Is anyone here besides me old enough to remember the great VHS vs. Beta controversy? Better yet, anyone else here actually own a beta machine? ;) Yeah, well, it WAS a better format, even though VHS eventually won out.

So now it appears that the next-generation DVD format will also be subject to competing technologies. Both will be high-definition. Sony is promoting Blu-Ray, and Toshiba is behind HD-DVD. Movie studios will have to back one format or the other and Disney has just announced it's going with Blu-Ray.

I don't want to buy the "wrong" machine again when they start coming out. Which one will win? Make your predictions!

Is anyone here besides me old enough to remember the great VHS vs. Beta controversy? Better yet, anyone else here actually own a beta machine? ;) Yeah, well, it WAS a better format, even though VHS eventually won out.

So now it appears that the next-generation DVD format will also be subject to competing technologies. Both will be high-definition. Sony is promoting Blu-Ray, and Toshiba is behind HD-DVD. Movie studios will have to back one format or the other and Disney has just announced it's going with Blu-Ray.

I don't want to buy the "wrong" machine again when they start coming out. Which one will win? Make your predictions!
I can tell you one thing.. the only person who loses in this instance is the person who doesnt wait and see..

Blue-rays by 1 in game 7.

even if you buy a format now, you still lose because you're going to pay out the ass for it, it's going to be slower than the players down the road, and likely to have less options to boot.

With VHS and Betamax there were physical differences that prevented both to work in the same machine. Blue-Ray and HD-DVD use different lasers to access data, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't build a machine that supported both formats. Smart manufacturers will produce machines that are multi-format, meaning they can view BOTH using multiple lasers..

Personally, Blue-Ray sounds like a better technology.

Blu ray. I work for a company that makes DVD recorders. from all the tech news we get, Bluray will win only because its made by sony. Similar to the betamax and VHS, where beta max was obvsiouly better. the only reason VHS won over betmax was because the main manufacture of VHS pushed its products everywhere and phased out betamax. Same with sony, the PS3 is supposed to be blu ray, with a huge fan base like that, blu-ray is sure to win out over HD..

eithe way im happy if they are backwards compatible, and id like to see them actually film movies in 1080 or better otherwise who cares.

I don't want to buy the "wrong" machine again when they start coming out. Which one will win? Make your predictions!

Just do what I always do in a case like this. Buy both machines to ensure maximum compatibilty. :rolleyes:

BTW, everything that I own that uses plugs into the wall, uses electricity or batteries bears the four letters SONY on it.

I think theirs is the better technology. :cool:

Just do what I always do in a case like this. Buy both machines to ensure maximum compatibilty. :rolleyes:

BTW, everything that I own that uses plugs into the wall, uses electricity or batteries bears the four letters SONY on it.

I think theirs is the better technology. :cool:

I happen to agree -- we just bought the Sony Grand WEGA KDF-50WE655 50-inch LCD Rear Projection HDTV and I've been sitting slack-jawed in awe in front of the thing for hours.... which is, of course, why I'm wondering about which hi-def DVD format to consider when the time comes.

Of course, Sony was the manufacturer of Betamax as well; hopefully they won't make the same marketing mistakes with their Blu-Ray technology.

Also, wasn't sony trying to (still is) pushing its minidisk?

Also, wasn't sony trying to (still is) pushing its minidisk?

not only that but the atrac format...their digital music player doest play mp3s however has a 20gb storage and 30 hours of play time which is unheard of for any other digital player, but alas who is going to get a player that doesnt play mp3s

Don't forget Sony is trying to push ANOTHER format on us too - UMD, or Universal Media Disc. They will be using it in the Sony PSP and plan on trying to make it used for everything.

(more information can be found on gamespot.com)

not only that but the atrac format...their digital music player doest play mp3s however has a 20gb storage and 30 hours of play time which is unheard of for any other digital player, but alas who is going to get a player that doesnt play mp3sThey let you convert your mp3s to ATRAC using either their software, or a plugin for realmedia. Their software really sucks, so realmedia is the one many use... unfortunately then you have to pay extra for it, or put up with lame ads.

Sony makes some great products, but when music is involved, they handycap things so it never takes off.

Don't forget Sony is trying to push ANOTHER format on us too - UMD, or Universal Media Disc. They will be using it in the Sony PSP and plan on trying to make it used for everything.

