DVD standards war turns nasty
Article:
Blu-ray rallies support against HD DVD
Tom Sanders at CES in Las Vegas, vnunet.com 07 Jan 2005
The move turns up the heat in the bitter war against the rival HD DVD group over which will become the de facto standard for next-generation DVDs.
Blu-ray offers up to 50Gb of capacity while HD DVD will not go beyond 30Gb. HD DVD, however, seems to be ahead of Blu-ray in getting products to market.
But Andy Parsons, senior vice president of the industrial solutions group at Pioneer, and a representative of the Blu-ray Disc Association, told vnunet.com that the additional capacity Blu-ray offers is worth the wait.
"It is short sighted to concede the path of least resistance now," he said.
The extra capacity will be needed for future applications, explained Parsons, adding that most movies today already ship with a second disk for bonus features.
The conflict will come down to a confrontation, with one of the two eventually dying, according to Parsons. "There is no middle ground," he warned.
However, Kinichi Sugimoto, a principal researcher with NEC, and spokesman for the HD-DVD Consortium, sees an opportunity for both standards to co-exist. HD DVD could end up owning the consumer market, while Blu-ray could focus on enterprise storage.
Pointing out that HD DVD disks are less expensive, Sugimoto predicted that it will become the standard for the cost conscious consumer market.
After consumers have standardised on HD DVD players for their movies, they will stick to it when they start burning disks. "The Rom market will deliver us the rewritable market," he told vnunet.com.
Discussion / Analysis:
This article details the standards war in the high definition videodisc arena. Currently, there are two formats available for this next generation of DVD discs. One, termed Blu-ray, offers a storage capacity of up to 50GB, while the other, termed HD-DVD, offers a storage capacity of only 30 GB.The two formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc, are both based on blue laser technology and offer several times the storage capacity of current DVDs.
Notwithstanding its lower capacity, HD-DVD appears to be winning the race to become the next de facto standard. Part of HD-DVD success is attributed to its marketing. Presently, more products are supporting the HD-DVD format in the consumer market. Sony, Matsushita and others are lining up to support Blu-Ray. Other major backers include Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, HBO, Universal Pictures and Sanyo Electric. Supporters of HD-DVD include Toshiba, NEC,Intel, and Microsoft.
The standards war may not end up with one of the two formats being annihilated. In fact, coexistence seems likely. Paramount has already announced that it will be releasing movies in both formats. Likely, this standards war will not end up like the VHS versus Betamax battle of the 1970s and 1980s. Support for Blu-ray Disc, particularly in the PlayStation 3 games console, was influential in the decision to also offer Blu-ray Disc content, according to Paramount. Thus, strategic partnerships appear to be playing an important role in the future of the industry.
By: Kevin Mack