Heroes is one of the first television series to be released nearly simultaneously in standard definition DVD as well as high definition HD-DVD.  While this move was originally thought to be daring as much as a mark of the arrival of High Definition in the common market place, Blockbuster’s recent announcement that it will side with Sony’s Blu-Ray format in the high definition DVD format war could mean the end for NBC’s format of choice.

The format war has been playing out in the studios up until Blockbuster’s announcement that it would only carry Blu-Ray disks.   Aside from Heroes, the fifth season of Smallville was released on HD-DVD this year with decent results.  On the Blu-Ray side of the room are heavyweights such as Rescue Me, and The Sopranos.

Blockbuster’s decision to back Blu Ray is being seen as the beginning of the end for the HD DVD format.  Without a major rental chain supporting the format, pundits fear HD DVD will go the way of Betamax.  But that analogy is not entirely appropriate.

Betamax was actually higher resolution than competitor VHS, but featured odd time capacities that were confusing to consumers.  VHS’s approach to incrementing by two hours, and the simple three-mode operation was just easier to mentally digest for consumers. 

In the HD-DVD vs Blu Ray contest, the technical specs lend an obvious advantage to Blu Ray with its higher bit rates and nearly double the capacity of HD-DVD.  Blu Ray supporters insinuate that this means the capability to add more extras to the discs, the boon of DVD fans.  HD-DVD supporters, on the other hand, point out that the excessive bit rates result in image quality the eye cannot perceive, and that lower bit-rates can offset the capacity without impacting perceivable image quality.

A valid comparison is the four disk Season Four of Rescue Me set on Blu Ray, which is 4 disks containing 13 episodes and extras, against the Heroes Complete Season One set which is 24 episodes with extras on seven disks.

Whether the format war will continue into retailers like Best Buy and Walmart remains to be seen, but at this point it looks like HD-DVD copies of anything may end up curios of the battlefield. 

- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image © 2007 NBC/Universal)