DVD has lost the format war to Blu-ray and slowly is going the way of the VHS and Betamax — its predecessors. I, for one, thought history would repeat itself, and DVD would win but that was not the case, the future is Blu ray. Thanks a lot, Sony.

In 1975 Sony developed the Betamax video cassette and player, trying to dictate the industry’s standard and monopolize it. JVC decided instead of buying into the rights of developing Betamax players they would develop their own player, and thus VHS was born. By 1988 Sony conceded defeat as VHS became the industry standard.

Another format war played on behind the scenes in 1993 between Sony and JVC, among others, over high-density optical storage formats. Sony was backing MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), and JVC backed the Super Density (SD) disc. Sony lost out again to JVC and others when the industry standard settled on DVD’s, basically the SD disc with a few MMCD implements.

In 2006 Blu-ray was available for the mass market along with the Playstation 3, which supports blu-ray gaming discs as well as being a blu-ray player. Coincidence? I think not since Sony is at it again, trying to set an industry standard with their format. And as of February 19, 2008, when Toshiba bowed out of making HD DVD players causing the rest of the industry to follow suit, Sony actually won a format war.

Blu-ray players range from $399.99 on up, and Blu-ray discs are $29.99 for new releases. I already miss the $19.99 DVD, especially when I can’t see a difference between the two visually when played on a television. I give it about 10 years, and, as history shows, the DVD format will be obsolete. So I will have to jump on the Blu-ray band wagon, but when I do I’ll just buy a PS3, which incidentally is one of the cheaper Blu-ray players on the market right now.