After several years of high-definition video format wars it appears Sony and company’s Blu-ray has officialy K.O.’ed Toshiba’s HD DVD format.  According to articles all over the web Toshiba, the manufacturer of the HD DVD format is waiving the white flag and will no longer make or market HD DVD products.   Toshiba quits HD DVD ‘format war’  It’s Official:  Toshiba announces HD DVD surrender

I would personally like to thank the retailers, movie studios and video rental companies for stepping in and taking sides relatively quickly to bring this format war to a close.  While Sony comes out the biggest winner I think the retailers and movie studios got a huge victory here.  The two formats confused the hell out of consumers, split the movie studios, and ultimately made it more difficult for the adoption of next generation high definition video to take off.  Now that the war is over many people that held off on purchaseing either will likely feel more comfortable about taking the leap forward into hi-def movies.  All of this means quicker adoption of the new technology and increased high definition movie sales.

When I got my plasma TV in August I wasn’t even tempted to buy either format because A.) ordinary DVDs still look pretty damn good on a brand new tv  B.) the new formats were too expensive and  C.) it just didn’t makes sense to invest in either format knowing one would eventually flop.  Does this mean I’ll go out and buy a Blu-Ray player?  No.  I’ll wait till the prices come down more.  Maybe around Christmas I’ll be asking for one ; ) 

Last thoughts on this topic.  Since both formats performed essentially the same I’m thinking this battle was won partly because of branding.  Blu-ray doesn’t really mean anything, but it sure sounds cool.  “HD DVD” is simple and intuitive, but I’m guessing the two letters “HD” in front of “DVD” just didn’t give consumers the feeling they were purchasing something better or different than what they currently have.  Finally, Blu-ray is made by Sony which automatically gives it more cache’ than Toshiba.  Now Sony will have to get to work convincing consumers of the benefits of Blu-ray over standard DVD’s.  Both formats use the same size discs, come in the same size boxes and play in players that are the same size.  This won’t be as easy as convincing people to switch from VHS cassettes to DVD discs…