It seems like just yesterday when VHS and Beta were battling it out for dominance (there can be only one). It was 1975 so “yesterday” is relative. Of course, for the video tapes it was a different kind of victory: Beta was a superior (and larger) format but politics, marketing, and issues surrounding 2 hour limits (or eventually RCA’s 4 hour tape format) began to turn the tide. It wasn’t long before VHS got their feet under them, made some innovations, and we ended up waving bye-bye to Beta.

Today, we saw a war end but a little differently. Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD. Just when you thought that Disney choosing sides was a joke or were stunned to find that the porn industry picking a format actually had a lot of weight… it was more about technology and proprietary than anything… and investor confidence. However, when Walmart and Warner Brothers decided to support only Blu-Ray – the battle was over. Toshiba called it quits this morning and the HD-DVD is no longer. I mean, those expensive movies and players the early adopters purchased will still work but good luck finding even Season 1 of Walker Texas Ranger for sale on HD-DVD in a year. It’s gone. No more – Blu-Ray-only now.

…you can hear the sound of Panasonic machines being thrown across living rooms as I type.

For me? I don’t really care. I’m not an early adopter – don’t even have a single disc of either format and frankly, get 99% of my movie-watching done through Netflix. So, I can freely float whichever way the winds blow.

I’m just glad the war is over and it’s now time to start cranking out whichever machine in a consumer friendly and affordable manner.

Remember this day folks – you’ll tell your kids about it twenty years from now when neither DVD or CD are even formats in existence anymore and are, instead, silly novelties that were replaced with holographic memory a decade ago.