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Yet another "battle of the formats"

According to the latest news

"Computer giants Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have lined up behind the next generation DVD standard known as HD DVD, in a blow against Sony which is hoping that its Blu-ray format will be the media of choice for portable data storage.

The decision by the companies that are the dominant suppliers of chips and operating software for most of the world's personal computers increases the chances that the HD DVDs will become the standard media format of the future.

HD DVD's are also backed by Toshiba, Universal Studios, NEC Corp., Sanyo Electric Co., Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Viacom, NBC Universal, and Paramount. Sony's Blu-ray format is backed by Apple Computer Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, MGM, and 20th Century Fox.

The move means that the vast majority of personal computers will come with built-in support for HD DVD's while users wishing to install a Blu-ray drive will also have to install new software.

Industry analysts say the battle is reminiscent of the struggle between Sony and JVC in the early 1980's when each company tried to establish its video format as the industry standard. Eventually JVC's VHS technology triumphed despite what many experts believed was the superior technical quality of Sony's Betamax format.

Supporters of Blu-ray claim they have a more sophisticated technology with a greater storage capacity and stronger copy protection. HD DVD companies have pointed to the fact that their offering will be available sooner and at less cost to content providers.

"We wanted to choose the format that has the highest probability of this market taking off," said Stephen Balogh, director of optical media standards and technologies at Intel."
fatparrot
larryi
4,106 posts
 
The opposing camps have been meeting to avoid a war, but it looks like there will be a war. I don't think anyone can say at this point who will emerge on top. Both sides have big movie studios in their camp promising to provide the content. Recently, Fox and Lion's Gate joined the BluRay camp. The potentially BIG advantage that BluRay has is that there will be a pretty big group of initial adopters -- those buying a Play Station III will have BluRay capability.

This whole sqabble makes me sick because I've seen BluRay and the picture is fantastic. I saw a Sony demo using the Qualia 006 rear projection set, a set that I own. I am sure HD DVD is equally good. We need one unified standard; I would be a willing adopter if that were to happen.
french_fries
815 posts
 
Competition is a wonderful thing; however, i often wish there was a committee that from time to time had the power to make "the final decision" regarding new formats. ever since digital technology has taken off, we've seen the demise of dat, dcc, mini-disc, the floppy; i just looked through $100's of dollars of older computer cd's the other day that are now worthless, and i'm sure others can come up with a myriad of other examples. i have a couple of reel-to-reel tape recorders that sound outstanding, but may soon be impossible to get parts or tape for- a monumental shame. there's nothing wrong with progress, but watching companies ditch so much time, effort, and money after losing out to an almost identical format, not to mention the wasteful nature of the whole mess for consumers, is inexcusable. did the country have to go through this when consumer television entered the market? and didn't everyone get the same channels to watch (for free no less)? "progress" may soon become a relative term rather than hard fact...
robm321
932 posts
 
Competition is good if someone wins. The problem with SACD-DVD-A is they both lost. I mean we got some good music, but nothing that will be standard. I assume the next gen for music anyway will not become standard either.
ozfly
887 posts
 
Robm321 has it right -- most often, both sides lose the war one way or another. Here we go again.
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