But will it play my Betamax tapes?
Sony has finally exacted revenge for their loss in the “original” home video format war with the announcement that competitor Toshiba is pulling support for HD-DVD effective immediately.
So what do I do as a result? Go out and buy a brand new HD-DVD player of course! On sale for $100 at Amazon I decided to take the plunge into a dead format that I know I’ll have to replace in a year or two.
I know, it sounds silly. But does anyone really want to go out and spend $500 on a standalone Blu-ray player? The cheapest player is a PS3, but I can’t possibly scorn my Xbox360 for another system. Why exactly did this format win anyway?
The answer lies with Sony themselves, whose seemingly endless cash flow allowed Blu-ray to emerge on top in the end. I guess they learned from the first time around that the better format doesn’t always win out with consumers - especially when you have all of the major film studios in your pocket.
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Filed under: Fun and Games, TV
