I recently invested a hefty sum into my new theatre system.  Yes, watching my favorite football team on high definition has taken my love of the sport to the next level.  But when it comes to watching movies on Blu-ray or HD DVD, I’d rather sit on the sidelines until a victor is finally declared between these two opposing formats.

This so-called format war isn’t new to me.  As a child of the 80’s, I fondly remembered the video wars between Betamax and VHS.  Most techno-geeks from that era would argue that Betamax was the superior format.  But in the end, VHS was declared the winner due to widespread market acceptance and, most importantly, VHS players were a lot more affordable.

Once again, this is how I feel the current battle will play out.  Consumers will always purchase an equivalent product for a much cheaper price.  At the moment, HD-DVD players can be found under $200, while equivalent Blu-ray players remain somewhat more expensive.

Overall, both technologies will probably serve as a mere rest stop until instant downloads become a possibility.  The only limitation stopping us is bandwidth as current internet speeds are way too slow to download such high quality content.  In the meantime, I’ll stick to buying Pay Per View movies from my local provider.