But consumers are now faced with the tough choice of two competing, next-generation DVD standards -- Blu-ray and HD DVD. With the release of the PlayStation 3 and other HD players some people have already made their choice, but it's still too early to predict an outright winner.

What killed HD DVD?

The fall of the HD-DVD format means that retail chains like Best Buy no longer need to have two separate sections for high-definition media. Blu-ray and HD-DVD had gone to war, and companies began to side with one format or the other. A few movie studios hedged their bets and produced content for both formats.

What came after Blu Ray?

Blu-ray is dead. ... With its demise, Blu-ray follows Laserdisc, BetaMax, and VHS VCRs into the second-hand stores. DVDs may soon follow. Ted Sarandos, Netflix's longtime head of content told Variety, even though Netflix still has three-million DVD subscribers, "We never spent one minute trying to save the DVD business."