Blu-Ray is apparently “winning” the format war. Much of that is down to aggressive marketing and self promoting “news” articles that Sony peddles all over the net, and the rest down to the public who believe in Sony and in part think the name sounds cool (remember these are the geeks who know about HD. Joe Public hasn’t got a clue what “Blu-Ray” means).
The following article spells out what’s really wrong with Blu-Ray. The differences between the formats are hardly technical but mostly down to the politics and behaviour of the backers. Sony could win this war having lost just about all the other unnecessary format wars in the past (all of their making), and they would win through sheer desperation and forcefulness. The loser in this war wouldn’t be HD DVD however, it’s the consumer. If Sony et al had played ball early on and negotiated a deal we wouldn’t have had the war and we would have had the best of both worlds (and hopefully none of the worst anti-consumer points from Blu-Ray).
Edit: Sadly the above site appears to have gone. Wouldn’t be Sony’s lawyers at work by any chance? !
In other news. A “win” for HD DVD as far as I’m concerned is the announcement that Battlestar Galactica (2004) Season 1 is coming to HD DVD on December 4th just in time for Christmas. Exclusive because it’s a Universal title who currently only back HD DVD. One in the eye for those who believe the war is over and Universal are about to fall to Blu-Ray come Christmas when they come out with this cracking Christmas HD DVD promoting set (considering the very poor selection of releases on both sides at the moment).