Can HD DVD and Blu-ray Coexist?

For those who have been keeping up with the latest drama on the new hi-def formats, you probably know that the backing behind HD DVD and Blu-ray by the movie studios is almost neck and neck. This is thanks to the recent move by Paramount to release future titles exclusively to HD DVD. The breakdown of support for each format is as follows:

As you can see, if you total up the Yes’ for each side (HD DVD=9 and Blu-ray=10), Blu-ray leads by one. But because of so many studios being conglomerates, it’s nearly even. I think it’s unlikely that the non-exclusive studios will continue supporting both formats for the benefit of the consumer, because it’s costly to support both formats. However, let’s say that this standstill continues to stay for a long period of time. This leaves the consumer with the following decisions:

• Which format is more accessible to me?

  In regards to accessibility, online shoppers probably aren’t affected as much. However, Blockbuster, probably the most popular video rental place in North America has put its money on Blu-ray. To counter this, Wal-Mart is favouring HD DVD as it is going to selling HD DVD players.

• I want to hop onto one of the HD formats now, but can’t afford to own both. Which one is cheaper?

  To address this second point, HD DVD is by far the cheaper option. You can find a decent HD DVD player for much cheaper than the Blu-ray players out there. I’ve heard that a HD DVD player around the $200 pricepoint is supposed to be released shortly, so HD DVD wins the war here.

• Do I like more movies from studio A more than studio B?

  Now the last point is one that makes me want to adopt both formats. One studio I’m a particular fan of is Disney. I’ve really enjoyed the latest Pixar movies as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean installments. This is probably the same kind of thinking that other customers go through when considering both formats, so movie studios are definitely an influence.

This brings up an interesting thought, what if the movie industry started playing out exclusivities like the video game industry?

As you know, there are three consoles competing for top spot, Sony’s Playstation 3, Microsoft’s XBOX 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. Since I was born, I’ve seen multiple consoles coexist with a good amount of fans for each one since the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. So if this could work for video games, why couldn’t it work for movies as well?

You could argue that the difference between the two industries is that the different consoles bring something different to the table, but I’m sure most of us can agree that it was the different game libraries each console had which drove us gamers to adopt one platform or multiple ones.

As an early adopter of HD DVD, I could see myself picking up a Blu-ray player in the future if there is no clear winner in this format war. Especially if the prices for them get as low as DVD players are today.