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James O’Connell stares at the flat screen television that is playing the latest Harry Potter film on the latest player. It is a Blu-ray, the device now tipped to replace DVD players in every living room.

“It’s all right,” he says. Then he crosses the floor of the branch of Curry’s in South London to examine another screen playing Batman Returns. This time the film is running on an HD DVD player, a device that – until the beginning of this week – seemed just as likely to be the next descendant in the family tree of home cinema devices.

“I can’t really tell the difference,” he says. Both are producing sharper pictures than he is used to on his DVD player. Still, the leap in quality is far smaller than the leap that persuaded millions to abandon their VHS machine and buy a DVD player.

The shop assistant acknowledges that the picture quality only really becomes apparent on large (42inch) top-of-the-range high-definition television screens, which cost about £1,000.

There were rival formats for the first DVD player, but a compromise was reached before any device reached the market. Sony was perceived to have lost out in that battle – just as it had lost out in the VHS/Betamax war.

The electronics giant may have had a metaphorical chip on its shoulder when it began pushing another new format: a redesigned DVD that would be read by a high-frequency blue laser.

This time no compromise was found between Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD DVD player. Software companies and Hollywood studios aligned behind their preferred player and consumers faced a choice between two expensive devices – either of which could yet be rendered obsolete.

Screen Digest, the media research company, estimates that in Britain in 2007, 7,000 Blu-ray players were sold. However, the Blu-ray was incorporated within Sony’s PlayStation 3, which sold about 754,000 consoles. This compared with 15,000 HD DVD players and 40,000 HD DVD drives built to attach to the Xbox console.

Though there were many more Blu-ray players thanks to sales of the PlayStation 3, the discs sold (470,000 Blu-Ray discs, 200,000 HD DVDs) indicated a more even contest. Equally, the great technology war appears something of a minority interest, when compared with the 250 million DVDs that sold.

Most of Hollywood seems to have made its choice: in the Blu-ray corner there is Columbia, Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Lionsgate, Miramax, New Line, Sony and now Warner Brothers, who previously produced for both formats.The Warner Brothers decision to come off the fence should mean that a projected 75 per cent of the top 100 DVDs will eventually be available only on Blu-Ray. Paramount and Universal, which still back HD DVD, may yet switch sides. In any case, punters at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas seem confident that the battle is almost over.

Back in the electronics store in South London, few shoppers seemed aware of the “war”. Some still seemed keen on the HD DVD player, though buyers for either model were few and far between – the shop assistant acknowledged that costs will need to fall before that changes.

“I think I prefer the Blu-ray,” said Mr O’Connell, 40, a roofer from Uxbridge. “But I’d have to ask the wife.”

Manufacturers including Samsung and LG have launched dual format players, but the price is prohibitive.

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