Give Sony credit for internalizing the lessons of the wars of yesteryear. Believe it or not, it was 30 years ago that Sony’s Betamax format was defeated by VHS even though many technophiles still believe it was the superior choice. Many argued that it was the release of adult movies on the VHS format that seeded the market with players, and eventually dealt the death blow to Betamax (that is a hotly contested point, however [pun intended]).

Fast-forward to 2008 and Sony – and their high-definition video format Blu-ray – has won the war with HD-DVD (Toshiba, the creator of HD-DVD officially discontinued the business on February 19th). This year got off to a bad start for HD-DVD after Warner Bros. committed exclusively to Blu-ray in January, and February just got worse as Netflix, Best Buy, and Walmart announced they would no longer be supporting the format. Sony also moved quickly to line up exclusive studio support and advertised heavily.  But perhaps the biggest key to Blu-ray’s victory was Sony’s inclusion of it in the PlayStation 3 video game console.

No matter which format you supported, the resolution of this “war” can only be viewed as a good thing for consumers.  Customers no longer have to buy a video player knowing that certain movie studios would not be releasing their films on it.  Ending this customer confusion about which format to back allows all of us to get back to what is important - watching our favorite movies in a better way than ever before.

The benefits of high-definition video are numerous: a crisper picture, more immersive sound, and the integration of bonus features which can be updated over an internet connection.  

While Blu-ray supporters and high-def movie fans can celebrate the end to the format war, it may still be some time before HD movies hit the mainstream.  Blu-ray now faces its toughest battle yet - overtaking the juggernaut of DVD.

This blog entry was brought to you by loyal customer & Book-of-the-Month member, Kevin Carpenter.