(more information can be found on gamespot.com)

damn so we wont be able to play our ps2 games on psp

This is going to be a nasty war. First off, Sony has the backing of like 5 major studios and I think i remember they bought one too, so that have that. And they have announced they are going to use BlueRay in the PS3. So right there, when you buy a PS3, you automatically will have a BlueRay player. So why buy another player?? BUT, with this recent announcement from Toshiba about the disk they made that has one layer of origonal DVD and the next layer is HD-DVD, that could get people to buy into HD-DVD early. And HD-DVD has the backing of the DVD Forum and another bunch of studios as well. So it will be interesting to see how this all plays out. It is going to suck for us comsumers again (just like DVD+R, DVD-r), but hopefully it will all turn out good in the end.....yeah...we can hope eh?

I happen to agree -- we just bought the Sony Grand WEGA KDF-50WE655 50-inch LCD Rear Projection HDTV and I've been sitting slack-jawed in awe in front of the thing for hours.... which is, of course, why I'm wondering about which hi-def DVD format to consider when the time comes.

Of course, Sony was the manufacturer of Betamax as well; hopefully they won't make the same marketing mistakes with their Blu-Ray technology.
Ooh. Yeah. We just got the KDF-42WE655 a couple of weeks ago, but I've been seriously tempted to trade it in for the 50". Amazing picture, innit?

I've been thinking about the HD/Blu-Ray thing of late, and feeling pretty annoyed. I'm not looking forward to another pitched battle. Some early machines may well play both formats, and maybe the battle will be a good thing for consumers, ultimately. That didn't turn out to be the case with Beta vs. VHS, though.

I'm with InuYasha about Sony. Beta was the better video format; minidisc should have kicked the Philips cassette format's ass. In both cases, Sony's marketing department screwed up. (And cheap CD-Rs ensured that minidisc would never be more than a niche product.)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/biztech/12/09/tech.disney.dvd.reut/index.html

Disney backs Sony's DVD format


LOS ANGELES, California/TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Walt Disney Co. said on Wednesday it would support the Blu-ray standard for next-generation DVDs backed by Sony Corp., but kept open its options for a rival format championed by Toshiba Corp.

Sony, Dell Inc. and several other giants of the electronics and computer industries developed Blu-ray technology. Toshiba, with NEC Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., is backing a competing standard dubbed HD DVD.

The high-definition HD DVD and Blu-ray technologies use blue lasers, which have shorter wavelengths than conventional red lasers and allow discs to store more data, producing the clearer and sharper pictures of high-definition films and TV.

Disney said it would start releasing movies on the Blu-ray format as soon as players became available in North America and Japan, which strategic planning chief Peter Murphy said he expected in 2006.

"Everyone is looking for the right format ... to release their content. That is a combination of consumer adoption of the players and the platform, content protection, and adequate capacity. We think Blu-ray is there," Murphy told Reuters in a phone interview.

Murphy said the agreement with Blu-ray was non-exclusive and that Disney would release content in other formats if they met the studio's criteria for consumer adoption, content capacity and copyright protection.

CLSA Asia Pacific Markets analyst Carlos Dimas said the announcement could be viewed as a positive for Blu-ray, but not a slam-dunk.

"It's positive, but it has not put Sony significantly ahead of the HD DVD standard. It continues to be a contest," he said.

Disney's announcement comes nearly two weeks after Toshiba said it had won support from Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, representing about 45 percent of Hollywood's U.S. sales of prepackaged DVDs.

Support from U.S. film studios is vital in the format battle, just as it was when the VHS standard prevailed over Sony's Betamax two decades ago.

Blu-ray also has the support of Sony Pictures and the tacit backing of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., recently acquired by a Sony-led consortium.

It is also counting on Fox Entertainment Group Inc.'s Twentieth Century Fox, which recently joined the Blu-ray Disc Association board, but a Fox spokesman said the studio was still evaluating both formats and had not committed to either.

Assuming Fox's support and adding Disney with its market share of 17.2 percent, Blu-ray would have 47 percent of Hollywood's prepackaged DVD sales, according to industry data provided by Toshiba for the six months to June 30.

Disney said it would become the 15th member of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), which promotes the format.

"This is a big step for the BDA," said Sony spokesman Taro Takamine.

Shares of Sony were boosted by the news, rising 1.05 percent to 3,840 yen by the midday break and outperforming the Nikkei average's 1.22 percent decline. Toshiba was unchanged at 444 yen.

