format wars.

i didn't quite call it nearly-two years ago, but i may as well have.

with wal*mart announcing today that they are going to go blu-ray only, the high definition format war is effectively over. i now regret that i wasn't more explicit in my hunch that this was the way it would turn out when i made that original post, but i admit i never expected it to happen this quickly. i thought (as is obvious) that the xbox's add-on unit would keep HD-DVD alive a lot longer, until HDTVs came down even more significantly in price.

i have to admit, assuming we had the money, a PS3 and a 40" 1080p tv would be a pretty attractive combination. but we don't, because he's in school, and only working 3 days a week now. school is a much better investment anyway :)

almost anything is a better investment than television.

the next format problem we're going to have to deal with here is a 5-year-old tv, analog cable, and the shift to digital broadcasts in a year. analog cable is a whole hell of a lot cheaper than the digital bullshit comcast wants to foist on you, so some kind of decision is going to have to be made about a converter box: government-provided vs. comcast-provided. since we don't watch that much tv anyway, i'm thinking going with the OTA box and dropping cable tv altogether. have to see what high speed internet prices look like in a year, i guess.

i think the only cable channel i watch is the weather channel. and the wii has that now, plus a neat spinny globe interface.

also, i rescind my previous statement. apparently, i mostly blog about books, food, and consumer technology *cough*