Breaking News - Warner Goes Blu-ray Exclusive!
As a result of this important announcement, the HD-DVD camp has also cancelled its major CES event, and also its one-on-one meetings with the press, both of which I had intended to attend. As more information becomes available on the future prospects for HD-DVD, lt will be reported here. For more details on the Warner Announcement, check out the reports from High Def Digest, TV Predictions, and Audioholics.
My Take: Blu-ray and HD-DVD both have their advantages and disadvantages. If either one had been released into the market alone, either one would have succeeded. One interesting advantage of HD-DVD over Blu-ray is that HD-DVD discs cost much less to make than Blu-ray Discs. This has enabled Warner Brothers to actually make money on HD-DVD releases even though they sell less HD-DVDs than Blu-ray Discs. Apparently, Warner feels that the long term prospects for HD-DVD are just not there. Rooting for the underdog is an Americal tradition, but, unfortunately, the underdog doesn't always climb to the top. It will certainly be an interesting CES this year.
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This is really an eye-opening announcement and we’re waiting to see how it shakes out (officially), especially with the Consumer Electronics Show this week. While it seems to get us closer to the end of the format war, it also begs the question of what the “push-back” will be. We at Audioholics still maintain that until the studios have some sort of timeline for the replacement of DVD, HD-DVD formats won’t go anywhere regardless of whether one format stands or not. DVD is rather entrenched and IPTV may enter the scene in force before a physical medium can replace the DVD.