Battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD - the question is who will win?

Unless you’ve been cocooned in some space vortex for the last few years you will have heard the hype behind the new revolution of HD TV.  And with that followed the onset of a new format of movie player. VHS recorders are already becoming as extinct as the dodos and DVD players will soon be entering the same ex-consumer-electronic graveyard when the dust finally settles on which format will be the new king.

But this isn’t a recent battle – it’s one that’s been going on for over two decades.  Back in the mid 90s Sony and Philips went to war with Toshiba over the new format known as DVD all in the name of profit margins.  Sony was already working on a next generation model using an optical disc system which over the years has morphed into Blu-ray. 

Obviously Toshiba didn’t want to be left behind and also started working on their own next gen system, the Advanced Optical Disc, which eventually evolved into what we now know as HD DVD. 

So far there hasn’t been any bloodshed but things could get very nasty in the future, with the consumer possibly being the innocent victim.  The frightening thing for the buyer is knowing which format to opt for, and as the rumble in the jungle continues you want to go for the Ali of the format world, not the Foreman.

So what’s the difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD?

Both systems use the same kind of blue-violet laser but they have different optics.  The Blu-ray discs have what is known as a tighter pitch so the spiral on the disc is so close together they almost kiss and can therefore store much more information than on a HD DVD.  Which is why Blu-ray will have a capacity of 50GB for dual-layer discs while the HD DVD only goes as far as 30GB.

Each will have a plastic layer of the surface, but the one used on the Blu-ray discs will be much thinner to help with the storage capacity.  They'll also both use different technology to run their models and hence the downside, neither format is compatible with the other.  

Like any war people need to take sides, and that’s exactly what the manufacturers and movie industry have done (see table below for the full list).  But it’s not just manufacturers of players who are deciding which camp to go in, this is the mother of all wars with games consoles and PCs opting for one or the other format. 

Sony’s Playstation 3, due to launch in November will come with Blu-ray drive as standard, while the Xbox 360 already has a separate HD DVD driver you can buy.

Sometimes it’s the first on the market that takes the cream of the consumer-crop and HD DVD players were quick to enter the US market in April with Toshiba’s HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD DVD players as well as the Qosmio G35-AV650 laptop. 

Sony and Samsung seem to be pushing back their release dates for their Blu-ray products, now supposedly coming out in July, while Pioneer aren’t releasing until September.

The sad thing is, it doesn’t look like there’ll be that much of a difference in the picture quality either format will produce.  And with both formats having big Hollywood production houses backing them, at present it looks like the only thing that might win the war is size. 

While it shouldn't matter, size that is, Sony has more capacity for DVD extras to be added on, while HD DVD at present, sadly doesn’t.

The war is going strong, and there’s no end in sight just yet.  All we can do is hold on tight and wait for the aftermath.