Format bore wars

I was reading Digital World and saw this entry about HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray. The title is appropriately “Blu-ray Beats HD DVD in… Oh, Who Cares?” It’s starting to get to that point for me. Apple is officially behind Blu-ray, but since hearing that announcement, what has happened as a result? No Mac ships with the associated drive.

It may be a personal motivation, but since I’ve gotten an HD TV, I’ve been looking to choose one format or the other. It seems silly to me that I’m using a DVD player with my fancy new TV. In fact, I’m using a Playstation 2, so I’m not even getting the video upscaled. Every time I think about buying an upscaling DVD player, I look at the low end HD-DVD players. Then I begin to think about the fact that I’ll be committing to a format that chances are won’t be supported by Apple or playable on any of my Macs.

Apple’s hesitance can be explained by two reasons. First, Leopard could be bringing support for Blu-ray and AACS. Second, Apple is gearing up to distribute HD content via the iTunes Store and would like to make that the preferred HD movie medium for Macs in the future. I really hope the second reason is not prominent as it could spell doom for support for either physical format. If that happens, we all lose.

In the meantime, I’m feeling left in the lurch. I don’t think I’m alone.

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Comments received

sip said on Monday, 23 July 2007

I believe that you can buy a machine that plays both HD formats. Alternatively, I'm told that these guys -- www.oppodigital.com -- produce some mean upscaling DVD players.

AlanAudio said on Monday, 23 July 2007

I think the real answer is within the penultimate paragraph.

Physical distribution of CDs and DVDs is so 20th century ! Inevitably more content is going to be distributed on-line before long, including HD video, so there's no point in worrying about rival physical formats. The format that matters will be the on-line distribution format and Apple is already working on that.
Unlike Derik, I don't see it as a bad thing. Neither Blu-ray nor HD-DVD have acquired any worthwhile degree of traction so far, so it's better that they both whither away before we have to buy into one format or the other.