Voodoo @ Feb 23rd 2008 1:14PM

I have been following this Blu Ray / HD DVD debate for some time. I agree that one of the reasons the Blu Ray format won was due to its integration with PS3... Toshiba really did not have a comparable sales offset to the integration with PS3. Although Microsoft Xbox 360 did support HD DVD, it never integrated the player as a stand-alone in the 360 system. If it had, Blu Ray fans, let me tell you that we would be looking at a different war.

Let me expand on one of my theories as to why Blu Ray beat out HD DVD and much if it has to do (in my mind) with the protection of intellectual property rights. As we all know, Sony owns MGM and makes much of its revenue from the American production company's revenue. Toshiba does not own any film studios and as such, did not have as much interest in developing a standard that would protect the profit of movie studios. Early on, Toshiba was moving some of its production to China (which has among the worst records in the world of protecting intellectual property). I think the movie studios saw the writing on the wall... Sony will be a staunch protector of intellectual property and Toshiba will just give it the "ol' college try." Listen, I'm not saying this is the only factor, but please tell me why it was not one of the MAJOR factors that lead with most of the large movie studios adopting the Blu Ray standard.

To those of you that are concerned that you will have trouble backing up your Blu Ray discs, I think your concerns are well founded. Remember that Sony was the company caught installing Rootkits in peoples computers when they were trying to play Sony Studio music CDs on their home computer. I have read that sony is looking to use an updateable Blu Ray firmware... and my guess is that the updates have the real possibility of playing Blu Ray back-ups difficult.

Finally, I wanted to comment about the comment(s) stating that the new Chineese standard may prevail in a bottom-up war with Blu Ray. I personally doubt it due to -- as I have stated -- China's absolute disregard for the protection of intellectual rights and the studios' interests in protecting their profits. When the studio have such a staunch ally as Sony in the copy protection war, why aid and abet the Chineese in developing their own standard? If you recall, one of the reasons the Chineese wanted a new standard in the first place is that Chineese DVD manufacturers were not paying royalties to the developers of the DVD format when they were producing their DVD players in China. So, not only were the Chineese not protecting the intellectual rights of movie studios, manufacturers were not receiving royalties on the DVD technology, itself when the Chineese were producing the hardware.

At any rate, I agree with portions of a lot of the comments that I read, but I thought I would ad my own "spin" on Sony's new crown in the HD format war. I personally liked the HD format idea, and think it may have won... but it is clear that the movie studios are the ones steering the "format ship."