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Will CES 2008 have a better solution for HD DVD vs Blu-Ray war?

The annual consumer electric feast kicks off within few days.

Everyone knows that the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD is the most boring battle since VHS and Beta. Again the battle will happen this CES show for the high definition format war.

Back in early December last year, rumors were circulating that both HD formats were trying to woo warner Warner Brothers to exclusivity with them. Many sources were saying that it looked Blu-ray would end up the war and control over 70% market share.

But when it comes to next generation DVDs, CES will undoubtedly feature a raft of new Blu-ray and HD DVD players, with some able to play either disc, but prices for players and movies on disc are still far too expensive to overtake the humble DVD player and universally available DVD movies.

DVD players are dirt cheap, but the real action seems to be with ever-cheaper ‘upscaling’ DVD players that take the standard definition picture supplied by DVD and sharpen it up so it looks smoother and clearer on big HDTV screens.

Naturally the resulting image isn’t as sharp or as clear as you’ll get on a true Blu-ray or HD DVD movie, but it comes at a much lower cost – and you don’t need to buy an entire new library of movies in a format that might be dead in 18 to 24 months.

In fact, the war of HD DVD and Blu-ray won't be won by either format but will instead be won by downloads direct to hard disks. Already the download war has winners, such as Apple iTues and Microsoft Xbox 360 Video download service.

There are already plenty of other download services available both legal and illegal. 2008 will see more activity in video downloading that ever before.

So, will the International CES 2008 showcase have a better solution for the Blu-ray vs HD DVD war? We will see soon.