Copyright 2004 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. :D

Blu ray. I work for a company that makes DVD recorders. from all the tech news we get, Bluray will win only because its made by sony. Similar to the betamax and VHS, where beta max was obvsiouly better. the only reason VHS won over betmax was because the main manufacture of VHS pushed its products everywhere and phased out betamax. Same with sony, the PS3 is supposed to be blu ray, with a huge fan base like that, blu-ray is sure to win out over HD..


PS3... too far down the road. What the hell does the UMD drive in the PSP use??! I'm considering getting one for myself instead of an iPod when they go on sale this Sunday. Thought about getting the woman one, but.. nah... the Nintendo DS is cheaper and she mentioned she wanted one of those first. Heheh... keep the "good stuff" for myself.

UMD drive... 1gig optical drive that looks to be the size of those mini-CD's. New Sony only format (what else is new :rolleyes: ) that Sony is considering getting the movie studios on-board with for movie rentals etc.

The Sony PSP (Playstation Portable) has the UMD drive and the Duo (?) Media Stick drive. It can play MP3's, a sony only audio format (yet what else is new :rolleyes: ), and Mpeg-4. Price... something like 24,000 yen.

Ooh. Yeah. We just got the KDF-42WE655 a couple of weeks ago, but I've been seriously tempted to trade it in for the 50". Amazing picture, innit?

I've been thinking about the HD/Blu-Ray thing of late, and feeling pretty annoyed. I'm not looking forward to another pitched battle. Some early machines may well play both formats, and maybe the battle will be a good thing for consumers, ultimately. That didn't turn out to be the case with Beta vs. VHS, though.

I'm with InuYasha about Sony. Beta was the better video format; minidisc should have kicked the Philips cassette format's ass. In both cases, Sony's marketing department screwed up. (And cheap CD-Rs ensured that minidisc would never be more than a niche product.)

And the fact that MD's (at least the initial version) used lossy compression to make the data fit on a smaller disc. If audio freaks think CD isn't high enough quality, then MD wasn't much better than using cassettes.

ALSO... price... MD's are too damn expensive! THey have been extremely popular in Japan, where can rent CD's. When I thought about buying on in '96, a recorder portable unit ran like 26,000 yen... on sale! Prices now haven't changed so much either. Although the iPod seems to be doing well... and the fact that mini SD memory cards and Duo (?) media sticks can be used in several models of cell phones which also have "tv phone" analogue tv, mp3 playback, digital camera, highspeed internet (for your laptop too!), java-based games.... ain't G3 great. :D

Just do what I always do in a case like this. Buy both machines to ensure maximum compatibilty. :rolleyes:

BTW, everything that I own that uses plugs into the wall, uses electricity or batteries bears the four letters SONY on it.

I think theirs is the better technology. :cool:

Innovative.... yes. Quality? Weeeeell.... Sony products are famous in Japan... for being brilliant pieces of marketing. Great features, cool packaging... buy it, use it for 2 years... it breaks so you have to buy a new one. It just so happens that Sony has released a new version or a replacement technology... how convenient.

Even the "Sony lovers" bad mouth the durability of Sony products here. Outsides of TV's and monitors... no Sony for me. Actually my computer monitor is a Mitsubishi and my tv is Aiwa (which is a POS :p ).

Sony is a crappy brand with terrible reliability its like a drunk uncle. cant count on him, Although they bout out mgm so they use there tech to record on theree blu ray All i know sony= Huge corp with lots of weight to throw around even though there not to great i hate ppl who just buy stuff even though it sux. Like cali ppl who buy appls WTF

1. Is anyone here besides me old enough to remember the great VHS vs. Beta controversy? I do actually

2. Better yet, anyone else here actually own a beta machine? Yes- big time :o
I don't want to buy the "wrong" machine again when they start coming out. Which one will win? Make your predictions!I believe it was SONY that lived through the demise of its Betamax ... and will now likely do everything it takes to never experience that shame and dishonor again. :D

Cheers,
Oranje

Still have a Beta machine, video camera and tapes somewhere in storage.

Betamax failed basically because Sony did not want to licence the format to other manufacturers, which JVC successfully did with VHS. Sony was too greedy.
It was ironic when Sony brought out a VHS VCR.

Still have a Beta machine, video camera and tapes somewhere in storage.

Betamax failed basically because Sony did not want to licence the format to other manufacturers, which JVC successfully did with VHS. Sony was too greedy.
It was ironic when Sony brought out a VHS VCR.

