Format wars—the dustups spurred when two incompatible technologies emerge simultaneously—have been raging since the dawn of Man. Stick versus club. Bronze versus iron. Reality television versus better judgment. And most recently: HD DVD versus Blu-ray. In this perpetual game of technological King of the Hill, no one format or technology can top the pile for long. And in this bout for the coveted “cutting edge” title, CES is something of a pre-fight weigh-in. Every year, the next best thing gets better while new contenders emerge to strut their stuff, trash-talk, and boast and brag about their claim of superiority. Sometimes it gets ugly. Here now is an abridged history of two of the greatest and ongoing format wars in history: the epic AV wars of music and video. Along the way, we’ll also take a peek at potential future battlegrounds within these goliath, ever-changing industries.

The recording of music and the means by which playback is made possible has evolved from the tactile—a spinning metal cylinder wrapped in tin—to more of something of a metaphysical concept: I mean, what exactly is an mp3, anyway? That said, the musical format war is really more of a steady evolution. The “Edison cylinder,” an iteration of one of the first sound recording mechanisms appearing in 1877, begat lateral-cut discs (you know, like vinyl), which begat magnetic tape of all incarnations, which begat compact discs, which begat digital files.

As each format gave way to its successor, a few key innovations helped tip the scales and convince people to once again update their entire collection of smooth jazz. After dominating for much of the latter twentieth century, and weathering the 8-track era relatively unscathed, the vinyl record finally faltered not with the coming of cassette tape, but the coming of cassette tape accessory. The Walkman and the boom box made portability a possibility, because let’s face it: hauling a turntable over your shoulder and bustin’ a perfectly level move, whilst still plugged into an outlet, mind you, was quite challenging. Once CDs became available, in-home use soared, but similarly it wasn’t until personal portability, enabled by skip-protection technology, became widely available in CD Walkmans of the 1990s, that the technology really took off, forever entangled cassette tapes in the dub heads of Time. Ace of Base would never fully recover.

The next “format war” on the musical horizon, however, is one of more philosophical implications than it is of actual technological devices. The digital download and the various mp3-playing mechanisms—which may be headed for their own civil war as “lossless” digital files that do not require compression (see mp3HD) begin appearing—threaten the physical media sector, going so far as to undermine the traditional notion of an album altogether. Considering the masses are now more interested in shelling out 99 cents (or dare we say “nothing”) for singles, deeper, more experimental album cuts can go completely unnoticed, channeling the “format” that has traditionally been a full-length album. Seemingly, there is no longer a B-side. There is only the first two occurrences of the A-side’s chorus before the listener grows weary and advances forward a song while simultaneously streaming, texting and downloading an interactive map of their exact position relative to earth. All this, of course, while tweeting.

An interesting and related addendum to the sound story: Along with all the 3D TVs we’ve seen here at CES, we also stumbled across a very peculiar find: 3D Sound. Yeah, that makes no sense, what with the “D” traditionally referring to “dimension” and all, but when we heard the power of the Sonic Emotion 3D Sound chip, we were stunned… from 360 degrees. Using a bit of science non-fiction they call “wave field synthesis,” the chip, designed in Switzerland, creates the illusion of absolute sound from all angles emanating from just one speaker. This innovation butts heads with the long-standing 5.1 stereo “sweet spot” set-up. Will we see (hear?) a format war in the near future?

The optical illusion that allows the human eye to perceive a moving image when presented with a rapid succession of still images has allowed for the proliferation of news as a visual medium, exposed the masses to regions of the world unlike their own, and made possible a new medium of cultural expression and artistic endeavor. It’s also awarded us the opportunity to see our favorite celebrities competing to see who can consume the most cockroaches in the least amount of time.

The first flip books have, to date, resulted in full 1080p high definition Blu-ray discs with interactive “chat” options. And given the fact that there’s protruding visual stimuli everywhere at this year’s CES—seriously, you can’t round a corner without ending up in a 3D television—it would seem we may be on the verge of yet another full-bore format switch-over. And just think: the big HD revolution really only came to fruition in just the last five years or so.

But let’s start at the beginning. If you can believe it, there was a period of time when you absolutely had to see films at the theater. No TiVo. No Netflix. Not even friends with the retention to relay a particularly “hilarious” scene that won’t “ruin it for you.” Then along came VHS in the 1970s, and with it video rental stores. Also, Tim Conway as DORF. VHS didn’t just fall from the sky, however. Its emergence as the preeminent format for much of the later twentieth century was only after a vicious battle between it, Betamax and Philips Video 2000. While technically Betamax offered higher quality imaging, the consumer preferred the longer recording times that VHS offered at the time, and by 1980, VHS controlled a vast majority of the North American market share.

VHS’s reign of terror (and by terror we mean its fees for not rewinding) came to a close in the early 1990s when two high-density optical storage standards duked it out before (thankfully) going to market and resulted in DVD, which was available widely by 1997. This, of course, was after the two weeks or so that Laser Disc enjoyed a moderate following consisting of one guy named Robert. DVD later went on to survive the assault by DIVX, a rental scheme that proposed consumers should purchase a $2 disc similar to a DVD that could only be viewed for 48 hours after the first use. So, no surprises there.

DVD is currently coexisting with Blu-ray, a recent heavy-weight that knocked off HD DVD along with the lesser-known attempts at high-definition such as HVD, FVD and VMD. Despite HD DVD predating Blu-ray by four months in 2006, the HD DVD death-blow came in January of 2008 when Warner Brothers decided to discontinue releasing films on HD DVD. This, of course, was well after it was too late and most of us had already purchased Cinderella Man (though we continue to attest that it’s not ours, and we’re just holding it for a friend).

And now we find ourselves at another overhaul… maybe. With massive megahits the likes of Avatar hitting (and succeeding) in theaters and the fact that virtually every major and minor vendor is showing off early prototypes of 3D TVs at CES 2010, many are projecting this to be the next big format to win out in home theater entertainment. Still others are betting it’s a fad. Plus, while most of the new 3D TVs are utilizing those slick LCD shutter eyeglasses, some companies are dabbling with glasses-free 3D technology that uses what’s called a parallax barrier, which is mounted over the television, effectively putting the glasses on the TV, not you. So, this could be the making for another internal format war. And, of course, there’s now ample opportunity for another battle of the discs with 3D and accompanying players…

So, place your bets. There’s a reason CES is in Las Vegas every year.