What in the HD World?

The war is over. Blu-ray has vanquished HD DVD in the not-so-prolonged high definition DVD format battle. Break out the champagne and roll out those Blu-ray discs.

But even as the bubbly is being poured, questions arise about the future of this HD distribution medium. Is the Blu-ray glass half full or half empty? Or is it one of those dribble glasses? Supporting the half full view, consumers no longer have to worry that they are choosing the losing format. It's time to move forward with your Blu-ray purchases.

Dribble glass? Without the competing formats, price competition has become less fierce. Near the end, top of the line HD DVD players were selling for under $200. Most Blu-ray players are still hovering around or above $400. Considering the still high costs of the components that make up those players, I wouldn't say that consumers are being soaked if they are drinking from that dribble glass, but they could be drier.

For the game players, definitely your best Blu-ray bargain right now is Sony's PlayStation 3 starting at $399. Especially since Sony has just released firmware update 2.20 that includes the Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0 (BD-Live), which brings all the new features to the Blu-ray player integrated in the PS3.

Of course, there will develop a renewed price war among the Blu-ray manufacturers. And when we see more lower-priced competitors enter the ring, Blu-ray players for under $300 will become more prevalent. And dare I say a $200 player may be in our Christmas stockings...in 2009.

For the bargain hunter, the silver lining around that glass is the clearance prices on Toshiba HD DVD players. Today, I'm finding the 1080p Toshiba HD-A30 for $149 and the 1080i Toshiba HD-A3 for an incredible $84. Beyond their ability to play HD DVDs, both do a fine job of upconverting standard DVDs. (If you do own one of these players, I advise you to download the latest firmware. There were reports of the A3 having playback issues with HD DVDs that Version 2.0 solved.)

As far as HD DVDs, I was hoping along with many of you that we would see our favorite HD DVDs in the clearance bins by now. The last time I checked, no luck. Though some of the earlier releases like Top Gun and Batman Begins are falling into the $10 - $16 range. Give it another month.

I can tell you that Universal and Paramount, the last two studios that stood by the HD DVD format, are winding down their releases of movies in HD DVD. Ironically, Warner Brothers, (who fired the final shot in this battle when they committed their allegiance to Blu-ray), still plans to release some of their titles in both Blu-ray and HD DVD, including a collector's edition of Bonnie and Clyde.

Now about that half empty perspective, Sony has to be hoping that time and technology hasn't passed them by. Partially fueled by the Writers' Strike, more and more people are turning to the Internet for their video and movies. And those netizens are not just the YouTube generation. It also includes baby boomers.

If there was any doubt that the Internet has become a major TV and movie distribution channel, check out Hulu, a joint venture of NBC Universal and News Corp. The site just opened to the public last week. With 50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., and Lionsgate, one of the biggest problems is to decide which TV program or movie to watch.

The concept is not new. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC have been streaming episodes of TV shows like Desperate Housewives, CSI, House and 30 Rock on their own websites for some time. Netflix has also started streaming movies to their members. It's the scope of programming on Hulu that makes this endeavor notable.

I do take exception to one of Hulu's statements: “Hulu is free and ad-supported.” I understand what they mean. They don't charge a fee for viewing this content. Though some people would consider watching the ads is a steep price to pay.

Beyond the ads, there's a hidden cost to enjoying services like Hulu that becomes apparent when you read their system requirements to view 720p content in their HD Gallery.

First, they recommend a 2.5Mbps Internet connection or greater. If you have a standard DSL line, it can't deliver that bandwidth. To see smooth playback of Hulu's HD content, you would have to upgrade your service plan (to about $30 a month).

And if your computer is more than a couple of years old, you would have to upgrade it. For Windows, the requirement is an Intel Pentium 4 3GHz processor with 128MB of RAM and 64MB of VRAM or for a Macintosh: Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz, 256MB of RAM, 64MB of VRAM. You can fill in your own price tag.

And let's not forget a monitor. I know some folks are watching movies on their iPhones, but please for my sake and for those who created these programs, consider investing in a good, large, high resolution computer monitor – especially if you are viewing HD content.

For our part, we will continue to review the crossover computer monitor / HDTV hybrids, (like the ViewSonic VX2435), that are a great solution for surfing and streaming. And we'll keep an eye on new developments with Internet services like Hulu.

Also, we believe that the Blu-ray format still has a bright future and we plan to review both the players and the discs.

Enjoy March Madness in HD.

Stay tuned.