More Videos
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Intel's Andy Bryant Offers An Explanation
- Apple's Global Retail Invasion
- Intel Settles; AMD Settles the Score
- HP's Shot Across Cisco's Bow
- Back Off, Regulators!
- iPhone, App Strategy the 'New Dot Com?'
- Cisco Jumps; Rest of Market to Follow?
- Call It 'Microsoft Math'
- Intel in the Anti-Trust Crosshairs, but Why?
MOST SHARED
- U.S. May Wind Up Green With Envy
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- Japan Third Quarter GDP Jumps; 2010 Growth May Slow
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- EADS Cautious on Full-Year Forecast after Earnings Dip
- Stronger Yuan Needed for Global Rebalancing: IMF Chief
- Sustainability Indices Sprouting Up
- Taking a Page from Obama's Asia Agenda in Investing
- GM to Start Repaying $6.7 Billion US Government Loan
- BlackRock: Central Banks To Be Net Buyers of Gold
- Warren Buffett to CNBC: 'I Haven't Bought American Express In Years'
- CNBC Video: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping American Great
- U.S. Stocks Rally for the Second Straight Week
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- Cisco Ups Tandberg Bid, Claims Over 40% Backing
- 'Significant Weakness' Still Ahead: Fed's Hoenig
- BlackRock: Central Banks To Be Net Buyers of Gold
- Stronger Yuan Needed for Global Rebalancing: IMF Chief
- Washington Not Trying to Contain China: Obama
- Japan Third Quarter GDP Jumps; 2010 Growth May Slow
- How Much Do You Know About Green?
- JP Morgan to Bid Over $3 Billion for Cazenove Stake
- Buffett: I Haven't Bought AMEX Shares in Years
RSS FEED
Tech Check
Text Size 
 |
Because just like that original format war, when an inferior technology beat out the other, it's happening again. I've spent some quality time with both Blu-ray and HD DVD, looking at picture quality and additional capabilities. I believed the Samsung combo Blu-ray/HD DVD player could again be the product of the year since it eliminated the need for a tough consumer choice. Watching discs on that slick device from both formats, the quality difference is clear: HD DVD is clearer, the sound seems better, the extras are sweeter.
But alas, pay no mind: HD DVD will go the way of Beta; fading off into oblivion; eclipsed by Blu-ray.
Now, Toshiba won't officially say that it's ending the format's development, but a string of brutal announcements this week makes the decision a foregone conclusion: Sure, Warner Bros. was the last major studio to jump on the Blu-ray format, and that news was widely seen as a kind of format death knell for Toshiba. The following week, NPD Group reported that a stunning 93 percent of related hardware sales went to Blu-ray. Ouch. Then, this week, news first from Netflix [NFLX
Loading...
()
] that it would go Blu-ray exclusively, and a day later, word from Best Buy [BBY
Loading...
()
]that it too was rallying around Blu-ray. NPD also says Blu-ray disc sales are surging: 81 percent of all high def discs were Blu-ray last week. Yikes.
And wait, it gets better for Blu-ray. I have been hard on Sony these last few months as the company has tried and tried to shift the marketplace to the PlayStation 3, which includes a Blu-ray disc player inside. Consumers have been slow to adopt the Sony line that such a pricey device is something they can't live without. So slow that PlayStation 2 sales continue to out-perform the next generation PS3, even as Nintendo's [NTDOY
Loading...
()
] Wii and Microsoft's [MSFT
Loading...
()
] xBox 360 continue to surge.
That trend appears to be shifting; good for Sony, and for Blu-ray even though early research suggested a vast majority of PS3 buyers weren't even aware a Blu-ray player was included. Nonetheless, NPD reports that PS3 outsold Xbox in January, selling 269,000 units, or 17 percent more units than Xbox 360's 230,000 units. That's important and could finally indicate the beginnings of a turning of the tide; and it comes at a critical time now that Blu-ray, backed by Sony, is eliminating HD DVD. I'll have more in-depth coverage of the game console sector in an upcoming post.
Meantime, as I lament the demise of HD DVD, I take heart in knowing that as digital media becomes more virtual and less physical, a format war will soon become a distant memory. There's no reason why any digital media should have a physical component: discs, both audio and video, will soon be relics as we download all our material direct from the web and right onto a hard drive, not caring about formats as the web becomes the great equalizer. Apple [AAPL
Loading...
()
] is pioneering the idea by not even including a DVD drive in its new MacBook Air. Sure, it saves space, but the bigger message is: Who needs it? Downloads are the future, but watching the passion on both sides of the next generation format war was interesting.
It's been fun, HD DVD. Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
UPDATE: More bad news for HD DVD: Wal-Mart says it's dumping the HD DVD format for Blu-ray. Another nail in the HD coffin.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes