The "Format War" Ends, Blu-Ray Wins.

See money can buy you everything.

Sony was able to buy their support for Blu-Ray even with it's inferior features and higher production costs. Now before everyone gets all up in arms let me tell you what I mean by 'inferior features'. Day one HD DVD mandated network connectivity on all of their players, Blu-Ray didn't do this until just recently with the Profile 1.1 update. So if you've bought a Blu-Ray player in the last year and a half (other than a PS3) it could very well be out-dated.

Also, in the interactive department both formats each have their own super-cool interactive format. HD DVD has had what they called HDi, and they made it mandatory from day one as well. What does did HDi give you?

• Commentary tracks that can be video instead of just audio, so you can see the director's and actors as they talk to you about the different scene's in the movie.
  
• User generated bookmarks so you can mark which ever scene you like the best to share with your friends or just watch over and over again.
• Online polls so you (and other HD DVD owners) can vote on topics like: very scene, best ending, favorite actor, etc...
  
• The ablity to download new up-to-date trailer so 5 years from now when you pop in that 'old' HD DVD you still see the trailers for the latest movies.

Now Blu-Ray has their own feature called BD-J, which has gone through a few updates. The newest update, profile 1.1, basically brings BD-J inline with HDi. Now the kicker, your Blu-Ray player has to have a network connection in order to receive the update, so like I said an older player could already be antiquated.

The one feature that Blu-Ray has always had over HD DVD is storage space. Blu-Ray can hold either 25GB or 50GB, and HD DVD is only 15GB or 30GB depending on if the discs are single or dual layer.

Now that the format war is officially over, I can't wait to go get a bunch of HD DVD's on the cheap! I'm gonna stock up on all the HD DVD's I can find... What about a Blu-Ray player you ask? I'm sure I'll get a PS3 sooner or later and that, in my opinion, will always be the best Blu-Ray player for your money.

Unless, of course, Microsoft comes out with a Blu-Ray add-on for the Xbox 360...