Today, the ‘red’ flag of surrender was raised by Toshiba, the maker of the HD-DVD format DVDs and disc players. They have announced they will not produce any more products with the HD-DVD technology.
It’s final. Blu is better than Red.
For those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 2 years, HD-DVD was one of the two competing next-generation DVD formats who were competing for the High Definition DVD market. It was an all-out VHS vs. BetaMax rehash.
Sadly, last time evil prevailed and VHS became the standard. However, this time methinks the powers that be have made the correct choice, and Blu-ray was the right way to go.
The only thing that makes this victory even more sweet is that Microsoft backed the HD-DVD format, and once again has picked a loser. Now what are all the poor souls who bought Xbox 360’s going to do?
What does this mean for the average bear? If you’re planning to buy a new dvd player in the next year or so, you will have two options – future proof and pay a little more for a Blu-ray, or get a very cheap standard DVD player.
I say ‘future proof’ because unless you have one of the most recent HDTVs (one that does 1080p), you will not reap the full benefit of the Blu-ray disc. In some cases, you might as well be watching a standard DVD. Don’t let silly people who speak of ‘upconverting’ make you think it’s the magic bullet either. You won’t see much difference in DVD vs Blu-Ray until you have a top of the line HD set.
Do you need to upgrade all your DVD library? No. Blu-ray players will play standard DVDs. But Blu-ray discs cannot be played on standard DVD players.
Personally, I will wait until a high quality player is under $150 before I upgrade. Right now the low end players are still well over $200.