Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD

I LOVE watching HD content on my HD TV at home. I’ve become a bit of a snob about it, in that it annoys me greatly when a show I watch isn’t shown in HD. I love watching DVDs on my widescreen TV as well, but haven’t yet made the jump to hi-definition DVDs. Which way do I go? HD DVD? Blu-Ray? The latest format war has been waging for quite a while now, with no clear winner emerging. It’s been a head-to-head fight.

However, a recent exclusivity announcement by Warner Bros. may affect the outcome of this battle. WB recently announced that they would go exclusively with Blu-Ray. Up until now, they had been releasing movies in both hi-definition formats, and will continue to do so until May, after which they will only release videos in the Blu-Ray format. It is being speculated that New Line Cinema and HBO might follow suit (they are both subsidiaries of Warner) very soon.

This doesn’t mean HD DVD’s dead any time soon, though. This past summer, it was announced that both Paramount and Dreamworks were going exclusive with HD DVD.



Despite each camp having their own exclusive supporters, Blu-Ray has held the market share since the beginning as you can see by the above graphic. This is also intriguing because Blu-Ray players are more expensive than HD DVD players. Even after massive price cuts around the holiday season for HD DVD players, that camp is unable to break 40% for market share in any given week.

I anxiously await for one of these formats to emerge victoriously. I’m hesitant to buy a player one way or the other just yet, as I’m sure that purchase will ultimately lead to the demise of whatever format I chose. That’s the kind of luck I have. Hopefully one of the formats wins soon...