Yes, at long last, the industry is consolidating the number of media types for pre-recorded movies... unfortunately, it looks like both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be launched as is, without any compromise. This really isn't all that unexpected, given the jockeying back and forth lately: Blu-Ray announced that its media can be manufactured inexpensively (which was supposed to be a key HD-DVD advantage) and HD-DVD announced 45GB capacity versions (nearly matching Blu-Ray's 50GB storage, which was supposed to be a key Blu-Ray advantage). But the two formats are fundamentally different at a technical level. For example, the laser reads a different depth for each format. It might not be impossible to create one player that handles both discs, but it turns out it is impossible to merge the two formats themselves.
So what's dead? VHS. I know I haven't rented VHS since the dawn of DVD almost nine years ago, but I'm an early adopter; established formats generally take a long, long time to die. However, Beuna Vista (a Disney subsidiary) has announced that Herbie: Fully Loaded will arrive on DVD on October 25th, and on VHS... never. Keep in mind that this was a moderately successful family film, the type of title that often makes most of its money on video sales and rentals, if not at the box office. This is the type of title that keeps full frame versions alive. This is the type of title that traditionally sold well on both VHS and DVD. And yet, Beuna Vista plans no VHS version.
May the VHS format rewind in peace.
-avi
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