Warner Bros tipping the balance towards Blu-Ray
It was about time to see a move favoring one of the two HD disc formats. Warner has failed to combine both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD on a single disc and at the same time feels the pressure from set-top boxes and download services. For this reason it decided to exclusively back Blu-Ray. Analysts see the end of the HD format war, as it is a very clear move from one of the big players in home entertainment.
It will be interesting to see market reactions in the upcoming CES. Are players that reproduce both formats still of interest for manufacturers? Are consumers going to ignore HD-DVD releases and players? Are we going to see the downfall of HD-DVD in 2008 or later? Toshiba is determined to battle on. Whatever the outcome is, the current HD disc generation is probably going to be the last before the domination of streaming and download services to home and mobile devices. Warner knows this very well so it is time to squeeze some cash out of Blu-Ray…
Link: Reuters
