What if they had a format war, and nobody cared? The high-definition DVD format war is essentially over, after barely two years of conflict. From the consumer’s standpoint, the war was more of a snooze-fest than a fistfight. Most people were perfectly content to sit back and wait to see which format was victorious before plunking down their hard-earned cash and replacing their DVD library.

Before we discuss the implications of the winning format, a short review of the technology behind high-definition DVD.

The two formats have some things in common. Both utilize a blue-violet laser, and the shorter wavelength allows for much more information to be stored on a disc – three to five times the information on a standard DVD. Data storage capacities are an impressive 15G to 50G (4.7G for standard DVD). Both use that extra storage space to offer stunning video, with over twice the lines of resolution (1080) as the older format, and cleaner, uncompressed sound.

That’s where the similarities end. The two formats have different pitch tracks and pickup apertures, so they cannot read discs of the other format. The surface layers of the discs are different, too. Toshiba, NEC, Microsoft (Xbox), and Intel were the primary companies behind HD-DVD, while Blu-ray had Sony, Apple, Dell, and HP in its corner.

Despite the incompatibilities, combo players were marketed. But they were more expensive than just buying both a Blu-ray and HD-DVD player.

Although the two formats seemed evenly matched, Blu-ray scored a major coup just before the January Consumer Electronics Show, when Warner and Paramount adopted Blu-ray as their high-def format. But the fatal blow came in February, when Toshiba announced that they were ceasing production of HD-DVD players, making Blu-ray the winner by default.

So, what does this mean for the consumer? For one thing, it’s no longer a risky investment to purchase a high-definition DVD player; as long as it’s Blu-ray, of course. Prices should begin to drop as everyone gets behind a standard format. This should also provide further proof that Microsoft is not the irresistible marketing juggernaut that some people like to believe they are (Microsoft backed HD-DVD).

So, will everyone rush out and replace all their standard DVDs with Blu-ray discs as the studios hope? We think the sales of high-definition DVDs will grow steadily, but slowly. After all, some movies just do not benefit greatly from high definition, such as any film starring Will Ferrell, while others, like Lord of the Rings and Matrix trilogies, are high-def must-haves.

Oh, and any movie featuring Jessica Alba. If they ever filmed a version of The Matrix with Jessica Alba, we’d buy that in high-def for sure!