Five unexpected effects of a Blu-ray victory

Toshiba has officially thrown in the towel and HD DVD is, for all practical purposes, no more. For consumers, it looks great that the war is over, but here's five consequences of a Blu-ray victory that you might not have considered.

1. Region coding is still alive

While HD DVD had no regional restrictions, Blu-ray maintained the studio-friendly approach of coding titles so that they would only play in particular regions (albeit with a three-region approach rather than DVD's four, placing Australia alongside Europe rather than South America).
In practice, the vast majority of titles were released in region-free versions that would play anywhere, but that might very well change if HD DVD finally gets the flick. Region coding is a nuisance for buyers, and neither format could risk putting people off during a battle for market share. But if there's only one option -- and hence no chance of defecting to a rival -- what's the bet that it starts appearing more frequently?

2. Java gets embedded in yet another platform

One of the original points of contention between Blu-ray and HD DVD was the way in which interactive components would be coded. Blu-ray used a Java derivative called BD-J, while HD DVD favoured HDi, essentially a combination of ECMAScript and XML developed by the HD DVD consortium. Amongst developer types, there was consensus that Sun's approach was potentially more useful, working as it did with a relatively open standard supported by a wide range of tools.
For consumers, the picture is murkier, as there have been reports that not all BD-J features work on all players. The use of Java does mean that the specification can theoretically be upgraded if the hardware supports it, which offers an advantage to PlayStation3 users if nothing else.

3. Porn producers will have to work harder

It's widely assumed (though without much in the way of, ahem, hard evidence) that one of the reasons VHS beat Betamax was the widespread (ahem) availability of porn on the former format. In the HD format wars, the picture was (ahem) murkier. Online media fell over themselves last year to report that Sony had banned Blu-ray from being used for porn, but the truth was a little more prosaic.
While individual manufacturers are free to reproduce whatever titles they like, their contracts with specific movie studios might prohibit any X-rated material being reproduced on the premises. The main enforcer of such provisions is Disney, which is still haunted by the memory of a VHS version of The Rescuers which features a few frames of a topless woman inserted by a bored editor. Given the choice between replicating a few million copies of Toy Story or a much smaller run of Young Ripe Melons 13, most duplicators are going to opt for the former.

4. You still probably can't play CDs


One problem with both HD formats is that the rush to produce hi-def pictures wasn't always matched with attention to detail when it came to other formats. Thus, despite the fact that both rivals had discs the same size as audio CDs (and hence, in turn, DVDs), a surprising number of players couldn't actually play music from a CD.
Given that a $50 DVD from the dodgy store round the corner can manage that feat, it's a surprising omission. This is by no means something that affects all players, but it's definitely worth checking.


5. Sony has won a format war for once


A constant point of reference during the Blu-ray/HD DVD battle has been the similarities with the VHS/Betamax battles for home video cassette supremacy in the early 1980s. Sony lost that particular fight, and that helped create a perception that Sony-backed formats rarely succeed in the market. Various other media formats such as Memory Stick, MiniDisc, DAT and UMD rather reinforced that impression, although in truth none of those ever looked like serious contenders.
Unfortunately, Sony can't afford to gloat despite HD DVD's disappearance. While high-capacity Blu-ray discs might well be a useful storage medium, flash technologies are evolving so rapidly that it would be unwise to bet against them catching up in the near future. And as for movies themselves? Downloading still looks like a good option (if you don't have an Australian broadband cap).
Perhaps the salient lesson from the original video war is that no format lasts forever. In the 20-odd years since VHS vanquished Betamax, video tapes themselves have become largely archaic. The odds of Blu-ray even surviving 20 years seem just as slight.