Blu-ray stands victorious on the Battlefield of Formattedness with sword raised and head high while it’s cohorts do little jigs on the sidelines. HD DVD lies dead at it’s feet, the Format Wars finally over. And in his manor on a hill overlooking the the field of battle, DVD heaves a tired sigh of relief, his fears of a world divided once again on how their video should be properly delivered, put to rest at last. Now at last he is at peace.
The company [Toshiba], which began sales of HD DVD in March 2006 with the HD-A1 player, "decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence," said chief executive Atsutoshi Nishida. The Blu-ray format is now the definitive winner in the war and stands unopposed as the optical media replacement for DVD.
It’s official: Toshiba announces HD DVD surrender | Tech news blog – CNET News.com
Anybody remember the days of the first format wars? VHS vs Betamax? I certainly do and a war that wasn’t officially put to rest until the last Betamax machine was pushed off the assembly line in 2002. Realistically speaking though DVD reunited the world of video under one format but even today VHS still reigns supreme of plastic encased reel to reel video. So I shuddered violently and had viscous flashbacks of ancient format wars gone by as I watched HD DVD and Blu-ray have at-ing one another on the field of battle with the "big rollers" making odds and choosing sides along the perimeter. A world video-divided yet again? Could it possibly stand the strain of yet another round of video format incompatibility and, as an end result, having "Life-As-We-Know-It" suddenly crumbling in a fit of extreme exasperation? Looks like we’ll never have to find out.
We plan on upgrading when our 26 year old, RCA Colotrak 2000 Video Monitor (cost: $1000 in 1981) finally decides to blow up. At the rate it’s going we figure that particular event will occur sometime around 2012 .
I love my VHS!! Videos are so much more suitable for kids as it’s hard to get at the ribbon, whearas DVDs get scratched within a few months of purchase.
I’m absolutely raging that it’s become a major drag trying to find videos for sale. Mind you Oxfam shops never let me down.
Why can’t they make disks more bloody durable?!?!
Hi K8,
Perhaps Compact Disc manufacturers should focus on researching transparent titanium?
What you say is true enough. My wife has a HUGE collection of VHS movies she’s recorded/collected over the years and I’m beginning to wonder how much longer VHS players will be offered–probably awhile yet.
Have you tried Amazon UK at all? We get 99% of our VHS tapes of of the US version. Just select VHS from the Search drop down menu or just click on the “Video” tab on the main page (I know–I just tried out the UK version. No real difference from the US). You might be surprised on how much is actually available.
Or perhaps you already do this?