And that's why SOny will lose again and again. They are as bad or worse than Microsoft. THey make proprietary hardware, proprietary formats and license the technology out to noone... real smart Sony. :rolleyes: Check out Sony laptops (at least 99-02) can't even change the OS because they didn't offer their drivers for you to be able to do so.

Microsoft seems to be doing well. ;)

Microsoft seems to be doing well. ;)


Because their software is necessary to use on x86 platform computers. Sure you can run Linux, BeOS, OS/2, xBSD, or Solaris.... but for easy of use, software, etc. there is no other choice. Additionally... their software doesn't run on Microsoft only hardware or just MS's partner hardware.

Ah, I misunderstood the analogy.

Nintendo did the same thing Sony did with the BetaMax tapes though by sticking to carts. I don't know if Sony will ever die out that way, but they're in trouble if they don't get their act together.

Blu-ray was developed by the BDA, including contributors such as DELL, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsu, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and RCA Thomson. A powerhouse of a consortium.

HD-DVD has certain benefits as offered only by NEC and Toshiba. Their ace up the sleeve is the Microsoft WMP compatibility.

You tell me....is the relatively small Microsoft camp going to win this battle? I think not, sorry Bill. Especially given the superior 27 GB dual layer capacity of blu-ray. The blu-ray camp also has a superior hold on the film industry...who holds the cards? In addition, blu-ray devices are already on the market in Japan and coming soon elsewere in world, beating HD-DVD to the punch. Both are backward compatible with our current 640 x 480 rez DVD's.

No problem... I wasn't necessarily very clear in the first post...

Heh... Sega took a licking too. No more consoles from them and theirs were actually superior to Nintendo and had more games in the beginning!

As far as Sony goes... they probably won't die out. THey have a rep and like many other things, a lot of people buy based on image. That's one of the reasons I beat on Honda cars so much... they aren't as bad as I talk about them, but Americans worship them. Back to Sony... they had been trying to push a new audio format to replace the CD which was again opposing another DVD-based standard.

Blu-ray was developed by the BDA, including contributors such as DELL, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsu, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and RCA Thomson. A powerhouse of a consortium.

HD-DVD has certain benefits as offered only by NEC and Toshiba. Their ace up the sleeve is the Microsoft WMP compatibility.

You tell me....is the relatively small Microsoft camp going to win this battle? I think not, sorry Bill. Especially given the superior 27 GB dual layer capacity of blu-ray. The blu-ray camp also has a superior hold on the film industry...who holds the cards? In addition, blu-ray devices are already on the market in Japan and coming soon elsewere in world, beating HD-DVD to the punch. Both are backward compatible with our current 640 x 480 rez DVD's.

Really? interesting. I'll readily admit I didn't know much of anything about this until I was talking to a co-worker on Thursday who mentioned it. So I haven't really researched it yet at all.

The big consortium will win. The backing of MS is nice, but probably won't be enough to carry the day this time.

Products already available in Japan? What products? I haven't seen any...

Products already available in Japan? What products? I haven't seen any...
Blu-ray players/recorders, out now.

Blu-ray players/recorders, out now.

I knew that's what you are refering to, but be more specific. Makers, etc. Is this for PC's or the home? Is it Sony products only? Otherwise... not to doubt you but it sounds off or so high-end that more stores don't carry it and the HDD/DVD recorders are the big "boom" right now in Japan...

Ah, I misunderstood the analogy.

Nintendo did the same thing Sony did with the BetaMax tapes though by sticking to carts. I don't know if Sony will ever die out that way, but they're in trouble if they don't get their act together.

Speaking of which, didn't the Original PS use to be made for Nintendo only to have Nintendo break off from the Coop to make the N64? At least that's what i thought if I remembered correctly.

Speaking of which, didn't the Original PS use to be made for Nintendo only to have Nintendo break off from the Coop to make the N64? At least that's what i thought if I remembered correctly.
Yep. That's exactly what happened. Nintendo basically said they're scrapping the PS project and sticking to cartridges. Sony said fine and then came out with the PS themselves and Nintendo shot themselves in the leg.

I knew that's what you are refering to, but be more specific. Makers, etc. Is this for PC's or the home? Is it Sony products only? Otherwise... not to doubt you but it sounds off or so high-end that more stores don't carry it and the HDD/DVD recorders are the big "boom" right now in Japan...
Sony blu-ray players dude...who esle...but they've bot Columbia and now Warner....Japs will rule this debate...see my earlier post for the consortium...NEC and Tosh are toast...good luck to Bill.

