The Blu-ray versus HD DVD war has been raging since 2005 with no clear winner in sight. Each camp boasts big name backers. The Sony-backed Blu-ray is supported by the likes of IT giants HP, Dell and Apple, as well as electronics heavyweights Hitachi, Samsung, LG, Phillips, Matsushita and others. Toshiba's HD DVD has a smaller but also impressive list including Microsoft, NEC, Sanyo and Thompson.

Blu-ray has a larger list of studios behind it but by and large all studios are sitting on the fence and hedging their bets until the technology waters become clearer.

At present, anecdotal evidence, as well as statistics from retailers appear to show that HD DVD has a clear early lead over Blu-ray in the format war, in terms of both player and movie title sales. However, Sony is set to push Blu-ray players into the homes of consumers in a big way through the back door, with the release of the much vaunted PlayStation 3.

If PS3 manages to achieve the sort of sales of its two predecessors, that could mean more than 100 million Blu-ray players going into consumers' homes by default from Sony alone over the next five years. That sort of number is too big for studios to ignore.{moscomment}

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