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High Definition War

And The Winner Is… BLU-RAY!



Much to my disappointment, a winner has all but been chosen in the HD war, and Microsoft isn’t one of the winners (so, maybe it isn’t all bad?). And while there will still be some holdouts, and many sitting on the fence, we can officially call Blu-Ray the winner of the High Definition war.

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For those unaware of what has been happening, I’ll shed a little bit of light over it for you. We started off watching silent movies, followed shortly by talkies, then the color movies! Nothing else much happened until the 80s, when the first media war was fought; Beta-max versus VHS. We all know how that one turned out, thanks in turn to the porno industry. Keep moving on a few decades and we all saw DVD easily replace the video cassette tape. Following the DVD success. though was the beginning of the high definition format war, which consisted of Sony backed Blu-Ray versus the Microsoft/Toshiba group with their HD DVD. Studios signed with different groups, with most favoring Blu-Ray, but the HD DVD’s price dropped first; both of these were signs of advantage for each side, but each led to simply more of a quagmire, according to Don Reisinger over at CNET. Then, last Friday, the death-knell for the HD DVD came, when Warner Studios signed exclusively with Blu-Ray. Only two days earlier Reisinger predicted that all Sony needed to do was sign Warner Bros., and the road to victory would be paved with Blu-Ray disks. So it isn’t a surprise that the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has turned in to an all out Sony Blu-Ray party. Asked yesterday at CES if the decision has decided the war, Sony CEO Howard Stringer replied saying: "I never put up banners that say 'Mission Accomplished.'" But according to the reports, his “…cheerful delivery belied his words.” Conversely, and somewhat pathetically, the only event for the opposition side was cancelled as a result of the Warner announcement. "We are currently discussing the potential impact of this announcement with the other HD DVD partner companies and evaluating next steps," the group said in a statement. By the way, this does not mean it is time to run out and buy a Blu-Ray player just yet. Currently, players are incapable of making the most of the features promised, and are still prohibitively expensive. Wait a year and then purchase one, when the price has dropped and the upgrades have arrived. While we’re on the topic of HD, I want to bring before you a public service announcement. This is in no way a derogatory comment, but the truth is, there are a lot of people out there that are tech newbies. And it is no surprise that some retailers attempt to make the most out of this, by selling you things that you don’t really need. Most Americans will be aware that 2009 will see the end of analog (over the air) television, swapping to entirely cable based (or cable satellite). But all you’ll need is a cheap box that sits on the top of your TV, called a digital set top box (might be called something else elsewhere) that can receive the digital streams. You do not need a new TV, or upgraded cable packages, or anything but this box, and it only costs around the $50 (USD) mark. I mention this because there are retailers attempting to convince people to buy HD TV’s in lieu of the swapover, claiming that they will be necessary when the time comes to cut analog. This is a boldfaced lie, and should be ignored. So make sure to tell your friends, and don’t fall for any retailer traps. Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.


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Guest Column Joshua Hill -- Bio and Archives

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