The battle royale is over and the victor has been chosen. Not since the Sony-Betamax showdown have consumer electronics fought so bravely to win dominance over the market. But after months of indecision, we can finally announce our winner: Blu-ray high definition DVDs have vanquished HD DVDs.

And who predicted this? Why, me of course. I think it was the obvious choice as soon as they announced PS3’s would contain a Blu-ray player, but apparently some others out there are not quite as quick at these things. And on top of that, Warner Bros. said in January they would only release their films on Blu-ray. If that wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, I don’t know what else could be.

So what caused this tipping point in favor of Blu-ray? Today, Toshiba revealed they will no longer make HD DVD players, thus effectively handing victory to Sony and Blu-ray. Luckily for me, I am typically not an early adopter for this very reason. At minimum, buying the technology too early can cause headaches when rebates are offered just a few months after the product is released or having to pay for upgrades to the software. At the worst end, you’re stuck with an expensive gadget and a few movies, and you can’t buy anything else. AND, no one will want to buy your now useless piece of electronics. Of course, it isn’t that expensive anymore, with the price of the players plummeting to just over $100 in many cases. Maybe now IS the time to buy one so you can show it off to your friends in 20 years as a collector’s item.

Amazon is currently offering a deal where if you select one of three offered HD DVD players, you will receive 10 free HD DVDs. The three players offered, all on sale, range in price from $225 – $360. The catch is that you 1) automatically receive 300 and The Bourne Ultimatum with your purchase (that’s not much of a catch to me); 2) you then select three HD DVDs from a list offered by Amazon; and 3) you have to send a mail-in rebate for the other five DVDs you choose, from Amazon’s list. Oh yeah, and the list only has 24 choices.

Even still, this isn’t too bad of a deal. Of course, there’s also the debate as to whether HD DVD or BluRay will win the battle to become the next video player in America. Since there has been a ridiculous amount of debate already (and because I’m too busy at the moment), I won’t get into the specifics. I must say that I, however, will be waiting on the sidelines to see who wins before I go out and purchase a new DVD player. I don’t want to be like one of those poor souls stuck with a Betamax.