Yep. That's exactly what happened. Nintendo basically said they're scrapping the PS project and sticking to cartridges. Sony said fine and then came out with the PS themselves and Nintendo shot themselves in the leg.

But you have to admit, the N64 has better graphics than the PS although a bit expensive. The platform was just too difficult to program with I believe which is now a "problem" with PS2 supposedly while Nintendo turned 180degrees with the programing of the Gamecube.

Wasn't there a similar thing earlier with Divx and another DVD format when the DVDs are starting to become popular?

I love Nintendo, Sony I have little emotion for. I hate MS. My N64 is still being used, graphics wise, it's hard to call. I think the 64 made the best use of what was available to the system, but the PS was so easy to work with because it gave developers 650Mb to play with over the cartridge's 32Mb. Also, look of the graphics between the two systems seems so archaic now, it's totally subjective, I feel.

Gamecube's programming may or may not be easier, I think they're having an easier time porting to it. So there is some glint of compatibility, but space is again proving an issue. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time had to have it's audio quality reduced to fit onto the GC proprietary game disc. I think it looks better than the PS2's version, but the sound quality suffers. The XBox version actually has the best of both worlds, graphics and sound. But, I got the GC one because I love the controller. :p

And that's why SOny will lose again and again. They are as bad or worse than Microsoft. THey make proprietary hardware, proprietary formats and license the technology out to noone... real smart Sony. :rolleyes: Check out Sony laptops (at least 99-02) can't even change the OS because they didn't offer their drivers for you to be able to do so.
it is also ironic that sony actually developed VHS along with beta then sold the right s to JVC to recoup the r& d costs

is this a blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debate or the quintessential VHS vs Beta debate?

And the fact that MD's (at least the initial version) used lossy compression to make the data fit on a smaller disc. If audio freaks think CD isn't high enough quality, then MD wasn't much better than using cassettes.

ALSO... price... MD's are too damn expensive! THey have been extremely popular in Japan, where can rent CD's. When I thought about buying on in '96, a recorder portable unit ran like 26,000 yen... on sale! Prices now haven't changed so much either. Although the iPod seems to be doing well... and the fact that mini SD memory cards and Duo (?) media sticks can be used in several models of cell phones which also have "tv phone" analogue tv, mp3 playback, digital camera, highspeed internet (for your laptop too!), java-based games.... ain't G3 great. :D
All true, at least initially. I can't talk about the various versions of ATRAC off the top of my head, but the first version of MD didn't in fact sound much better than a cassette. But sound quality improved pretty quickly, and for several years now the sound has been terrific, and the price has improved a lot as well: For the past few years the home recorders-players have been going for under two hundred dollars, while blank MDs are a couple of bucks. All too late, unfortunately. CD burners and blanks are even cheaper, and why have any data loss at all when you can burn a bit-perfect copy of something?

Nice little article *MUST READ*

Since its 1997 debut, the DVD format has gone on to become perhaps the biggest success in the history of home theater and consumer electronics. But will the current king of the video hill still be number one by the time it hits its 10th birthday? In our little home-theater department here at CNET NYC, we knew it was only a matter of time before one of our well-informed readers asked us whether DVD would go the way of VHS, considering the rising chatter on Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the new high-def, high-capacity disc formats on the horizon. Sure enough, a couple of weeks ago, the anticipated query popped over the transom: "Hey, do you think I should start selling my DVD collection now?" wrote Vince from Los Angeles. "And which format do you think will win, Blu-ray or HD-DVD?"


Sony's BDZ-S77: One of the world's first Blu-ray devices.
In case you're new to the whole next-gen DVD discussion, Blu-ray and HD-DVD are two competing high-capacity disc technologies backed by various consumer electronics and computer manufacturers (yes, they are a computer storage media as well). On one side of the ring you have Blu-ray's captain, Sony, with a roster that includes Panasonic, Samsung, Dell, HP, Philips, and several other industry heavyweights, and on the other (HD-DVD), Toshiba, NEC, and a couple of other upstarts. Both formats use blue laser technology, which has a shorter wavelength than red, allowing it to read the smaller digital data "spots" packed a lot more densely onto a standard-size disc. HD-DVD is capable of holding 30GB or a full-length high-definition movie, plus extras, on a prerecorded double-layer disc (compare that to today's limit of 9GB for standard double-layer DVDs). Blu-ray will go up to 50GB at launch, and Sony is reportedly working on a quad-layer 100GB disc. Cake-box me a stack of those, please.

