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Blu-ray won
Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Technolust at 8:55 pm on Monday, 7 January 2008

Phew, it appears the HD format wars are over. Apple is about to push Blu-ray and it sounds like the XBox will go Blu-ray at some point as well.

The industry woke up …

…. consumers were holding back from buying either one of the two formats … we thought it was the right time to act,” Tsujihara said, noting that even sales of standard DVDs were affected because consumers appeared unsure over which format to go with. “That was kind of the worst of all worlds for us,” he said.

I tend to agree. I was too confused but now I’ll happily grab a Blu-ray player.

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Comments(8)

    Comment by Ben at 9:18 pm on 7 January 2008

    well I guess it’s about time Sony won a format war




    Comment by Rick Shera at 10:58 am on 8 January 2008

    … or, as Bill Gates opined at CES when asked if Microsoft will now forsake HD DVD for Blu-ray:

    “The third platform, which I don’t think anybody would dispute will win in the long run, is directly downloading over the Internet.”

    http://www.news.com/Its-all-about-software%2C-says-Gates—page-2/2008-7353_3-6224924-2.html?tag=st.next

    Hopefully the momentum building in NZ for better broadband will mean that our “long run” is no longer than anyone else’s.




    Comment by Joe at 12:01 pm on 9 January 2008

    Don’t get just a Blu-Ray player, get a PS3. Fabulous Blu-Ray plyback and more features coming as firmware updates all the time - it just got DiVX playback added. Much wiser investment.




    Comment by Poneke at 2:57 pm on 9 January 2008

    But will my existing DVDs work in a blu-ray player? This is the important question for me, because I have quite a DVD library which I don’t want to have to build up all over again just because there is a format change.




    Comment by Jimmy Jangles at 8:58 am on 10 January 2008

    Where did you here Xbox was going blu-ray? Currently one can by an HD DVD add on drive for the 360 so I’m curious to see if MS has changed its mind. Happy NY.




    Comment by Mark Lovell at 8:51 am on 16 January 2008

    I think you might be a bit premature calling the format war over.

    There are pros and cons to both formats, and both have serious backers.

    Kindest regards,
    Mark




    Comment by Tony Carr at 1:02 am on 22 February 2008

    Looks like the format war has gone to Blu-Ray. See
    http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?ContentId=7643
    I am unhappy about having zoned media but at least this ended faster than the Beta/VHS battle and now buying hardware is not a game of Russian Roulette.




    Comment by Steve Biddle at 3:09 pm on 22 February 2008

    BluRay may have won the battle for physical media but it’s not going to be the runaway success DVD’s were. IPTV and devices such as Apple TV are the future, a piece of plastic isn’t.