVD.

Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, explained that the move to Blu-Ray is a "strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want," and that "the window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger." (source EngadgetHD)

The war had been raging for the last two years and heated up as studios aligned behind the competing formats. Check out the post by Christopher Null who spoke with Warner Home Entertainment president Kevin Tsujihara why WB made the decision it did.

Why We Did It: Warner Explains Its Move to Blu-ray (Interview)

Tsujihara explained that they made the decision to help eliminate the confusion and ambivalence consumers had about choosing between the two formats. Most consumers were waiting it out, myself included, and that ultimately affects the overall adoption rate of the Hi-Def DVD format.

In light of the announcement, Toshiba canceled it's CES HD DVD press conference.

More reading:

No comments:

Post a Comment