iHD is a fairly simple XML-based system, which makes development easy, but limits what can be achieved in the end. Toshiba pushed iHD a lot as a differentiator, so they really encouraged studios to lard up the discs with interactive content to have something to flog. BD has been a lot slower to push interactive content, but it is gaining momentum.

In the end, BD offers more power for developers to do some pretty cool things. I look at it something like gaming consoles, where something like the PS2 had a lot of power but was hard to develop for, but once developers got their bearings things took off.

I think the war is mixed. While there may be some forces driving prices down, it also limits volumes for both technologies, driving up the unit prices. And it drives up costs for Warner and Paramount to support both, which they must pass on to the consumer. Even the exclusive studios suffer due to lower sales volumes from a divided market, which means their overhead costs of production are distributed over fewer discs.

If the war never happened, the competition would be between vendors – Toshiba and Sony would still be going at it, but just for BD market share – along with all the others.

The biggest one is “A better interactive development platform.”
I own Blu-ray and have reviewed a few HD DVD players and I can tell you that based on what is available today HD DVD’s interactive layer is far beyond Blu-ray. I think this will change given enough time, because it’s based on Java and has potential, but if there is anything that HD DVD is doing right it is actually having the interactive layer down at launch, rather than having another revision this October.

I think the war is actually good for consumers, sure some are on the side-lines, but the amount of free press coverage alone makes this worth it for both parties. As for the consumers, the war drives the prices down. I believe that if it wasn’t for the war the prices wouldn’t drop nearly as fast.

But in the end I agree, it is only a matter of time till Universal starts producing Blu-ray movies, then the war is over.