Blu-ray Disc Cuts Through HD-DVD

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Feb 21 2008

Just thought I would keep you all in the loop about the latest developments in the Blu-ray camp.

If you have been following the news the past week or so, you already know what has been going on with regards to the high def format war between the Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps.

Or should I say Sony and Toshiba.

Now that Toshiba (HD-DVD) has waved the white flag you can bet that Sony (Blu-ray Disc) is licking their lips at what lies ahead for them.

Sony Already Learnt Their Lesson

Let’s back up a little though because I want to point out that this isn’t the first time Sony has had to fight for market place dominance. Actually let’s back right up to the mid to late 1970’s when video tapes and players first hit the USA.

Remember the format war between VHS and Betamax. Well Betamax (let’s just call it Beta for short) was Sony’s ticket into the video tape market.

Beta had better picture quality than rival VHS but they could only hold 1hr of footage compared to 2hrs on VHS. Sony also failed to license their Beta technology to enough manufacturers thinking they could take on the world by themselves.

As a result of this VHS became more competitive forcing prices to fall and in turn making themselves look more appealing to consumers. Eventually this caused consumers to start to buy VHS machines instead of renting machines and Sony’s Beta couldn’t survive.

Another rumor is that Sony refused to license Beta to the adult film industry, so naturally they chose VHS and well you know what they say “Sex Sells” and the rest is history.

Where Am I Going With This?

The point I am trying to make here is that it seems Sony had really learnt their lesson well and they knew what not to do if they were to engage in yet another format war.

This time they did their homework and licensed their Blu-ray format with as many partners as they could, but not just anybody they made sure they got the big guns. Sony had done their homework so well that they had signed some of these companies (like LG, Dell, Apple and even Panasonic) as far back as six years ago long before a Blu-ray disc or player even hit the market.

Owning their own movie studio was also a big help in convincing other movie studios that their technology was the way of the future.

Although the technologies are very similar in that they use a blue-violet colored laser to read the disc information they do have their differences.

Blu-ray discs hold 50 gigabytes of data HD-DVD only holds about 30 gigabytes. To give you an idea on how much this really is a standard DVD only holds about 8.5 gig.

Personally as far as picture quality goes I think that both formats are great and the word out on the street is that the decision’s of Wal-Mart and Warner Brothers to be exclusive to Blu-ray is what killed it for HD-DVD.

That may well be true but at the end of the day the consumer ultimately has the last say.

Because Sony’s PS3 doubled as a Blu-ray Disc player their sales sky rocketed to about 10.5 million game consoles and that’s not even including other Blu-ray players made by them and other electronics companies.

Now compare that to about 1 million HD-DVD players sold and it’s very clear that consumers had a role to play in this also.

Final Word

Yes Sony is victorious, at least for the time being.

I mean in this digital age we are already able to get digital downloads. Will we soon have Blu-ray hard drives or will pay per view be so cheap that we won’t even want a movie library. We already have high def TV at 1080p.

Who knows what lies ahead?