Corvillus

Stephen Speicher over at Engadget makes a good point. What good reason is there on the consumer end for the HD DVD vs Blu-ray battle to be kept up? None, I say. And there’s an easy solution to the whole problem, just like there was with the DVD format wars past: Just make a player that plays both formats. Oh sure, it’s not good for the technology companies who are in the camps creating the formats, but screw them, ultimately it comes down to what the consumer wants. And what the consumer wants is to have 1 player that plays whatever the hell they throw at it without a second thought. Having to buy multiple players to play all of the available movies and ultimately having one of them rendered useless because the other format wins out is just a bad deal for the consumer. So, to all the set top player manufacturers out there, do a combo player. Initially, you can even charge a bit extra for it too because you’ll have the advantage of being able to play both formats. The consumer will gravitate to that because it gives them the most convenience and value for their dollar. It’s inevitable that it will happen eventually, because I think both of the camps are being funded with enough money and have enough studio backing that neither one of them is going to go away this generation. That means either every studio will release all of their movies on both formats simultaneously (not likely), we’ll be stuck with DVD for a long time to come, or there will be a combo player. So let’s just cut to the chase and get the combo player already.

Read more: The Clicker: Blu-ray and HD DVD — let’s get a combo player already [Engadget]