Real Kato Blog: Electronics: Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD

There are two competing next-generation DVD standards out there, setting up a format war much along the lines of Beta vs. VHS or DVD+RW vs. DVD-RW.

The proposed Blu-Ray DVD standard, backed by Dell, Sony, Matsushita (a.k.a. Panasonic), and MGM, appears to be the superior technology, allowing for more data storage (25GB versus 20GB for HD-DVD) and providing a technology path to even greater capacities in the future.

The HD-DVD standard, however, uses equipment more similar to that of existing DVD players, meaning that the players will be initially cheaper and easier to manufacture. HD-DVD is backed by Toshiba, NEC, and Sanyo, and it recently gained the support of Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, and New Line Cinema.

My conjecture is that HD-DVD will win out. The HD-DVD players (and soon, the HD-DVD recorders) will be first to market, and will probably be cheaper. Plus, with the backing of four major movie studios, there will be more HD-DVD content than Blu-Ray.

It's possible that we'll see a standoff and dual-format machines, much the way we see combination DVD-RW and DVD+RW drives today; but with the royalty dollars that are at stake here, I'm not sure either camp will be willing to license its technology to members of the other side.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Comments

Comment #1 from Glenny (Guest)
2008 Jan 7 - 4:54 pm : #

WB annouced that they would be doing Blu-Ray only hmmmm maybe Sony will win this one

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