Blu ray vs hd dvd. who will win the war?

Question

i know this question has been asked before, but the market has changed alot in the last year

Answer 1

Paramount and Universal did not switch to Blu-Ray.

Universal and Paramount have no intention of moving to Blu-Ray. They made that crystal clear.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/200...

It comes down to these simple facts:

HD-DVD is better and cheaper.

There are HD-DVD discs that contain the HD version of a movie and the regular DVD so you can wait for the prices to drop.

Paramount turns out the biggest blockbuster movies so if you want to buy or rent Transformers and you have Blu Ray, you're out of luck.

HD-DVD is well recognized in households, Blu Ray is not.

Blu Ray has more disc space which means nothing except for Data storage on a PC and more space for TV Episodes.

PS3 has Blu-Ray however people 30 and up won't buy it because most of them don't play video games.

I still can't pick a winner, but my money went into the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player for $169 instead of the $400 I would need to shell out for a Blu-Ray.

If Blu-Ray wins everyone loses because the lower quality format wins, like when VHS beat Beta. Money wise, I would  lose $169, if HD-DVD wins you could lose as much as $2000 if you bought a Blu-Ray player early on or a top of the line model.

My advice is to wait and see, this is far from over.

Answer 2

The answer changed drastically on January 7th when Warner and then New Line announced exclusive support for BR giving that format 70% of market share.  There are unofficial rumors that Paramount and Universal will begin supporting the BR format soon, but there's no announcement.  It is official that their contract to be HDDVD exclusive has now ended - legally they can do whatever they want now.

Game Over

Answer 3

The war is over. Last week Warner Bros announced they would be using Bluray only. That left Paramount and Universal as the only exclusive HD-DVD users.

This week, Universal and Paramount announced plans to switch to Bluray also.

Byebye HD-DVD

Answer 4

The war isn't quite over since HD DVD is still around, but if you were to choose one of the HD formats Blu-ray is the logical choice.

That said, most consumers can't benefit from either HD format (No HDTV) so the real question is whether Blu-ray will ever be more than a niche product for those able to benefit and willing to pay the premium prices.

Before buying be sure you will benefit ... otherwise you will be wasting your money.

As a guide, you must have an HDTV -- ideally 40" plus and 1080p with HDMI connectivity. A 37" and up 720p HDTV will still give some benefit but won't be a great improvement on an upconverted DVD picture.

Note that prices for Blu-ray disks are typically $5-$8 more expensive than DVD for new releases, and as much as $20 more for many older movies.

The discussion at the link is interesting reading as to why Blu-ray is going to stay a niche format.

Answer 5

Well blu ray is about to take over, anyways! I would, just like to be able to afford one of those new tv's, that are outragously priced! Only, the rich can enjoy HI-DEF!!!!!