Home > News > The war between Blu-ray and HD DVD steps up a level

The war between Blu-ray and HD DVD steps up a level

Since, rental giants Blockbuster favoured Blu-ray over HD DVD and began to rent thousands and thousands of the DVD’s in the UK and US over the last week, it looks as though Sony’s successful format maybe a step closer to winning the long running format war.

As many consumers are still confused over the two formats and cannot decide which player is best to invest in, the Blu-ray Disc player has been made much more appealing as 490 UK Blockbuster stores now stock Blu-ray Discs compared to only 50 stocking HD DVD. The Blu-ray disc player hosts a blue laser instead of the red beam used in standard players, hence the name.

Sony BDP-S1 Blu-ray disc player

Blu-ray is a step closer to winning the format war!

Huge names such as Toshiba and Microsoft are backing the HD DVD and more players of this format have been sold, as of September 2006, which indicates that high definition appears to be more connected to HD DVD and consumers are more likely to see this connection than with Blu-ray. But, will this continue as Blu-ray is more readily available to rent with Blockbuster?

Sony hit home when it released the ever-successful Playstation 3 games console and provided a free copy of the Casino Royale DVD, declaring that it is not just a games console but a fully fledged Blu-ray disc player too. This worked massively is Sony’s favour as sales of the Playstation 3 soared, so did the potential of Blu-ray discs themselves.

Coincidentally, HD DVD is available in many PC’s and as of this summer, supporter Toshiba will be making it available in all of its PC’s and they have already shipped a total of 1 million laptops with the format already installed. However, a big regret for Microsoft and Toshiba was not including a HD DVD reader with the Xbox 360.

Watch this space for further updates with the Battle of the Format!

Posted 25th June 10:20:16am By Hayley Malyon

What Unbeatable.co.uk Users Said About This News Story

MarkD

28th June

re: ""a big regret for Microsoft and Toshiba was not including a HD DVD reader with the Xbox 360""

But it's an add on option for £100, and works very well, and therefore the cheapest access to a HD player, and since it's USB2 attached, can be used on a regular PC too.