It’s looking like a turbulent year for HD DVD, what with the Warner Bros’ announcement in January that it would exclusively back the rival Blu-ray format. It has also suffered from DVD rental giants Netflix and Blockbusters phasing out the format, American retailer Best Buy's recommendation of Blu-ray over HD DVD for consumers, and Walmart's decision to support only Blu-ray from June 2008.

Just days after reading Gordon Laing and Barry Fox's articles about the HD format war, I learnt that Toshiba (HD DVD’s main backer) had announced that they would no longer develop, manufacture or market HD DVD players from March this year. This, I feel, must be the tip of the high-definition iceberg in favour of Blu-ray, as Toshiba's pull-out effectively ends the format war.

I feel for Laing. In his piece he referred to the VHS/Betamax format war lasting for years, and stated that "we could be in for a long ride yet" in this new race for high-definition supremacy. It now seems that this ride has been cut very short indeed. After all the money and time put into the successor to the DVD by Toshiba and various other companies, not to mention the consumer spending upon the technology, it seems such a waste. But every battle must have a victor, and, just like VHS, Blu-ray has won both the battle for manufacturer backing, and in turn the war.

Being an owner of a Sony’s £300 Playstation 3, which supports Blu-ray playback, I am somewhat pleased that the outcome wasn’t the opposite. I do not wish to gloat, but this is a definite reassurance that the money I spent on a next-gen console was spent well.

Although I do not own any Blu-ray films, I feel content in the knowledge that my PS3 will be able to play high-definition films in the future, should I feel the need to watch them.

Loz Hawksworth.