Truth to tell, I was completely ambivalent about either of these formats for a long time. I thought HD DVD looked technically inferior on paper (mostly because of its smaller storage capacity) and yet, I had issues with Sony as a corporation that all but repelled me entirely from Blu-ray. Not to say that I'm in love with Microsoft either, but as a gamer, I felt neglected by Sony and was sorely disappointed in how they were approaching that industry, and so I chose the lesser of two evils, in my mind.

When the first HD DVD players and movies were released into the market in April 2006, I watched the numbers and was really interested to see how it would take off. But it didn't. When Blu-ray counterparts followed several months later, it still didn't. At least people were finally able to actually let their wallets do the talking, but as with any cutting edge technology, I suppose, there weren't people showing up in droves.

While HD DVD took a good headstart in building market awareness, it was the inclusion of Blu-ray drives in Sony's PS3 that pushed that technology a little further into the mainstream. Up until the holiday season, you could count the sales figures of HD DVD and Blu-ray players in terms of thousands, but a few months after the PS3 launch in November 2006, Blu-ray sales had surpassed one million units. Sony's trojan horse was clearly paying off by quickly and easily getting the technology into the hands of consumers, but at a hefty price range of $500-$600—still far out of the average DVD consumer's price range.

The fact that every Blu-ray player introduced has been substantially more expensive than HD DVD players is puzzling to me. I don't understand what Sony expected to happen, pricing their hardware so high, and I can't help but think that's what kept Blu-ray from really taking off. When a $500 HD DVD player is considered a bargain compared to a $1000 Blu-ray player, of course people are going to stay away. Everybody knows prices will drop and they'll simply wait it out, but to come out of the gate at twice the price of the competition? Sheesh.

Fast forward to today. July 2007. It's been over a year and while both HD DVD and Blu-ray are still steading growing in terms of sales and new titles, Blu-ray has been making headway with retailers and other outlets. Blockbuster announced that they would begin stocking Blu-ray in a large cross-section of the stores, although they still support and stock HD DVD. Target also recently announced that they would only sell Blu-ray players for the 2007 holiday season. While there are the vocal Blu-ray supporters that will claim it the death-knell for HD DVD, it's no secret that Blu-ray already has odds stacked against it in other ways.

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) includes some of the biggest film studios in Hollywood, with 20th Century Fox and Disney releasing content only on Blu-ray. HD DVD has an exclusive partner in Universal Studios, which has quite possibly the largest catalog of films, dating all the way back to the 1920, while other big studios like Dreamworks, Paramount and Warner Bros are firmly seated in both camps. Sounds like an interesting matchup, right? Not really.

At first glance, it appeared that Blu-ray would easily be able to provide more content to consumers, but Fox and Disney have released very little on Blu-ray for various reasons, and Warner Bros. has taken some of it's titles to HD DVD only, due to both some advantages of the HD DVD format as well as incomplete or pending factors in Blu-ray technology. Needless to say, this has caused what I think is an unexpected stagnation in the progress of the format war, simply because, content-wise, the majority of Blu-ray titles are far inferior to what's available on HD DVD, and yet there aren't as many HD DVD owners to compete in pure sales volume. Neither format is making the giant strides it would take to call a victory to the war.

That leaves us, the consumers, to battle it out. Spinning facts, perpetrating rumors, spreading fear, doubt and uncertainty amongst each other. The debate is in full swing, but it's all largely hypothetical at this point, and yet, people are convinced that they're right on either side. I suppose I'd call myself a HD DVD supporter (because I do own a player and have started a collection) and so yes, I have an interest in seeing HD DVD succeed. If studios were to use the unfairly-dreaded "combo" format (HD DVD on one side, DVD on the other) as the format for all their home video releases, eschewing the separate HD DVD and DVD releases, there could be real progress in moving towards a single format. Until something like that happens, however, things are going to continue to drag along.

And honestly, I think that if there were a $200 Blu-ray player, I'd probably jump at that as well. My concern as a customer is price, not necessarily content or technological specifications, and I think if companies like Samsung can really bring a dual-format player into the market at an affordable price, the war will be over. People won't care what format or studios they "support" when they can play everything in the same box. Assuming that the average consumer is ready to make the jump to HD soon, I think this is exactly what'll end up happening and probably as soon as next year.