In February 2008, Toshiba decided to pull the plug on the HD-DVD format. This ended the format war with Sony's Blu-ray technology that was predicted to last much longer. but in the end, what has Sony won?

Way back when, when DVD hit the market in 1997, it was exciting. Here was a disc the size of a CD which you didn't have to rewind like VHS, had superior video quality and could hold extras. But with that came the additional cost. DVD players were expensive, the discs were expensive and it took some time for consumers to make the change. Blu-ray doesn't quite have the same novelty factor, it acts and feels just like a DVD, although with superior picture quality and sound. So why should you upgrade?

In most cases, You probably shouldn't. the only way we can currently recommend Blu-ray is in the PS3. If you are a gamer, looking for a new console, then why not go with the PS3. But in a stand alone player, no way.

The average consumer will not notice the difference in a Blu-ray disc, versus a regular DVD disc on a good upconverting DVD player that can be had for less than $100.00.

Unless you have a TV that is 1080p AND is over 37" you cannot tell the difference. even then on televisions up to 50" the average person will be very happy with a regular upconverting dvd player. Now if you have a giant home theater setup with a 60" 1080p HDTV set and a monster sound system, Blu-ray might be for you, but even if it is, why not go with the PS3. Then again you are an early adopter anyway and may already be using one of the services that is the real death of Blu-ray.

The actual death of Blu-ray and maybe the more significant problem for Sony is that Blu-ray technology is going to be out dated even before the prices come down to a reasonable level. With video on demand already available from cable companies and dish subscribers, and with hard drive prices continuing to get lower, Blu-ray will be gone before you know it, replaced by ipTV services like CinemaNow, Apple TV, Amazon Unbox, Akimbo, Vongo, Vudu, and even Netflix has a new set top player. Not alone, this technology along with online technology like Hulu, and Joost are the future. There will be no need to buy your movies on a format to lay around your house collecting dust. It will all end up on a hard drive in a single location and a lot sooner than we thought. Way too soon for Sony's liking we are sure. No more scratched discs either.

There are also many other reasons why Blu-ray is not taking off. The format has a couple of technology problems as well. Every Blu-ray disc is DRM infected even if the producer doesn't want it to be, in order to get a company to make it, it must be infected. The DRM protection doesn't even protect anything as new DRM schemes are broken before you can buy discs with them on it, protecting nothing. It will however prevent legitimate users from using legally purchased media on legally purchased hardware. If you pirate though, no more compatibility issues. This just does not seem to us like a way to control piracy, but a way to make more people pirate.

Then there is the abomination of the BD-J technology. Working like crap is the obvious one, to test it, look at one of the flagship titles, Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Disney insists on BD-J, customer be damned, and it shows. If you click on any of the options from the title menu, it pauses, you hear the disc seek, you wait, it loads, you wait more, and it decrypts, you wait a little more, and then the menu animates. It is nothing short of a disaster that you can't skip. Sony says this is all fixed now. With the new BD Profile 2.0, they can run arbitrary code on your player, download and install whatever they want (You read the EULA didn't you?), and take any data they want.

For all of this, what do you get? slightly better resolution. It just doesn't make sense. Blu-ray is just a minor technology upgrade waiting to die.