Warner Bros., the studio behind such blockbusters as the "Harry Potter" series and last month's "I am Legend," declared Friday it would release its movies exclusively on the Blu-ray high definition disc format.
That very well could spell the end to the high-definition DVD war that has stymied consumers for more than a year. And it could mean an even bigger boost for the home video market as a whole.
Since the introduction of Blu-ray and its rival HD-DV in the middle of 2006, movie fans have been confused about which one to buy.
Technology companies and the movie studios, too hardheaded to acknowledge how fast the DVD market grew with just one format, created two high-def disc camps: the Sony-backed Blu-ray and the Toshiba-backed HD-DVD.
Of course, sales of either format didn't jump out of the gate because no one's willing to commit to a side just yet. That's especially worrisome news at a time when sales of the normal DVD market have started to level off. Studios were wondering if high-definition discs could pull the home video market from its current doldrums.
But if you've ever pondered whether to jump into the high-definition disc market, I say go ahead.
Warner has made the decision easier. By going to Blu-ray only - dropping its support for HD-DVD - the company that brought us the "Matrix" movies, "Superman Returns" and "Batman Begins," is now the sixth studio to back Blu-ray exclusively and the last to take a side (its subsidiary, New Line Entertainment, is likely to be included in this deal). Only two studios, Paramount/DreamWorks and Universal, support HD-DVD exclusively.
Warner had no choice but to back Blu-ray. Since the inception of the high-def disc, Blu-ray movies have outsold HD-DVD 62 to 38 percent, according to Nielsen VideoScan.
There also are more Blu-ray players in homes thanks to all those PlayStation 3 video game consoles that have built-in Blu-ray drives. Meanwhile, it's rumored that Apple will announce later this month that some of its Mac computers will come with a Blu-ray drive.
Technically, both formats are the same - they use the same video and audio codecs, or software, to decode the picture and sound. But Blu-ray discs currently have twice the capacity of HD-DVD, which means more extras and video can be crammed on a disc.
Either way, I'm glad that what probably is the final volley in this senseless format war may have been fired. Now you fence-sitters can jump to Blu-ray without breaking a sweat.
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* VINCE HORIUCHI'S column appears Mondays and Fridays. He can be reached at vince@sltrib.com or 801-257-8607. For more television insights, visit Horiuchi's blog, "The Village Vidiot," at blogs.sltrib.com/tv/. Send comments about this column to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
