The future is Blu?

Caught a news item the other night announcing that the HD-DVD format/standard will be no more. Got that bitter-sweet feeling people talk about. The inability to come to one standard for the next generation of DVD has persisted for a long time now. Reminds me of certain so called talks and a similar impasse. But I don't do politics.

Anyway. This war, like most, saddened me. The prospect of consumers [me at some point way way down the line] having to buy 2 sets of DVD players and stuff wasn't very appealing. Why couldn't they just do some RFC and some guy a la W3C, ISO come up with one standard. Too much vested interest I guess. However, I did take sides. First, HD-DVD has the "DVD" identity so you instantly know what you're dealing with. High Definition DVD. Pretty self explanatory. I also love acronyms. Ever since I had my first encounter with networking protocols. Doesn't the sight and sound of PPP just excite you. Introverted and geeky. If someone mentioned Blu-ray though, they'd have to clarify what they're talking about. Then there's the love of the underdog. Sure HD-DVD was the first to market [another reason I fancied it] but Blu-ray is a product of Sony. There are few bigger players in the entertainment industry. Last, but not least, was the fact that the adult entertainment industry favoured the HD-DVD format. The guys of Sony were too self-righteous or something like that. That and not the thought of enormous amounts of porn [what would one fill several GBs worth of content with] was the other reason for my preference.

So Blu-ray may be the next DVD standard by default. I wonder what Microsoft will say now that they'd backed the same horse that I did. The one which lost.