The imminent demise was most surely signaled when Wal-Mart recently announced that they would begin offering only the Blu-ray version of videos for sale in their stores.
Only a few days later the final nail was put in Toshiba's coffin when the company itself threw in the towel on the HD DVD format that they backed, announcing that they will be stopping production of their associated player and recorder products by the end of March.
Within hours, Universal Studios issued a press release that it would be choosing Blu-ray as their format for high-definition films, and Paramount soon followed with a similar, but quieter, announcement. All Hollywood studios have now com on board to Blu-ray since Toshiba's cave in.
So what does this mean for the consumer? Well, for now, it's good news, and they can be thankful that the format war only lasted a year or so. Now anyone who was considering bulding a high-definition video library, but was waiting for a clear direction, can begin making their purchases without fear.
Or can they? I mean, we saw a very short-lived format war only several years ago (DVD+R vs. DVD-R), and before that it was Beta vs. VHS. Now there is apparently another new video format that has been in development since 2001 called 4K. In fact there is at least one Hollywood movie that has already been re-mastered in 4k - Blade Runner.
I guess it all boils down to the old addage that "the only constant is change", especially in this world where technology has been changing at the speed of light and still continues to meet Moore's Law constantly, we shouldn't be surprised when the next format war is upon us before we know it.
Can we ever be prepared?
Thanks for reading, and remember...
" Think Outside the Browser! "
Troy Roach
OnSite Technology
519-40-GEEKS
519-404-3357
www.onsitetechnology.ca
Visit my other blog "Site of the Month" for my picks of the internet's best web sites, links and technology.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment