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A few weeks ago, my face-to-face IS 7010 students talked about the high-definition DVD format war. Apple, Sony, Disney and Fox supported Blu-ray. Warner’s defection from the HD DVD camp last month was an indication that Blu-ray was winning the battle, according to this New York Times article.

The rival HD DVD format was supported by Universal, Paramount, Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel, according to this Wikipedia article.

Of course, Blu-ray discs won’t play in a standard HD DVD player, and vice versa. Engadget has a chart that compares the two formats here.

This format war is reminiscent of the Beta vs VHS video tape battle in the 1970s and 1980s.

It seems that this format war is over, and Blu-ray has won. Wal-Mart had been pushing HD DVD in its stores, but the company announced yesterday that they will no longer sell HD DVD movies, according to the New York Times. The shift was announced on Wal-Mart’s corporate blog in this article. Engadget has sounded the death knell, partly because Wal-Mart sells 20% of the DVD in the USA.

Toshiba made one desperate last attempt to promote their HD DVD technology with an expensive commercial during the Super Bowl earlier this month. However, Netflix and Blockbuster had previously announced they would support Blu-ray. Now Toshiba is suspending their HD DVD marketing.

Computer manufacturers have long wanted a single standard high-def DVD format. Software publishers don’t really need high-def DVDs and the moment, and game publishers have to go along with whatever format is used in the game consoles.

We mentioned Netflix during our IS 7010-T class discussion last Thursday. According to USA Today, Netflix has changed some of the restrictions on its broadband movie rental service yesterday, in anticipation of Apple’s entry into the same market.

Netflix will allow most of its customers to view TV shows and movies from its 6000-title library without the old cap of 17 hours usage per month. I would assume that most Netflix customers were under these limits in the first place.

Apple will roll out a 1000-title online library next month, and renters will have 24 hours to watch their video before it expires in a puff of DRM.

Netflix uses an on-demand model that lets viewers watch the title at their own pace.

While Netflix charges a stable monthly fee, Apple will charge a fee for each title viewed. The Netflixpricing model seems much more flexible to me.

Apple’s service will use QuickTime and iTunes, so it supports MacOS, Windows and AppleTV boxen.

The Netflix service requires Windows Media Player 11 and a Windows OS – it’s possible to run this software suite on an Intel-based Mac with some help from Boot Camp, or perhaps an emulator solution like Parallels Desktop.

Keep in mind that online movie distribution requires a great deal of bandwidth. Pricing is one way to manage viewer demand, of course.

Movies: The original Planet of the Apes reedited into a Twilight Zone episode. Torrent available along with the 61 mb Quicktime file. Thanks, Boing Boing!

Funny: John Dvorak presents a brief list of advertising, sports and movie cliche sites. My favorite movie cliche is the fruitcart, which Roger Ebert named. Loud music in the stadium is a great sports cliche, along with hockey teams skating to a tie.

Movies: Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash. Bring your boomstick. Maybe they can throw Elvis and JFK into the mix, too.