HD Format War To Last Another 18 Months?

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Here we go, again. Many thought, myself included, that the format war could possibly be decided after the holiday shopping season, but analysts at Forrester Research who believe Blu-ray will win are saying that the so-called war will go on for another 18 months. Forrester analyst J.P. Gownder says the Blu-ray camp needs to cut prices, which is a no-brainer considering HD DVD players are about $100 cheaper than Blu-ray players. He goes on to say that Paramount’s HD DVD exclusivity was a bigger blow to the BD-R camp than first thought.

Weakened by these developments, Blu-ray needs to offer a viable hardware model at the $250 price point by Christmas 2007,” he said in the report. “The Blu-ray camp must also stave off further studio defections, and employ more aggressive promotional tactics to counter HD DVD’s recent momentum.

This analyst fellow believes ‘typical’ owners of HD TVs aren’t going to spend more than $200 on any next generation HD player, but how much are you willing to pay? I think I can hold off another 18 months until prices on everything HD drop. What about you?

Blu-ray/HD DVD war to run another 18 months: report [Reuters]