Leave it to the man of steel to conquer the High Definition DVD format wars.  In the most rational move in the heated rivalry between Sony’s Blu-Ray and HD-Dvd, Warner Brothers has made the unfashionable choice of supporting both machines with the release of Smallville Season Six.

Most studios, and some retailers, have picked a ‘format of choice’ in an attempt to starve consumers into one standard or the other.  It is a game of dirty pool reminiscent of the VHS/Beta wars of the early 80s.  In case you didn’t know Beta lost, superior picture quality and all.

Originally, the heads of the home electronics industry had worked together to try to develop a universal standard.  For some time it seemed that HD-Dvd would win the battle despite a deficiency in storage capacity. 

Pundits claimed Blu-Rays additional capacity was being squandered on bit-rates that were incredibly high, but well beyond the human range of visual and audio perception.  Sony insisted that Blu-Ray’s additional capacity would come in handy in the multi-gigabyte world of next gen entertainment devices.

Warner Brothers was one of the first studios brave enough to enter the HD-Dvd market with the release of the Smallville Complete Fifth Season edition that received positive press last year.

Arguably, a third factor in the format war may be pushing studios like Warner brothers to support both formats in the wake of the Smallville release – the game market.  Most consumer level high definition playback devices are in the form of either Microsoft’s Xbox 360 HD-Dvd add on, or Sony’s Blu-Ray compatible Playstation 3.  Cash strapped technophiles have been using the consoles as a feature rich excuse to go high-definition.  Currently, most Blu Ray players are within a few hundred dollars of a full Playstation 3, while Xbox’s external Hd-Dvd drive can be had for a couple of hundred over the cost of a core system.

From a more cynical point of view, one could look at this move as transitory.  Blockbuster has stated they will only provide Blu Ray programming.  In that case, it is not hard to believe that the shrinking venue was the Kryptonite to Warner Brothers’ Hd-Dvd support for Smallville.  Perhaps by season seven, we’ll know if this dual release was simply a consolation for the shrinking Hd-Dvd market.

- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: tvshowsondvd.com
(Image from TvShowsonDVD.com)