Toshiba's decision to cease manufacturing its HD DVD players has been widely recognised as the death knell for that format, leaving Sony in the driving seat where high definition media is concerned.

Sony's Blu-ray format now has the challenge of convincing a public tired of another tedious format war to spend their money on something that, for most people, offers little real world difference.

Interestingly, though, one side effect of the HD DVD announcement appears to be that the price of Blu-ray players has increased. Word reached us that at least one store was seen to slap an extra £50 or so on the price of its Blu-ray playback machines...

You can read our reviews of various Blu-ray and other drives here.

Phew, we got all the way through that without once mentioning the tired cliché "VHS versus Betamax." D'oh!

Tags: blu-ray disc hd dvd sony dvd toshiba nintendo satoru iwata wii