Over at Geeks.com, they’ve written up a pretty good overview of the format wars both past and present. If you’re not up on what the whole thing was about (beside money), give it a read.
Update: Part 2, Blue Laser Boogaloo is now available
Update 2: Part 3, The War of the Discs One Format to Rule Them All (the final) is available
Thanks for the Link Love! This installment was mostly requisite historical and technical background information – I promise more immediately-relevant “format war” information next week in… Hi-Def DVD Part II: Blue LASER Boogaloo.