First, A disclaimer:
As of right now (early 2007,) both of these formats are in their infancy and the war for control of your living room has begun. This makes a comprehensive review of the products impractical; however, we do plan on updating this article as new information becomes available. If at any time you wish to speak to an expert on these exciting new formats, don’t hesitate to contact an Aperion Guru.
What’s the deal with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray?
Both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are new, high-resolution DVD formats. They offer much higher quality video and audio than standard DVD. HD-DVD is a format developed by Toshiba Corp. and a handful of partners, and Sony developed Blu-Ray. This format war is pitting electronics manufacturers, movie studios and even consumers against each other in the effort to reach one, stable, high-definition standard. If this all sounds a little familiar, you’re right. It’s extremely similar to the VHS and Betamax fight of the 1980s, and the same players are involved.
The HD-DVD format was made available to the public first when Toshiba’s HD-A1 and HD-XA1 were released in Japan in March of 2006. As is the case with most first generation players, there were bugs to work through and firmware updates to issue. Even with fixed bugs and updates, the only currently available HD-DVD playback machine still can’t offer full 1080P resolution. See “HDM-WHAT?” in this article for more information. Currently, HD-DVD disc can offer storage of up to 30Gigs of information.
Samsung released the first Blu-Ray Disc player in late August of 2006. The main difference with this format is the use of a Blue laser that can read subtle layer changes in a disc. This capability allows storage for up to 50Gigs of information on a dual layer disc. At this time, though, a 50G Blu-Ray disc is not available and, even if it was, would not be readable by existing players. The highest storage capacity for a Blu-Ray Disc is currently 25G.
Both the Sony Playstation 3 and the new Xbox 360 are players in this market. Sony has included a Blu-Ray drive into every PS3 while Microsoft has released an HD-DVD add on drive for its Xbox360.
Content is another factor in this consideration, though less so than many think. Certain movie studios have promised to make only HD-DVDs available while others have pledged allegiance to Blu-Ray. Many think that this could be a deciding factor in who wins this “war” but if history is any example (and it is) then the movie studios will follow whichever camp enjoys the most success.
HDM-WHAT?
The roadblock for both formats has been the release of HDMI 1.3. HDMI 1.3 is a new digital connection format that allows audio and video information to be passed over a single cable. It offers unprecedented data bandwidth, which is necessary to take full advantage of new high-definition formats. Since HDMI 1.3 was not included in the first-generation players, their abilities are somewhat limited. For instance, full 1080P resolution is not yet available, despite being included on many of the new discs. Likewise, many current-generation receivers and preamp/processors lack the HDMI 1.3 connection and decoding chips. But rest assured, all of this first-generation confusion should be sorted out soon.
Am I going to end up betting on the losing horse?
If you are going to purchase one of these machines at this point (prior to early ’07), you will have to come to terms with the fact that you are an “early adopter.” The fact of the matter is that this format war will be at an entirely different place within a year. At that point, there may be a “winner” between the two formats and one of them will be abandoned or slumming it in the computer market. Again, we have to draw a similarity between VHS and Betamax fiasco. If you or someone you know were the owners of a Beta player, then you know that it featured superior video quality, but lacked the support from the rest of the electronics community to thrive. As a result, studios stopped releasing movies in Beta and the player is (and has been for a long time) an electronic doorstop. Though we’re in a new time and the contention between the two camps is much tighter than we’ve ever seen before, our history lesson indicates that we will end up settling on one format. So, a purchase of either machine is a bet that that format will carry on into the future. Keep this in mind as you make your choice to either buy now or wait until the dust has settled. But if you live on the bleeding edge of technology, you can experience the next-generation of video in your home right now – and that’s never a bad thing. Enjoy!