The battle is on so many fronts, but...

[br85]

So I just realised the amount of obstacles blu-ray had to overcome to get mass adoption, and all of the things it has to fight against. It's quite a bit:

1. HD-DVD is a fairly similar format looking to do the same thing (although it is clearly an inferior product)

2. All of the studios HD DVD is supporting. Yes, this is a separate point because even if both formats had full studio backing, there would still be two formats, and that causes consumer hesitation

3. SD-DVD already has mass adoption, and continues to please most people. And more importantly, you can get EVERYTHING on SD DVD. Not so with the new formats =(

4. And most important of all, homes without HDTVs. There are still millions of people who don't have HDTVs that can afford them and do watch a ton of TV and movies. NONE of these people are going to buy into HDM until this changes.

But Blu-ray does have a major 1-up in all of this.

I'm sure that most of you realise that this is not a war for the average person's TV, but for the increasing number of people with HD flat panels and/or Home theatres. This number might one day be as high as 30-60% of homes that have TVs, and as a result, SD DVD is probably going to be around for a LONG time.

HOWEVER, at the moment, only those that can afford the outly for HD panels are even considering buying into a HDM format, and because of this, any comparison to previous format wars is rather silly. In the past, price has played a big part because everyone who had a TV wanted to enhance their experience in a major way (VHS it was being able to watch recorded material, DVD it was being able to scene skip and not have their discs corrode or stretch like tape does).

But the HDM is not for everybody, it's for the top echelon of TV owners, who generally tend to want to have the highest quality stuff to "keep up with the Jones's", or just for plain bragging rights. Blu-Ray has a win here, because it is exactly that product. We are not trying to get into J6P's house just yet, because J6P doesn't have a HD set yet. It is the more affluent that buy into the format war, and will be for quite some time.

NOBODY that has a $10k+ Home theatre system is going to buy a $99 ANYTHING for it, they are likely to spend nearly twice that on an HDMI cable. I don't think we need to worry. And, outside of the U.S., Blu-Ray is pwning. Absolutely Pwning.

I Do Blu