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Blu-ray far from blue these days
Another format war, this one among high definition video players, has ended with today’s announcement that Toshiba will stop production of its HD DVD products. For those of you waiting to see how the technology shakes out before making a decision, well, it’s Blu-ray.
After years of fighting between Blu-ray’s Sony and HD DVD’s Toshiba, the end came within a matter of months. In January, Warner Bros. said it would be releasing its future films in Blu-ray. Then last Friday Wal-mart said it would go exclusively Blu-ray and that might been the byte to sever the cord.
Interesting how in both cases (videocassette and high def video) where “the market” made the format choice, it didn’t come down to consumers’ preference in technology. In the Betamax-VHS wars, most videophiles agreed Betamax created the better picture; consumers, however, wanted the greater number of film titles available in VHS. Blu-ray and HD DVD differed little when it came to video imaging, but once dominoes in film studios and distribution channels started to topple, Toshiba saw the writing on the wall.
There’s less than a year before the national transition to digital television, which will mean more digital TVs sold and, now, a few more Blu-ray players. The latter decision is still down the line for me: Our main TV at home is a 22” analog set and, frankly, works just fine in our small living room. Upgrading to a digital set also will mean upgrading cable service or moving to satellite - another expense and a monthly one at that - and then a decision to get a TiVo or cable DVR. Then I’ll look at a Blu-ray player …
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