A couple of expensive Blu-ray players/recorders, the Sony BDZ-S77 and the Panasonic DMR-E700BD (around $2,000), have already been released in Japan. But expect the war to touch off on these shores at the end of 2005 or in early 2006 and for it to really heat up when Sony launches its PlayStation 3, rumored to include Blu-ray support. Before I give my take on whether you should stop buying DVDs and which format will win, here's a brief description of each, with their potential advantages and disadvantages.

Camp Blu-ray
Backed by: Sony, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric, Philips Electronics, Pioneer Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, TDK, and Thomson Multimedia.

Fight song: "We're better, you know it."

Advantages: Getting the early start, Blu-ray has enjoyed more mindshare than HD-DVD, as well as a conglomerate of powerful backers that rivals President Bush's "coalition of the willing" in size and scope. Technologically, the biggest edge Blu-ray appears to have over HD-DVD is that it offers 30 percent more capacity and is designed for recording high-def video. Rewritable BD-RW discs, with similar features to Panasonic's current DVD-RAM discs, can play back content while recording to the disc at the same time. Also, Sony owns Columbia Pictures and recently bought MGM, which gives it a leg up on releasing content. And PlayStation 3 certainly will carry a huge chunk of clout in the marketplace.

Disadvantages: Real or not, the biggest knock against Blu-ray is that the discs--initially, at least--will be more costly to produce than HD-DVD media (Sony claims otherwise). Until recently, the other knock was that unlike DVD-HD, the Blu-ray spec did not include support for more advanced video compression codecs such as MPEG-4 AVC and Microsoft's VC-1, in addition to the MPEG-2 codec. But the Blu-ray Group recently announced support for those codecs, so they're now on even ground on that front.

HD-DVD posse
Backed by: Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, and Memory-Tech. Microsoft is also supporting HD-DVD in its next version of Windows (support for Blu-ray is on the table).

Fight song: "We're evolutionary, not revolutionary."

Advantages: The name itself, HD-DVD, is far more consumer-friendly than Blu-ray. HD-DVDs carry the same basic structure as current DVDs, so converting existing DVD manufacturing lines into HD-DVD lines is supposedly simple and cost effective. Memory-Tech, a leading Japanese manufacturer of optical media, stated that producing HD-DVD discs would initially cost only 10 percent more than for existing DVDs and that it could quickly bring the cost down to match that of standard DVD.

Disadvantages: HD-DVD simply can't boast the same storage capacity as Blu-ray. It's confusing, but it appears that the rewritable HD-DVD-RW will go up 32GB, while the recordable HD DVD-R discs will only be single layer (15GB). The other downside is that with Sony holding the rights to Columbia Pictures and MGM movie and television libraries, there will probably be a hole in HD-DVD's content offering--don't expect to see MGM/UA's James Bond movies on HD-DVD, for example.

Outlook: Too close to call
Blu-ray had the early lead, but HD-DVD has been making inroads, garnering support from major studios Warner, Paramount, Universal, and New Line Cinema, who've decided to play it safe and back both formats. From a marketing standpoint, HD-DVD appears to be positioning itself as the more practical high-def DVD solution, an extension of the format rather than a leap beyond it. The Blu-ray group, for better or worse, is taking the bait and campaigning on technological superiority. Unfortunately, as a result, the press has jumped on the whole VHS vs. Betamax analogy--you know, the old "the best technology doesn't always win" story, which doesn't help Sony.

Personally, I think a better analogy is the whole SACD vs. DVD-Audio fiasco--you know, the war that no one seems to care about and no one's winning. In other words, Vince, hold onto your DVD collection; you have time. There are all kinds of copy-protection details to iron out, lots of politics, and some prices that need to drop a zero (people are just starting to buy DVD recorders, for crying out loud). Me, I'm ballparking the end of 2006 before anything interesting really starts to happen in the high-def disc arena. Until then, put in a well-transferred DVD and sit a little farther back from your TV. It all looks like HD from the other side of the room.

Are you waiting for Blu-ray or HD-DVD? Or are they both just an evil plot to get you to buy yet another copy of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back? Get your two cents in by clicking the TalkBack button now.


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