Blu-ray versus HD DVD

[Triv1um]

Entertainment giants are battling for domination of the next generation of DVDs but an outright win is an unlikely outcome, reports Kate Bulkley.

Via TheAge.com.au

If it was a Hollywood movie it would be a remake of Alien v Predator. On one side is the giant Sony corporation, which is backing the Blu-ray high definition DVD format by building it into its PlayStation 3 games consoles. Facing it across the global battlefield is Toshiba, backed by Microsoft and Intel, promoting the rival (and incompatible) HD DVD format.

The stakes are very high indeed for both companies. Yet Sony, the pre-fight favourite because it has the best-selling games console franchise in the world and the backing of seven Hollywood studios (basically all of the big ones except Universal Pictures), which have made their movies available on Blu-ray, is nowhere near delivering the early knockout blow it was hoping for.

Instead, early defections from the Blu-ray camp and lagging sales of PS3 consoles have blurred the picture of which format will win. Samsung broke ranks with Blu-ray last month by announcing it will make players that play both HD formats, following a similar move by LG. In addition, most analysts acknowledge that the PC manufacturers will play a key role in the format war - and having Microsoft and Intel behind HD DVD is significant. Neither of these Toshiba allies has shown signs of switching camps so far.

Meanwhile, PS3 sales in Britain, the European market where PS3 has had its most successful launch, were 165,000 in week one but fell to 28,000 in the second week, a trend that has been echoed in other markets as well.

Sony took a big gamble bundling the Blu-ray player with the PS3, resulting in delayed release and higher prices for the consoles. Ken Kutaragi, the "father of the PlayStation", recently paid the price and resigned as chairman and chief executive of the Sony Computer Entertainment unit.

With the sales of PS3 lagging, the new machines may not be the cornerstone of a recovery at Sony, with videogame-related losses for Sony's year ending in March expected to amount to $US2 billion ($2.4 billion) - twice the original expectations.

Sony has a lot riding on the success of the PS3, especially after it was wrong-footed in the music player market by Apple's iPod. It certainly doesn't want to have another Betamax or MiniDisc story, either. For Sony, the PS3 and Blu-ray are part of an important corporate move to regain its pre-eminence in the consumer electronics business.

[acn010]

if porn on a normal dvd lasts 6 hours of play......... blue ray or hddvd will last 48 hours of full length, high definition,side aquirting porn action!!!
just imagine how technology is advancing
i want blueray to win

[F9zDark]

Really, there should never be these format wars, as I have said before, format wars only hurt the consumer.

Betamax may have lost the battle against VHS, but it WAS A BETTER format...

I am hopeful that BR will win, but people en mass are stupid.

[ICE]

Really, there should never be these format wars, as I have said before, format wars only hurt the consumer.

Betamax may have lost the battle against VHS, but it WAS A BETTER format...

I am hopeful that BR will win, but people en mass are stupid.

yep format wars suck perty hard. people hardly ever make the "right" choice ..

i really dont think that we will see a "winner" until more people have HD. i mean theres no real reason for the majority to give up the cheaper dvd for hddvd or br just yet. once hd becomes standard we'll see who "wins"

my money is on br. betamax flopped hard so i dont think sony would try again unless they had good reason... i hope lol.

[Shadowblind]

people en mass are stupid.

Yeah, no kidding. Seems alot like Blu-ray. I guess thats fitting.

[pibs]

I could care less about the format wars but as a consumer i would rather get myself a hd-dvd player since its less expensive, BR is a bit hard on the wallet since the cheapest ones are about 400usd while a decent hd-dvd player is about half of that. as for the whole ps3 BR id say sure ps3 is a great entertainment system, but for those who are willing to shell out 600 and u still have to buy the hdmi cables i believe

[ketchup]

This BR vs. HD DVD is getting a bit stupid. There seems to be both advantages/diadvantages to both and It's a bit like the "my dads bigger than your dad" argument. Both camps are acting like spoilt brats. Really I don't care who's wins in the end.

I'm not even sure it's going to be that relevant.
1./ Who wants to spend all their money changing their DVD collection into a high def version, (I know people did with normal DVD from video but they took their time and waited until the DVD's were cheap - normally).
2./ High definition is not really mainstream yet, (as we can see from our HD TV sets. Long time to go before a majority of programs are rather than the very very few at the mo.). By this time some other smart A"%& company will have something even better the either BR or HDDVD.
3./ Lastly I think that video on demand will almost remove the need for home video libaries in the not so distant future making both formats a niech market item.

Of course I'm probably wrong, but I do agree with most people that these format wars don't help anybody and it only came about due to corporate greed.

P.S. I have no intention of buying any form of HD optical disk. Looks like I'm heading for a hard disk storage system instead, (with backup, just in case)

[Tesseract]

I think that this battle will be different from Betamax vs. VHS because it's being fought on two separate fronts: Video AND Data.

It's really the first time that a media format was designed from the ground up with data storage in mind as well, and t'be honest, I think Blu-Ray has more to offer there.

Blu-Ray can record HDTV streams in real time... Not sure whether HD-DVD can do that, but it's worth noting either way. Even if HD-DVD can claim that as well, we run into the much touted capacity argument, and I think this is where Blu-Ray pulls far ahead. 25GB on a single layer, with lab tests experimenting on quad-layer discs for 100GB of storage.

[Triv1um]

yeah I personally feel quite strongly about this one, I thing it sucks that people have to somewhat "gamble" there money on the one that's going to come out best.

I personally think that sucks.

[jonezybaby]

I could care less about the format wars but as a consumer i would rather get myself a hd-dvd player since its less expensive, BR is a bit hard on the wallet since the cheapest ones are about 400usd while a decent hd-dvd player is about half of that. as for the whole ps3 BR id say sure ps3 is a great entertainment system, but for those who are willing to shell out 600 and u still have to buy the hdmi cables i believe

depends were u buy the system from? i know alot of places that sell the systems with a free HDMI cable!!