Blu-Ray? How Is It Different From HD-DVD

Well, it's over. The High-Definition home video format war has come to a close. The winner: Blu-Ray by a technical knockout. With sales of HD-DVD slumping to the point that virtually all of the formats supporters have jumped ship to Blu-Ray, retailers have decided that HD-DVD is done. Markdowns of and the refusal to stock HD-DVD are the main components of the premature death.

This surprised me quite a bit. I thought that the fact that the Playstation 3 (a big supporter of Blu-Ray and an actual player in its own right) seemed to be struggling would signal an advantage for HD-DVD. Take this into account with the fact that the X-Box 360 (PS3 competitor and backer for HD-DVD) had a one-year head start; I just assumed that this format would pull away from Blu-Ray.

Additionally, I was under the impression that name recognition would give HD-DVD an advantage. Many people have HD televisions and almost everyone has a DVD player. It would then seem obvious, to me, that when faced with the choice of selecting an HD-DVD player or a Blu-Ray player, consumers would pick the HD-DVD format. I theorized that the name Blu-Ray would intimidate or confuse consumers. Evidently, I underestimated the buying public. Because not only is Blu-Ray the preferred medium for experts, it also has become the format of choice for the public.
At the end of the day, it probably does not matter which medium wins the format war (unless of course you purchased a now-obsolete HD-DVD player). I just hoped that the HD-DVD format would prevail, if only to put the ever-cocky Sony in their place. But now, I think it is time to move everyone on to the same page and make Blu-Ray a consumer-friendly and high quality for viewing films in the home.