The only good war since “The Empire Strikes Back.”
The American psyche has a habit of romanticizing war. North vs. The South is now mythic, on par with Johnny Appleseed or Babe the Blue Ox. This bloodlust overspills the levies of armed conflict into everyday life. Coke vs. Pepsi, Democrats and Republicans, heck, even Clemson/USC – it’s all war, war, war. So it is with both a sigh of relief and a moan of disappointment that another epic war, a battle between technological Sparta and Troy, comes to accord.
Toshiba’s HD DVD format has announced its complete and unconditional surrender against the imperious forces of Sony’s Blu-Ray DVD technology.
The death of HD DVD was not a sudden cataclysmic event, a la Julie Dwyer having “an aneurism in mid-backstroke” to start “Mallrats,” but rather a predetermined demise akin to Doc Holiday’s Tuberculosis in “Tombstone.” For starters, the Blu-Ray has much greater capacity of HD DVD (25 BG to HD’s 15) and has a far superior data transfer rate. From the very start this Second Format War was like the U.S. versus, let’s say – Luxembourg.
And like every great war, this one was fought not just by its principals, Blu-Ray and HD DVD, but also by the forces allied to each. Supporting Blu-Ray was a veritable army of movie studios, including industry behemoths 20th Century Fox, Disney and Miramax. HD DVD only had three studios backing it. Further flummoxing the HD camp was the fact all but one major movie rental chain backed the Blu-Ray format. Add formal endorsements from Apple, Dell and HP, and the prognosis for HD DVD went from bleak to Threat Level Midnight. Not even Special Agent Michael Scarn could have saved the fledgling format.
Defections of online titans Amazon and Netflix delivered the final Chuck Norris-style deathblow. After receiving the veritable roundhouse kick, HD DVD threw in the towel, raised its white flag, rolled over and died.
The only silver lining in the surrender of HD DVD may be the cultural legacy of this latest Format War. “VHS or Beta?,” the refrain of the First Format War in the 80’s, has since become a cultural catchphrase. There’s even a band, VHS or Beta, proliferating the airwaves with catchy synth-pop. Who knows, maybe in 20 years, “Blu-Ray or HD” will be the biggest band in the world.
So if Sony fires its rifles skyward in victory, don’t be sour. Blu-Ray’s coronation will likely save the PS3, Sony’s lagging gaming console, due to Blu-Ray compatibility. In the First Format war, Sony backed the wrong horse and its Betamax got a beat down from VHS tapes. With “Format War II” officially history, Sony finally can taste the sweet fruits of victory.
