Stephen Chinnadorai

…Actually I didn’t - because I didn’t have a blog back then. But I told everyone I knew on Twitter, IM, and whatever other social networks there are. If you don’t know already - Blu-ray has won the format war - it’s over. So what to do with your new, but now out-of-date HD DVD player? Well, Ryan Block at Engadget has posted the “top ten things to do with your HD DVD player”.

But why did Blu-ray win over HD DVD? What I’m about to say may or may not be true, it’s just my personal opinion on the matter. So, here’s my top four reasons why Blu-ray won the format war (in no particular order).

1. Playstation 3 -  This obviously means that every PS3 (and there are a lot of them - no matter what the Xbox fans say) counts as a Blu-ray player.The Xbox 360 doesn’t actually have an HD DVD drive in it. You have to buy one separately, and after you’ve added the cost of that, it will cost you the same, if not more than a PS3.
2. Better name - You would think that HD DVD is the better name - but it’s not. Saying it is just too much of a mouthful, and it sounds too much like DVD. Blu-ray doesn’t sound like anything else - and people will know instantly what you’re talking about (if they know what Blu-ray is).
3. Major supporters - Asides from Sony, the Blu-ray disc foundation has hundreds of major companies supporting it. Apple, Hitachi, HP, Dell, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Sharp, LG and more.
4. More movie studios supporting it - This is, of course, the final thing that made Blu-ray become the winner. The movie companies are the ones producing the content for these discs after all. Walt Disney, FOX, Warner Bros., Sony, MGM, New Line Cinema, Paramount and Universal Studios are just some of the big ones supporting Blu-ray. (virtually no-one is supporting HD DVD anymore).