Glamorous Blu-ray Defeats Boring HD DVD
Well, it’s official. HD DVD now stands for HD Dead, Very Dead. The winner and new champion is the Sony backed Blu-ray format and the High Definition DVD consumer.
Toshiba, the manufacturer of the HD DVD format announced yesterday they’re no longer going to produce HD DVD players. After recent announcements by Walmart, Netflix and Warner Bros. that they would no longer supply or support HD DVDs, Toshiba saw the writing on the wall and gave it up.
Part of the reason the Blu-ray format won out is because it can hold more material than the now defunct HD DVDs. But I have an additional theory. I think the Blu-ray format won out because it had a cooler name.
Just think about it. HD DVD sounds so much less fun and exciting than Blu-ray. Blu-ray conjures up visions of faraway planets and the technological masterpieces that can get you there. Blu-ray implies sleek, clever remotes and DVD units bursting with an array of exciting features.
In comparison, HD DVD sounds boring, ordinary. There’s nothing special about it. Nothing glamorous. Nothing fun. And movies, television and the means by which we see them are supposed to be special, glamorous and fun.
The Blu-ray name captures that spirit. Long live Blu-ray.