(((The revenge of Betamax.)))
(((Might I point out that, except for analog film, there is still no archival medium for motion pictures? Or anything digital, for that matter. It's al built on digital sand.)))
Link: Sony settles an old score | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 23, 2008Lose one, win one.
When the latest high-definition video fight finished this month, it was sweet vindication for the loser in the first format war. And it was one more sign of the might of Wal-Mart, which now has the power to pick winners and losers in both America and Japan.
Sony's Blu-ray disks - already endorsed by several big players in the business - last week got the nod from the Bentonville leviathan, which said that it would no longer sell HD DVDs, a rival format championed by Toshiba. That sealed HD DVD's fate, and on Tuesday, Toshiba and its partners bowed to the will of Wal-Mart.
Sony's victory represents revenge for the loser of video's first major format war a quarter century ago, which ended when the company's superior Betamax videotape technology was overwhelmed by cheaper VHS.
Once a single videotape format was decided, the VCR quickly spread to almost every house in America. Sony and its collaborators hope the same will now happen with Blu-ray disks, which are built into the company's PlayStation 3 game player, a sleek black Trojan horse of video technology....
