Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: and the winner is...

Sony and Toshiba have been battling for dominance in the world of high-definition DVD with their respective, and incompatible, Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.

This is reminiscent of the VHS vs. Betamax videotape war back in the 80's, which Sony lost.

Today, however, Sony's Blu-ray format has won the so-called "next-generation format war" as Toshiba just announced they are abandoning their HD DVD format.

This came about as a consequence of several rapid-fire events... first Warner Bros studios dropped HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, then Blockbuster, and now Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Netflix.

Blu-ray's major backers were Sony, Dell, Apple. HD DVD's major supporters were Toshiba,  Microsoft, Intel, and HP.

Sony's Playstation 3 includes what is currently the best Blu-ray DVD player on the market. Microsoft recently released an HD DVD player for its Xbox 360.

Tags: Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD formats, Sony, Toshiba

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