HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray: Strike One

Ah, the video wars: HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray. I've been a champion of Blu-Ray for a number of reasons, and now it looks like the first real step towards a "winner" has been made. Blockbuster is going to go Blu-Ray. I favour Blu-Ray because it's a better viewing experience, it stores a better amount of data which enables more features. And, my PS/3 runs Blu-Ray. That's probably the real reason. In every video format war, I picked the losing side because I always pick the better one regardless of price. I've done that again, but I think this time I may be right.

Blockbuster has been renting both Blu-ray and HD DVD titles in 250 stores since late last year and found that consumers were choosing Blu-ray titles more than 70 percent of the time."The consumers are sending us a message. I can't ignore what I'm seeing," Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising at Blockbuster, told The Associated Press.

Whatever you do, don't buy the combo players. If you read the specifications, you will find that the HD-DVD special features don't work on the combo players: only Blu-Ray works. But, you can watch your films and maybe that's all the matters to you.