Blu-ray wins the war
There’s a Blu-ray player in your future. The decision last week by movie studio Warner Bros Entertainment to back Sony’s high-definition video playback format means that Toshiba’s HD DVD looks set to go the way of Betamax.
I expected the battle between high-definition optical formats Blu-ray or HD DVD would be settled this year. I also expected Sony’s Blu-ray to win. What I did not expect was that the war would be over just four days into January.
But, by choosing Blu-ray over HD DVD, Warner Bros, one of the world’s largest movie and television producers, has effectively decided the format war in Sony’s favour.
Warner, which previously supported both formats, will sell movies on Blu-ray exclusively starting in June. The announcement means that more than two-thirds of high-def movies will be distributed on Blu-ray discs.
HD DVD is still backed by two big studios, Universal Studios and Paramount Pictures. Paramount and subsidiary DreamWorks were recently offered US$150m worth of inducements by Toshiba to support HD DVD on an exclusive basis. Once those agreements expire, I expect they will quickly cross into the Blu-ray camp. In fact, Paramount has already said it reserves the right to switch back to Blu-ray at any time, and the Toshiba deal with DreamWorks excludes Steven Spielberg flicks.
Blu-ray’s backers now outnumber HD DVD’s by a considerable margin. Large studios that support Blu-ray include Warner, Buena Vista, Sony Pictures (naturally), 20th Century Fox, Lionsgate and MGM. Only one big studio, Warner-owned New Line Cinema, still supports both, though this studio, which is responsible for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, is also expected to terminate support for HD DVD soon.
It was Sony’s video games console, the PlayStation 3, which may ultimately have swung things the Japanese company’s way. The PS3 includes a Blu-ray player and, despite its high price relative to rival Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, has sold nearly 9m units. This means millions of additional Blu-ray players in the marketplace. The additional Blu-ray movie rentals and sales that can be attributed to PS3 owners may have been the deciding factor in Warner’s decision to back the Sony format.
Though Microsoft supports HD DVD, it does not ship one with the Xbox 360. Rather, it has to be purchased separately. Microsoft could still muddy the waters by integrating an HD DVD player into its games console, but it may have left it too late. The software maker never seemed too serious about HD DVD anyway, and may simply have supported the Toshiba-led format to spite Sony.
Some commentators believe the adult entertainment industry could still come to HD DVD’s rescue. It is widely believed that one of the reasons JVC’s VHS trounced Betamax was that Sony refused to allow pornographic material to be distributed on its videotape format. But that story is apocryphal.
Reports that the porn industry has thrown its weight behind HD DVD are also false. In fact, few adult titles have been released in either format. Sony has denied reports that it does not want porn distributed on Blu-ray.
It’s all bad news for the HD DVD camp. In the wake of Warner’s decision, equipment manufacturers are likely to turn their attention away from the Toshiba format. As one analyst told the Financial Times last week: “We expect HD DVD to die a quick death.”
The war is over and, for better or for worse, Sony has won. For the many consumers who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for the outcome of this protracted battle before making a purchasing decision, it’s good news indeed. It’s also good news for the industry, which can now get on with the job of convincing consumers why they need to upgrade their home entertainment systems.
First published as the column Technology & You
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