Blue-ray and HD DVD: The Status of the Format War
In today's entertainment, specifically in the movie industry, there has been a "war" raging since early 2006 until the present between two rival formats; Blue-ray and HD DVD. Each is supported by acknowledged heavyweights in the entertainment and technology worlds.
Supporters and Developers of the Blue-ray and HD DVD
The Blue-ray format was developed by Sony and Pioneer. As the name implies, its creation was facilitated by a Bluee laser. It stores 25 gigabytes on a single-layer DVD and 50 gigabytes on an increasingly popular double -layer DVD. It has the additional feature of processing information at a faster rate and, though the software and hardware are expensive to produce, features Java applications.
The HD-DVD format on the other hand is supported by Toshiba. It can only store 15 gigabytes on a single-layer DVD and 30 gigabytes on a double-layer DVD. Its touted advantage is that it is available free of region coding as in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Both the Blue-ray and HD DVD formats give a screen resolution 5 times that of standard DVD to give an even greater quality to movie films. This has paved the way for giving films the moniker of "blockbusters" and providing a sure way for the film's star(s) to attaining the reputation of being a superstar.
The so-called Blue-ray and HD DVD format war continues to rage and the stakes, especially in the sales front, are increasing. Toshiba has reportedly used the strategy of discounted prices to sway consumers to its side. Admittedly, Blue-ray costs more. It has countered Toshiba's ploy by releasing the PlayStation3 whose game console allows playing Blue-ray DVDs.
Despite it being expensive compared to HD DVD, the sales of Blue-ray and HD DVD in regions outside the USA such as Australia, Japan, and Europe, has swamped its counterpart. There are even those who claim, HD DVD has lost the war.
However, there are movie productions that take sides such as Paramount Pictures and Dreamworks Animation SKG who supported HD DVD whereas Warner Brothers, Twentieth Century Fox and Disney Productions took the Blue-ray and HD DVD format. A simple explanation given by the latter producers point to the extra storage and speed that gained their nod.
Though there are those that claim DVD format war is confusing to consumers and is presenting a huge problem in the entertainment industry, for many the war is over. There are only a few pockets in the world where the "war" continues to sputter. In the final analysis, the war between Blue-ray and HD DVD is won by the former.
