I’m a long way off making the leap to a high definition DVD format, but I’ve been watching the format war between the two rival formats (Blu Ray and HD-DVD) with some interest. It has seemed obvious to me for some time that Blu-Ray would be the last format standing; once all but one major studio was releasing disks in the format (while several don’t release disks on HD-DVD) it seemed inevitable to me. I’m not the only one who felt this way: JB Hi-Fi, for example, aren’t stocking HD-DVD titles at all on the basis that they see the death of the format as pretty much a foregone conclusion.
Yet the hub of DVD news on the internet, The Digital Bits, has generally held back from saying this in quite such strong language. Now, though, prompted by some idiotic comments by Harry Knowles over at Ain’t It Cool endorsing HD-DVD, they’ve come out and said what was becoming increasingly obvious, in a clear, well-reasoned piece (here). If you’re thinking of trying out this whole high definition DVD thing and are wondering about the two formats, I strongly suggest you read it. Some samples:
HD-DVD is not going to win this format war. In fact, one of two things is possible right now: Either Blu-ray will win, or neither format will win. But the best HD-DVD can hope for is to just keep hanging in the game as long as possible.
…
We simply CANNOT and WILL NOT recommend to our readers that they adopt a format that only has the full support of just a HANDFUL of major hardware manufacturers and ONLY A HANDFUL of the Hollywood studios – no matter how cheap the price – when a format of EQUAL quality and FAR GREATER studio and manufacturer support exists.
If Harry Knowles’ original comments were a paid endorsement by HD-DVD as many of his commenters suggested, then it seems to have backfired.