The Winner is …

Reports have been swarming since Friday but today Toshiba officially announced that it would no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders. The withdrawal of Toshiba all but ends the high-definition format war that has been waged over the last few years between Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray Disc. Several developments undoubtedly led to this decision but from what I can tell the beginning of the end was last month’s decision by Warner Brothers to drop support for HD DVD and to release future titles in the Blu-ray format only.

On February 11th two more nails were driven into HD DVD’s coffin when the online rental company Netflix announced that it would drop support for HD DVD and would begin to purchase HD titles in Blu-ray only. Best Buy announced on the 11th as well that it would begin to promote Blu-ray as its format of choice in stores by March of 08′. A mere four days later on February 15th the coffin was nailed shut when Wal-Mart announced it would drop HD DVD and would only sell movies, players and recorders in the Blu-ray format. Three days later Toshiba conceded defeat in the DVD format war.

Who cares? …

Anyone who has invested the $300.00-$400.00 or in my case $600.00 dollars per system at launch on the Playstation 3 should be more then pleased with today’s news. While downloads may be the future Blu-ray at present has a clear playing field with unlimited potential. Sure it costs a little more but in my case as a gamer I don’t care. The more companies and developers that pick up support for the format the more titles we’ll get and the happier I’ll be.

The interesting part of this whole mess is yet to come however when Microsoft tries to obtain a license to make an external Blu-ray player for the XBOX 360 as it had previously supported HD DVD. It will be odd to see Microsoft on the other end of a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff instead of the defendant …HA.

All I know is my 60GB PS3s are starting to look better and better everyday. Anyone who thinks that downloadable content will kill recorded media in the near future is undoubtedly misinformed. Someday downloadable content may very well dethrone the disc but I doubt it will happen in my lifetime. In your kids lifetime perhaps but not today and certainly not tomorrow. In other words go buy yourself an HD television and a Blu-ray player. Step out of the Stone Age and join the rest of us in the HD revolution. The winner …Sony and Blu-ray!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars …

On the heels of this springs latest Lucas Arts release Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Which looks good) comes the highly anticipated animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Apparently the new animated series will be released to us in two chunks. The first will be a full length animated feature film which is currently set to release in North American theaters Friday, August 15. The second will be a new television series which will run weekly 30 minute episodes. Currently there are over 100 episodes planned for the new animated series.

Like I don’t enough on TV to watch? On the other hand it’s nice to know that Star Wars isn’t dead and while we will undoubtedly never get Episodes VIII, IX, & X at least the brand will go on. After reading up on it and watching the trailer a half dozen times I’m pretty satisfied that it should keep the Star Wars dork (Myself included) occupied for quite some time.

The story will be set in the fictional Star Wars galaxy of course and will take place between Episodes I & II. You can grab more information on the project at Starwars.com or you can click here for a look at the latest trailer.

The Contender …

I’m more then a little late on this one as usual but after watching this fight for the fifth of sixth time now I figured I’d throw it just for the hell of it. I uploaded it to my barely used YouTube almost two weeks ago and its been watched well over 20K times in all its parts.

I won’t bother going into some rant about how boxing has taken a beating over the last decade but as a fan of the sport I must say this was one of the best fights I’ve ever seen. If you have the time and enjoy a good beat down from start to finish you should take a look.

The Fight …

Jericho Lives.

Fans myself included of the CBS drama Jericho will be pleased to know that CBS has reinstated the show for a midseaon run after bowing to protests following the shows cancelation three weeks ago.

For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the show and are interested in learning more you can click here for more to the story.

I find it refreshing that a network actually listened to its viewers. (Even if it was CBS)