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I was an HD supporter, and I'm bummed that it lost. I think it was the more consumer friendly format, cheaper and feature ready within its first six months on the market. BR will take almost another year to be feature complete.

It seems that Tosh didn't make the right moves strategically, which happens. MS had it's part in this loss, giving only lukewarm support, which ultimately doomed the effort.

Sony on the other hand, was just hellbent on not loosing another format war. When they lost the beta/vhs war, they went out and spent tons of cash to buy and hold a movie studio, which is THE key to winning a format war. It's all about content at the end of the day.

In the mean time Tosh and Sony still do lots of business together, and the only real victims are consumers like me :(

Nothing personal of course.

That consumer friendliness, I think, is why studios lined up behind Blu-Ray. Even when HD DVD standardized the triple-layer disc that holds more data than Blu-Ray, they kept moving to away from HD DVD. Why? HD DVD's encryption was cracked sooner--I think Blu-Ray hasn't even been cracked yet--and HD DVD had no region coding. HD DVD/DVD combo discs allowed people to buy a movie once for a small premium, and have it on both SD and HD formats. The HD DVD format corrected some problems that slowed the initial uptake of DVD; no region encoding encouraged import/exportation, and the combo discs meant that DVD owners could continue buying movies without worrying about obsolescence. These were very good things for consumers but bad things for the studios.

With Blu-Ray's win, it may be harder to back up your HD movies, and you will be forced to buy multiple copies if you want to watch your movie on both your HDTV and your "legacy" players (DVD player, computer, portable, etc.). It's a win for the content owners, and I salute them for that. I salute them with only one finger, but it's a salute nonetheless.

I refuse to buy any media that I can't perfectly copy for back-up and format shifting, just on principle, so I've just been ejected from the HD-buying class. Thanks a lot, Hollywood.

I have both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Paid $799 for the HD-DVD and now a decent HD-DVD player can be bought for $99. Oh well, tis the price paid to ride the bleeding edge.

BTW, although the video quality is stellar, my $1000 Sony Blu-Ray player may be the clunkiest piece of electronics gear I’ve bought in the past 20 years. Takes 2-3 minutes just to boot up, another minute or two to load a movie, etc.

I am indeed glad to see the war ending.