I really loved the version of Downfall dubbed with the poker / collusion theme. I think this one is just as good.

So the Blu-ray / HD DVD war has been raging for well over a year now. A format war very much like the VHS / BETA conflict of the 80s. I had been hanging back waiting until one of the formats got crushed. However, the fight was taking far too long to decide a victor. I couldn’t bare to have this 1080p HD projector sitting here burning up watching only high definition television content any longer.

So I jumped in head first, Paul Cherry has signed exclusively to Blu-ray.

On January 3, our local computer store Umart re-opened after the Christmas break and I purchased a Blu-ray drive for my PC media center. News spread like wildfire! Within hours of my decision, news had hit over at Warner Bros. Entertainment and by the next day (January 4) Warner announced their switch to support Blu-ray exclusively too.

Warner’s sister company, New Line Cinema followed soon after with a release on January 5, stating their exclusive support for Blu-ray.

Back in August 2007, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation announced their exclusivity with HD DVD. However, after hearing the news that Paul Cherry had bought a Blu-ray player and would be recommending high definition media on Blu-ray disc to all of his friends, Paramount pulled an ace out of their sleeve.

It seems that Paramount have a sinking ship clause in their contract with HD-DVD that would allow them to change teams in the event of Warner Bros backing Blu-ray Paul Cherry purchasing Blu-ray.

With Paul Chery and Warner Bros. now on the Blu team, alongside Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,  Blu-ray will command about 70 per cent of all production output. If Paramount play their aces, Blu-ray will have a barnacles grip on Hollywood film content.

Given the money Microsoft and Toshiba have behind the HD-DVD technology, if it survives at all it looks likely to end up in desktop PCs and laptops as the popular choice for personal data storage.

So if you are planning a format war, or any type of multi-billion dollar consumer electronics decision, do the right thing and contact Paul Cherry first. It only takes one man to get behind your technology and the entire world comes crushing down on your competitors.