Weapons of Mass DistractionHD DVD vs Blu-Ray

An ugly war seems to be waging over the next generation high definition (HDTV) dvd movie format.  Unfortunately if the companies involved don't come to some agreement, it will be the consumers that will lose this battle.  The reason DVD has become so popular and successful is that all movies are available on it, and there is no consumer confusion when it comes time to make a purchase.

Sony has come up with their own format, called Blu Ray, which uses blue lasers instead of today's red lasers.  HP and Dell have decided to back bluray instead of HDDVD.  The blue rays can be focussed to a smaller point which allows data to be stored at a much higher density that currently possible.  What this means is that blue ray discs will be able to hold a lot more information than the current dvd format.  The down side to this is that it requires new facilities to produce the disks.  Since this is new technology it is very expensive to produce both the discs and the drives to read them.

HD-DVD on the other hand is backed by a few companies, which includes Microsoft, Toshiba, and Intel.  It uses existing optical media technology and can be produced in existing factories.  It relies on better video compression technology to fit high definition movies on a single disc.  HD DVD movies are going to include a backward compatible layer that can be viewed in existing DVD players.  This will make the transition to high definition dvd much smoother and more likely to be work out in the long run.

The world doesn't need another VHS vs. Beta trainwreck.  I feel that the world doesn't need any more proprietary Sony crap either.  Many companies don't want to side with Sony just because they don't want to have to pay patent royalties to Sony every time they think about blu-ray.  I personally hope that HD-DVD wins.  Since MS backs that format we know the discs will be readable in a PC.

One this is for sure, whatever format ends up in my living room, I am sure it will have some serious DRM/Encryption compared to the existing dvd format.

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