In DVD wars, winner on Main St is Blu-ray
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES  - Toshiba Corp  may  not have officially given up on its HD DVD format for high  definition DVDs, but the word on the street on Sunday was that  rival Sony Corp's  Blu-ray had won the war.
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U.S. video rental chain  Blockbuster Inc.  has come out in favor of the Blu-ray  DVD format disc, tipping the balance against the rival HD DVD  in the battle over next-generation discs.
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Warner Brothers is dumping HD DVD and going Blu-ray exclusively. Does this spell the end of the format war?
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An impending end to a format war over  next-generation DVDs boosted shares in both victorious Sony, in  the Blu-ray corner, and Toshiba, in the losing HD DVD camp, on  Monday as consumers cheered an end to confusion over which  discs will carry high-definition movies.
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Another Blu-ray player price cut is on the way.
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The high-definition DVD format war has not been won, at least not in the minds of the retailers. Last week, Time Warner Inc's  Warner Bros studio said it would exclusively release high-definition DVDs in Blu-ray format instead of Toshiba Corp's  competing HD DVD technology.
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Movie rental giant says it sees a clear enough trend among its customers to pinpoint Blu-ray as its format of choice, adding clarification to the DVD wars.
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The decision by&#160;Warner Bros. to drop HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray Disc&#160;for high-definition movies has set the electronics industry abuzz. Announced on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show, the move put a single question in the minds of thousands of industry-insiders heading to the show in Las Vegas: Could the high-definition format wars be over?Since both formats launched they have been locked in a battle that pitted some of the industry&#39;s biggest consumer electronics companies against each other. Backing Blu-ray Disc has been Sony, Panasonic and Samsung, while HD DVD&#39;s main supporters have been Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel.The battle also divided Hollywood and left consumers with a difficult choice: their favorite movies were likely split between the two formats and there was a risk the player they bought would become irrelevant. As a result consumers kept away from the formats and sales have been sluggish.Warner&#39;s decision will give Blu-ray Disc an advantage in terms of content. With the move, five of the big seven Hollywood studios now back Blu-ray Disc with only two, Paramount and Universal, backing HD DVD.The Warner announcement certainly put the HD DVD Promotion Group&#39;s CES plans in disarray. Within hours of the announcement, the group cancelled its scheduled Sunday-evening news conference and subsequent media interviews at CES.&quot;They&#39;re definitely regrouping and considering their options at the moment, this could be extremely important,&quot; said Tom Coughlin, a storage analyst at Coughlin Associates. &quot;This could be the beginning of a major pivotal turning point in the high-def format war, which if we could define the format which is going to win would be extremely important for the industry because this would free up consumers to start making decisions on the purchase of their systems.&quot;Better sales would help consumer electronics manufacturers increase production and that would in turn lead to lower prices, said Coughlin. Those lower prices would then lead to better sales and that would help the entire industry, he said.Warner touched on the format battle&#39;s impact on the consumer electronics industry in a statement announcing its move.&quot;A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,&quot; said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner&#39;s home entertainment group in a statement.Whether or not the fight is really over remains to be seen.Toshiba said it was &quot;quite surprised&quot; by the announcement from Warner &quot;despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD.&quot;&quot;We will assess the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluate potential next steps. We remain firm in our belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of the consumer,&quot; Toshiba said in a statement.For some, the Warner decision marks the end of the format battle.&quot;I think the war is over. HD DVD has lost. It really is game-over for Toshiba and the other vendors,&quot; said Robin Harris, an analyst with Data Mobility Group. &quot;The basic issue is not technology. It&#39;s about distribution, it&#39;s about marketing, it&#39;s about content and Blu-ray has been winning the content war for sometime. I don&#39;t know why [Toshiba] keeps pouring money into it, it&#39;s time to stop.&quot;Harris credited Sony&#39;s inclusion of Blu-ray Disc in the PlayStation 3 with being one of the instrumental moves in winning the fight for Blu-ray Disc.&quot;I think Sony&#39;s brilliant move and one of the few they have made in this effort is putting Blu-ray into PS3,&quot; he said. &quot;Even though PS3 hasn&#39;t sold so well in the console wars, in terms of being a platform for Blu-ray distribution it&#39;s been a success for them and I think that&#39;s what really put Blu-ray over the top.&quot;The praise comes as Sony has finally started to see PlayStation 3 sales pick-up after a year of sluggish sales. Ironically the company has been often criticized by analysts and the media for the inclusion of Blu-ray Disc in the device as that contributed to a high price that put many consumers off buying the high-def games console.&#160;
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As the skirmish between Blu-ray and HD DVD drags on, with Blu-ray gaining more momentum from movie industry supporters, you should continue to be patient and wait -- not for Blu-ray, but for systems that can store video-on-demand movies and TV on spinning disk and flash memory.
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THE fight over what&#39;s going to replace your DVDs has heated up as three major movie studios announce support for one of two competing next-generation formats.
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Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal Games choose a side in the battle of next-gen DVD formats.
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Despite recent setbacks for the Blu-ray format, most retailers interviewed at CES don't see a clear winner.
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The battle for high-def video dominance began in 2000; here's a look at how Blu-ray bested HD DVD.
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The war between the two high-definition DVD formats entered a new phase on Monday, as Blockbuster announced that it will offer the Blu-ray format for rental in its 1,700 stores. The HD DVD format still will be offered through the company&#39;s online channel, blockbuster.com, as well as through the 250 stores that currently carry both formats.
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The standards battle could intensify in the last quarter, but so far Blu-ray dominates, analysts say.
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But the war continues... IFA 07 Another month, another consumer electronics show, and once again the backers of the rival HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats come to attempt to persuade us their favoured format is winning the war. The IFA show in Berlin last week was no exception - so how is battle faring now?â¦
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Shades of VHS versus Betamax: The war over the next-generation DVD format was launched Monday. Warner Bros., Paramount and Universal studios, as well as minimajor New Line Cinema