The next-generation DVD war has entered a new phase, the Blu-ray format largely from Sony has been gathering momentum for sometime now, seemingly unaffected by the HD-DVD format being ratified by the DVD consortium. Going from last week it would seem that Blu-ray would win the format war.
However things have changed. The HD-DVD (High-Definition Digital Versatile Disc) largely from Toshiba and NEC has won a massive victory, 3 major film studios have just announced their support for the new format, Paramount, Universal and Warner Brothers join ranks along side New Line Cinema. This compares with The Sony owned studios (Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM Studios). Twentieth Century Fox is still evaluating the formats.
This brings support for HD-DVD into the spotlight. Now the majority of studios, will support the new format. The trouble now is, will Sony carry on fighting like they did with Betamax? Or will they just put Blu-ray onto the back burner and continue to develop it for future storage? Let's hope the latter, the reason the CD and the DVD has been so successful is because everybody supported it. The DVD-RW/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM format war seriously damaged uptake of writable DVD formats, we don't need a repeat performance.
