“There’s a battle brewing in the living room,” Paul Thurrott writes for Connect Home. “Having failed to reach a compromise, major consumer electronics firms are now racing to ship incompatible next-generation DVD players and content. But this time, customers—the real people who will buy these products—stand to lose from the competition. The problem is that one of these formats might ultimately be orphaned. In the meantime, you’re going to have to figure out which side of the fence you want to be on.”
“Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? I assume you know that I’m referring to Blu-ray and HD-DVD, both of which are being offered up by competing industry associations as the logical successor to the wildly popular DVD format. When it was introduced in 1996, DVD was big stuff, with 720×480 resolution, 4.7GB of storage space per disc, and support for multichannel surround sound. What a difference a decade makes! Today, those numbers all look paltry when you consider HDTV resolutions (up to 1920×1200) and storage requirements. Clearly, something had to give,” Thurrott writes. “Blu-ray backers say their format will be capable of 200GB of storage per disc, although the first generation will actually max out at 100GB. HD-DVD, by comparison, is capable of about 60GB of storage per disc, but again the first generation will come in much lower, maxing out at about 30GB in the first generation. Both formats will natively support 16:9 widescreen HDTV formats such as 720i, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p, which, when combined with the huge storage capacities, make them perfect for delivering HD movie content.”
“If you sample the various major movie studios, you’ll see that some studios are supporting both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, and others are supporting just one or the other. Sony, a major Blu-ray backer and co-creator of the format, is naturally supporting only that format and not HD-DVD—which means that HD-DVD users won’t be able to purchase or rent Sony’s movies unless they also get a Blu-ray device. That’s silly. So far, only three major studios have elected to support HD-DVD—Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. —although that support will likely improve quickly, as the first HD-DVD devices and content are due later this month. Meanwhile, all the major studios except for Universal will support Blu-ray, even though those devices won’t arrive until May at the earliest,” Thurrott writes. “Many technical analysts say that such a thing is unlikely for a few years, but I’m holding out hope for hybrid devices that will play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD content. In the meantime, I’ll be skipping Blu-ray for the short term and going with HD-DVD for my PCs, Xbox 360, and home theater. I have little doubt that Blu-ray will take off eventually, if only for its stellar storage capacities. But HD-DVD is the blue-collar (ahem) solution to the next-generation DVD problem. Sorry, Sony.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced on March 10, 2005 that Apple was “pleased to join the Blu-ray Disc Association board as part of our efforts to drive consumer adoption of HD.” Thurrott’s storage numbers seem a bit off; he doesn’t explain his source(s), but he might be speculating on future increases in data layers. According to The Blu-ray Disc Association’s website, HD DVD’s pre-recorded capacities are 15 GB for a single layer disc, or 30 GB for a double layer disc. Blu-ray Disc provides 67% more capacity per layer at 25 GB for a single layer and 50GB for a double layer disc. Why settle for “blue collar” (see: Windows) when you can have a much better solution? It’s par for the course that Apple backs the superior format while Microsoft supports the inferior one.
It bears noting that Apple is playing both sides of the fence in a wait and see mode. According to a press release from April 17, 2005, “Apple is committed to both emerging high definition DVD standards—Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Apple is an active member of the DVD Forum which developed the HD DVD standard, and last month joined the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association.”
[UPDATE: 1:47pm EST: Added to the take. Thanks to various readers below for the reminder.]
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Broadcom announces decoder chip that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD – January 03, 2006
Forrester Research: Apple-backed Blu-ray will win over Microsoft-backed HD DVD – October 20, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘it looks as if HD DVD’s days are numbered’ – October 07, 2005
China to develop own as-yet-unnamed DVD format; Blu-ray vs. HD DVD vs ? – October 07, 2005
Paramount’s decision gives Blu-ray slight lead over HD DVD in next gen DVD format war – October 04, 2005
Record set straight on Blu-ray Disc Association’s superior high definition format – September 29, 2005
Microsoft backs cheaper, less sophisticated, lower capacity HD DVD over Apple-backed Blu-ray format – September 27, 2005
Twentieth Century Fox joins Apple, Dell, HP, others to support Blu-ray Disc format – July 29, 2005
Poll shows Apple-backed Blu-ray preferred by consumers over HD DVD for next-gen DVD standard – July 14, 2005
Microsoft allies with Toshiba on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc backers Apple and Sony – June 27, 2005
Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors – March 10, 2005
Which ever can get a full season of Star Trek:TNG on one disc instead of 7 can be the victor. Although, I think it will really become a matter of storage and backup with these formats as it looks like movie downloads are just around the corner. A few years ago I would have never given up buying a CD for a download and now most of the music I buy is downloaded. So, I suppose movies are headed in that direction too. Just think when I bought my first computer in 96 my hard drive was less than 2 Gig. Now we are talking about discs that have 50 Gig. What format wars will be going on in 10 years from now? These are interesting times.
“Whichever format the porn industry chooses to use, will become the standard.”
That’s my standard for sure!
My Lord speakth the truth.
The bulk of consumers care not about quality and don’t have displays to reveal the additional detail. I don’t and I don’t care who wins, I’ve got no money for either.
If consumers cared about quality MP3 would not be the most popular audio format.
Here endth the lesson!
The way to kill DRM is not to buy into it.
Blu-Ray? Does that have anything to do with Ray Charles singing the blues?
DVD formats are irrelevant, hasn’t anyone on this BLOG heard of the iTunes movie store?? By the end of this year you will be downloading all of your HD content direct from iTunes over your 10Mb/s+ high speed internet connect. Not just movies, but music, and also games for the new iPod Tablets. Apple knows that the only reason to have a HD DVD or Blu Ray drive will be for low cost backups – which is why they don’t care. Sony and M$ just haven’t caught on.
Blu-ray will come out ahead for one simple reason: PS3.
PS3 will put millions of Blu-Ray drives into homes in the US, Japan, and Europe for probably about the same price that a stand-alone drive will cost.
For consumers it’s all about DRM. They can shove both formats up their collective a…. Go DVD Jon. Give us something to rip both formats
Americans have shown time and again that available and cheap beats a little more expensive and better almost every time. If HD-DVD can get it’s stuff into mainline stores and it’s price isn’t too high, it can get traction before Sony can get it’s act together.
HD-DVD is inferior technology, but so was VHS and so is Windows. Joe and Jane 6-pack are cheap, not terribly bright, easily swayed by marketing hype and terrified of anything that requires thought. Sounds harsh, but the record shows that it’s usually true.
One difference that is almost never mentioned is the media fabrication processes. It is this difference which creates the capacity difference, but will also mean a substantial price difference in the media. According to Toshiba, HD-DVDs can be fabricated in the same facilities that fab today’s DVDs, while Blu-ray requires all new fab processes/facilities. Consumers are notoriously cheap, so the less expensive HD-DVDs (especially -Rs and -RWs) may gain more market share than people expect.
Remenber, Blu-Ray only has 50gig in dual layer form. So if you don’t have dual burning it’s only 25gig.
Whoops, should have read the report a little more closely. OK 100gig whatever.
Does anyone know when Macs will ship with blu-ray burners?