2007 saw the format wars between these two formats continue. Warners is the latest publisher that has announced it will no longer support the format and will now only provide discs in the Blu-ray format.

HD DVD
High Definition DVD was intended to be the successor to the DVD format. It would hold 17GB of data per layer compared to the DVDs 4.7GB. Microsoft and Toshiba are the main two companies behind the format which was released on March 31 2006 and Toshiba released its first HD DVD player soon after. The format (contraversally) included a digital Rights management (DRM) system that allowed the disc to decide if it would play on a given device. This DRM system is closely related to the one incorporated into the Vista operating system in line with Microsofts support for the format. The Xbox comes with a DVD drive but an external HD DVD player is available for the console.

Blu-Ray
Blu-Ray is the Sony Corporations foray into the format war as a member of the Blu-Ray disc consortium. A single layer Blu-Ray disc can store 25GB of data which is much more than its competitor. The main disadvantage of this format is that it costs more per disc than HD DVD. Blu-ray was cited as continuing the region area codes that restrict them from being played on certain players and the menus of this disc are implemented using the Java platform. The first device claimed to have supported the format was released as early as 2001 but nothing was ever released for it as the standard still didn't exist. The Blu-Ray consortium was involved in a copyright battle over the use of the diodes used and is probably why it took so long to come to market.

The Format War
The two groups were aware of the potential cost of a format war and attempted to avoid one through negotiation to try and converge the two formats. The main bone of contention that could not be agreed upon was the use of Java for the Blu-Ray interface. HD DVD uses the HDi interface and did not want to use a format that they could not control. Combined with the fact that in January 2001 Microsoft had to pay Sun Microsystems (who created Java) $20 million for there improper use of it they probably felt that it was too much of a risk to use the platform. Even though everyone involved wanted to avoid the format war this issue could not be overcome and the companies involved split into two camps declaring their support for one format or the other.

As far as the film industry is concerned the war has turned a corner and Blu-Ray is coming out as the winner. Only two publishers now support HD DVD with all others (most recently Warner) declaring their support for Blu-Ray. Industry pundits are claiming a victory for Blu-Ray but HD DVD supporters are denying the importance of Warners defection. It seems the future could be blue.

Consoles
Everything above is all very well for the business of home cinema and the future of DVD players but what will happen to the consoles. The new Playstation (unsurprisingly) shipped with a Blu-Ray drive but the Xbox did not ship with a HD DVD drive as standard. They seemed to have hedged their bets and only made an external HD DVD player available. It has been suggested that they are investigating the possibility of producing a Blu-Ray external player also. The Xbox is actually (as far as I can see) the one final weapon that Microsoft may have in sustaining support for the HD format. Xbox was released almost a year earlier that the PS3 and sales for it have been very good. The PS3 has endured complaints about its price and the slow take up of games publishers to get games released on it. As of now (Jan 19 2008) Gran Turismo has still not been released for this console which is a fatal error as far as am concerned. People I know that owned both the Xbox and a Playstation prior to the next generation release seem to have opted for the Xbox and not bothered to purchase a PS3. Different areas of the world also seem to be experiencing different loyalties as PS3 is outselling the Xbox in Japan (Sony home turf) but Americans seem to prefer the Xbox.

It definitely seems that the format war is coming to and end and that Blu-Ray is emerging as the winner. I personally can't wait to see Microsoft support the Blu-Ray format as they will have to if HD loses the war. I also expect Microsoft and Toshiba give one last effort at bringing their format to the forefront. I just hope it doesn't cause us too much pain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc_Association
http://www.hddvdprg.com/eng/about/member.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playstation