In Hollywood, history has a habit of repeating itself, often to the great annoyance of audiences, with stories and plots recycled and retold.

But that phenomenon is not limited to what happens in front of the camera. The race to succeed the DVD between Blu-ray, backed by Sony, and HD-DVD, backed by Toshiba and Microsoft, mirrors the VHS-Betamax format war of the 1980s. Then, individual film studios also grappled with rival technologies in the hope one would dominate home entertainment.