Deja Vu All Over Again

I chose Betamax. Yup, in the VHS vs Betamax war, I chose what was clearly the superior format. Beta was better by every measure. It had superior quality, could cut through any copy protection and sported all the bells and whistles of video recording and playback before VHS machines had them. The problem was, Beta was more expensive than VHS. Not only were the players more expensive, (and rightly so), an L-750 Beta tape cost about $25 and didn't hold nearly as much information as a VHS. Much to my chagrin and amazement, Americans opted for the inferior system. Beta is still used professionally in TV stations. Now, I find myself in the middle of another video war. A plasma HD TV is not much use if I am playing DVDs on a standard DVD player. But, there are two formats again -- Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Blu-ray is the superior system and has more storage capacity, but it is much more expensive than HD-DVD. Will Americans once again opt for the cheaper system? Or will they once again go for the higher capacity? Block Buster just threw its hat into the ring by endorsing Blu-ray. That might affect the outcome. But, I'm just going to sit back awhile and let things shake out. After all, how much definition do I need to watch old Cisco Kid and Shotgun Slade shows?