DVD Format war to continue for 18 months

THE next generation DVD format war is not likely to see a clear winner for another 18 months, according to the people in the know.

Analysts at Forrester Research have told Reuters that while HD-DVD and Blu-ray camps have been fighting for the hearts and minds of punters, there are no clear winners.

In fact, punters are still waiting for prices to fall and for the battle over two competing technologies to be sorted out before buying. None of them wants to confess in 10 years time that they were the betamax man of the 21st century.

Few consumers are warming to either type of device and are happy to spend their cash on old technology with a nice telly to go with it.

Analyst JP Gownder said it was still Forester's belief that Blu-ray would eventually win out over HD DVD although it seems that Sony and co are not doing much to help their case.

Blu-ray needs to cut prices to be taken seriously and Viacom's decision to stick to HD DVD and the dropping of the HD DVD hardware prices have given the standard the winner hand for the moment.

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