Blu-ray vs HD DVD - Who Is The Winner This Week?
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Back on August 17, 2007 I did a quick take on the Blu-ray vs HD DVD situation comparing it to the days where we went through a similar mess between Beta and VHS. I received several comments including some confirmation that Sony was going to win this battle and the best one I like was the comment that Blu-ray has a better and cooler name.
So when Paramount and Dreamworks announced they were dumping Blu-ray all together in favor of HD DVD, I again began to wonder what the heck are we consumers supposed to buy? One comment stated to buy nothing until the smokes clears since it really didn’t matter. Which may be sound advice for now.
But what we are seeing is the real reason that HD DVD may win is just because of manufacturing costs for the disks as well as the cost of HD DVD players, which are cheaper. We consumers are a price conscience bunch when it comes to these type of toys. Unless you are a true perfectionist that wants the absolute best picture available, a DVD player might just do for normal viewing.
Now I am not anti-technology at all. It is just that we have all waited patiently just to final get HD TV which is on the horizon, that it is just annoying to now to have to decide on two other standards as well. But that is just me. I’ll just wait and let Blockbuster and Netflix fight over what format they want to support, let the motion picture industry grapple which format they wish to use, than once the smoke clears toss in my educated guess on which format may be the winner.
What about you? With the recent announcement by Paramount and Dreamworks to support HD DVD, will this alter your decision on which format to buy? Let us know.
Comments as always are welcome.
5 Comments
BlueJayofEvil
August 30th, 2007
at 3:25pm
It won’t be long before combo players become common in the market. I was configuring a computer on Falcon Northwest’s website the other day and noticed an optical drive they offered is a Blu-Ray burner/reader AND an HD-DVD reader. So I guess combo drives are finally starting to show up, although they probably suck right now and are not worth their $950+ price tag.
I also read (I believe it was on engadget) that there’s a few new technologies coming out that may be worth waiting for. Some refraction technology that will be able to read any kind of disc, be it CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, or HD-DVD. The downside is it refracts so much that it can’t burn discs. Another technology is a more high-powered optical laser that will be able to burn Blu-Ray at up to 10x. Since Blu-Ray is only at 2x now, it should be worth waiting for technology like the aforementioned to come out before wasting money on these pointless tech wars. I’m not buying a Blu-Ray OR HD-DVD drive/player (not even a combo one) at least for a few years.
But the downside is that these technologies are evolving quickly and enhancements are as well, so prices will probably stay up for at least a few years until the formats are more widely accepted in combo drives/players.
hashmark
September 2nd, 2007
at 8:29pm
Funny, I did a vid on this very subject posted at youtube.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OjlLiNkIpr8
-hashmark
Ron Schenone
September 3rd, 2007
at 5:06am
Hello hashmark,
Thanks for the link.
Ron
APowerfulJedi
September 6th, 2007
at 1:40pm
No I’m sticking with my Blu-Ray because it’s on my PS3 and will just buy non Blu-Ray on standard DVD’s. However if Microsoft wants to pay me off too with $150mil then I may switch but I know that won’t happen I’m good with Blu-Ray.
Ron Schenone
September 6th, 2007
at 2:52pm
Hi APowerfulJedi,
Thanks for the comments.
Ron