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Blu-ray won – so don't buy it

Blu-ray has won the high-def war, but don’t buy yet, warns linton chiswick
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Sooner than expected, perhaps, the Blu-ray/HD DVD wars are over. Wounded by Warner's desertion at the start of the New Year, left out in the cold by America's biggest electrical retailers, and finally put out of its misery by format-owners Toshiba, HD DVD is now, officially, a dead duck.

So, early adopters who backed future-proof Blu-ray can celebrate their good sense, and retailers can look forward to a rush on Blu-ray players, right? Not so fast. Not everyone believes the best format won.

HD DVD - faster to the high

 

street and cheaper to support (the discs themselves can be pressed in standard DVD pressing plants; Blu-ray discs require new technology) - undoubtedly forced Blu-ray to the market early, perhaps before it was ready. As a result, if you've already paid a small fortune for an early standalone

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Blu-ray player, you might be disappointed to learn that it won't support the fancy new features, interactive elements or audio-visual film-makers' commentaries that you're about to find on the latest discs. In fact, none of the machines currently available in the UK

 

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