Format War Over
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 
Those who are close to me know that I am a movie collector. I have amassed about 150+ DVDs, and with the exception of a few titles, I practically stopped adding to my collection in the past year. The reason for the hiatus is the format war that begun two years ago.
There’s a major shift in the industry to move to a new format when it comes to movies - high definition. Unlike the advent of the DVD media, the HD format brought out two major players in the forefront: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. What this meant was consumers had to pick a format to invest on, but there is a 50% chance that their choice might go the way of the Betamax.
Although I’ve been getting HD for most of my television shows via Dish Network, I felt I had to wait this format war out until the end. Turns out, I didn’t have to wait long.
As of today, HD-DVD is officially dead. This means I can now invest in a Blu-Ray player, and continue adding to my movie collection. Granted, I would need to repurchase certain titles, but I’m pretty sure it will be worth it.
For those in the same boat, if you are planning on buying a Blu-Ray player, and you can’t find one under $400, do yourself a favor and buy the Playstation 3 instead. It does not matter if you are not a gamer - the PS3 is considered to be the best Blu-Ray player right now. Just get the $400 dollar one though. Do not let the salesperson talk you into buying the more expensive version. If your main intention is to watch high definition movies on it, just stick with the cheaper PS3.
