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[H116]Hd Dvd And Bluray

by Simon Young, Sim

DVD has been one of the greatest success and also one of the biggest failures in the recordable media format. Let me explain, yes following on from CD recordable everyone wanted the same format of a disc in their hands so along came DVD recordable and even shortly after the DVD-RW rewritable format. However the industry missed a massive selling opportunity. DVD players were launched - these only played movies, it generated a massive demand for DVDR discs for piracy and blew Hollywood apart - something the movie industry is desperate to solve with the new Bluray and HD DVD formats. But with the launch of the DVD Player consumers were quickly conditioned not to record from their TV, as they had been happily using VHS to do in the past. That was where the trick was missed, had the DVD Player not been launched and instead a DVD Recorder / Player taken its place then today most home users would still be recording and consuming media. Following its 1997 debut, it took the DVD format just a few years to completely take 100% share of the home-video market. Now DVD is nearing its 10th birthday there are two rival next-generation formats Blu-ray and HD DVD media - both are vying to become the successor to DVD and both have very pretty global branding with very recognisable differences in the Bluray dvd case and HD DVD case. The big question is will the industry make the same mistake again, my guess is the probably will. Both will display movies in full high definition resolution (HD), addressing one shortfall of the current DVD format, which is lower standard resolution, however it may take some time for the uptake as the formats do demand a premium price and will do for the foreseeable future, until the price comes down we are looking at these formats being for the enthusiast and not joe public. The video and audio quality of both formats can be truly spectacular when shown on a true HDTV with a quality home theater audio system, surpassing even high-def television itself in fidelity and impact. Which one should you choose? With the current format war, most HDTV owners should think very carefully before buying a Blu-ray or an HD DVD player in the short term, my personal advice wait till 2008 and the prices should come tumbling down as the format war hots up!

The format of the next-generation of DVDs has started a long battle (some three years ago) between Toshiba and Sony, the key supporters in the HD DVD Promotion Group and Blu-ray Disc Association.

Leaving aside rivalries between the recent HD DVD sustainers and some of the members of the Blu-ray Disc Association, let us see how the technical part influenced this decision. The two giants have reportedly decided to back up the variant that is the most performant according to their criteria, from the point of view of consumer and industry requirements. And this is what Stephen Balogh, director of optical media standards and technologies at Intel declared: "We wanted to choose the format that has the highest probability of this market taking off".

Let us briefly review the main reference areas for performance analysis of optical format for high definition cited by Microsoft and Intel, and which are considered to be best represented by what HD DVD delivers:

* Managed copy, a first for DVDs - the consumer is allowed to make copies of discs to a hard drive or home server.

* Support for hybrid discs - a single disc can store both high-definition and standard-definition versions of a film, that can be read in both current DVDs and future players.

* Low-cost, high-volume manufacturing.

* Superior disc storage capacity.

* Higher interactivity standards - enhanced content, navigation and value-added functionality for high-definition films.

Naturally, the ideal situation (for consumers' best interest) would be unifying the two formats. There were some brief talks on this between Sony and Toshiba earlier this year, but no outcome unfortunately.

Though the players for both formats will not be issued until spring next year, the rivalry between the two groups of supporting companies sharpens. Now, HD DVD sustainers have won a battle by getting as allies the world's largest software maker and the world's largest microchip maker, but the war is far from being over. Probably, as it normally should happen, the winners of this "war" will be designated in the end by the consumer. That is, may the best disc win!

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Both Simon Young & Cole Figgins are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Simon Young has sinced written about articles on various topics from computers and the internet. Simon Young is the managing director of the UK's largest reseller of dvd recordable media products. http:www.dvd-and-media.com/hd-dvd-discs.htm. Simon Young's top article generates over 1000 views. to your Favourites.

Cole Figgins has sinced written about articles on various topics from computers and the internet, Software. . Cole Figgins's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.