HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray

Blu-ray and HD-DVD Join Forces
Sony and Toshiba to team up on a new, unified next-gen format.
Source: DVD.IGN

quote DVD.IGN

April 21, 2005 - According to a report by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the next-generation format war may be over before it ever starts. The Japanese newspaper on Thursday published with news that Sony and Toshiba are expected to make an announcement later this month that they have abandoned the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats respectively and are working on a new medium that will bring together both standards.

Sony, a leading member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, announced last year that it would include a Blu-ray drive in its forthcoming next-generation console, PlayStation 3. More than 100 companies, including Apple, Panasonic, HP, and Pioneer, support Blu-ray, which promises up to 50 gigabytes of storage on a single disc side. Toshiba leads the opposing format, HD-DVD.

While it is commonly accepted that Blu-ray discs offer more storage space than HD-DVDs, electronics companies and Hollywood studios have remained divided over the two formats due in large to the manufacturing processes. In short, the DVD infrastructures already in place would serve HD-DVD manufacturers. However, costly new facilities and operations would need to be created in order to support the Blu-ray format.

Sony and Toshiba have remained in negotiations on the subject for weeks, with key company executives from each camp dropping hints that a unified standard would be optimal.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reports that, having reached an agreement that a new, unified standard would be the best thing for the industry, Sony and Toshiba are now in the process of designing the new standard, which seeks to take the strengths from each medium and combine them.

Sony has reportedly suggested using Blu-ray's disc structure and HD-DVD's software technology while Toshiba has suggested keeping HD-DVD's disc structure and applying Sony's multi-layer data-recording technology.

The Japanese paper reports that both companies are eager to reach an agreement in order to avoid the format wars that initially confused consumers and hindered both the VHS and DVD eras. The two electronics giants have already briefed major Hollywood studios including Disney and AOL Time Warner on the idea of a new, unified standard, according to the paper.

The big question is, what does this news mean for PlayStation 3, which is scheduled to release sometime next year? The very probable answer is that the next-generation machine will drop Sony's announced Blu-ray drive in favor of hardware that instead plays this new, still-announced format compromise.

I've been meaning to make a thread on this for months, but every time I sat down and started typing and gathering links, I'd get so pissed off that I'd swear at my computer, damn Sony & Toshiba and delete the entire post. But now it looks like my attempts would have been in vain anyways now that a compromise appears to be in the near future, thus ending any consumer fear I had for the years of time and money I wasted into the DVD format (when you've got 1k DVD's, you'd be pissed too). I was going to sit back, let this war start up and have both HD-DVD and Blu-ray kill each other off and just enjoy my DVD's. Laser Disc was a step up from VHS, but that never caught on, so I wasn't about to convert all my DVD's into HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs just for the sake of 'keeping up' with today's technology.

My first DVD player was a $200 Sony player. It sucked ass; skipping, locking, freezing, other errors and the worst ... the dreaded 'layer-change pause' were always happening, especially if the film was over the +3 hour time range (ie. LOTR). Then I opted to get a Toshiba ... best damn $50 I ever spent. *bleep*ing DVD player never once pauses during a layer change and the picture looks better. So am I about to waste $300-$500 on a new Sony Blu-ray system? *bleep* no. And since there's nothing wrong with the quality of any of my DVD's and my Toshiba DVD player, why the *bleep* would I need to upgrade?

But with the news of the next-gen players, I was worried what would become of my DVD's since Hollywood was a big supporter of both, with each Studio siding with one or the other. Toshiba was still unknown if they'd have backwards compatibility where as Sony had made a statement they were not going to with their initial players (though they claimed to have one in development that would be backwards DVD compatible). Not that I would ever buy a Sony player again, but I was still curious. Should be interesting to see what they can agree to come up. I know hollywood was split, and some studios (eg. WB, Universal) had already released a list of all their upcoming titles they were expected to release with the HD-DVD system. Still, I'm going to sit back and enjoy my DVD's, and if the technology dies out, then I'll upgrade. blah.

It's stupid really ... just because the technology is there, doesn't mean everyone is willing to accept it (hence, the Laser Disc bit in my post). Hell, I read an article two or three weeks ago about how there's a company who is trying to bring out a third player into the mix that would hold twice the storage of a Blu-ray disc. AHH!

I had a science teacher in high school that had loads of laser discs and would always brag about them. I was like "buddy, who gives a shit, really." (damn I hated him...)

So, like, does this mean that I have to get rid of my VHS collection now?

Wasnt a laser disc like the size of a plate? If I remeber my childhood experiences correctly, then I remeber laser disc being sold in what looked to be record sleeves. And im pretty sure that I saw one in an science book and...yeah it was big. Mabye thats why they didnt go over so well?
I dont get all this blu-ray, HD-DVD, crap. What's the deal? I get that there now trying to merge together, but, I dont get it...is it that they said they wont be backwards compatible? And what does that mean? Does that mean that PS3 wont play PS2 or PS1 games? What does it all add up to if you will

Backwards compatible does mean not working with any previous version, so if they said the PS3 was going to be backwards compatible, then it would be able to play PS2 games (maybe PS1).

Same with blue-ray movie dvd's. Unless the player had a blue laser, with its smaller, finer reading lens, then a normal (current) dvd player would not be able to read them, as their reading head is too wide. It's like trying to read without glasses- won't work.

The problem with blue ray, though the capacity size kicks major arse, is that compatibility problem. People would have to buy new players and waste more money just to watch new dvd's, which will probably be made on that media considering the better capacity, and room for more features, etc. (no more having to cry over T2's Uber Super Mega-Happy Cameron edition being too jampacked full of stuff, causing errors)

If new players were sold for 40-60 bucks, then I wouldn't mind too much, but if you wanted to buy a good player with longevity and it was 100 something bucks, forget it.

From what I understand, current dvd player can read the HD' format. Though the HD isn't up to par with Blue Ray's abilities, it is cheaper and works best for more people.


While blue ray tech dvd's are really the improvement of the standard 4.7 and dual layer (movies) dvd age, as dvd's were the improvement over the laser disc age, it is too soon to be moving into it simply because they found a new way to store more data in one shot.

They should wait until sound and video tech is amped a bit more. Hell, if we can get home versions of that 3d goodness in the works for modern theatres (mostly Imax at the moment), then it'd be worth the money, but not just yet.

Plus, they'd probably end up re-releasing movies as blue ray discs; and though they might have more extras, who would want to go through the process of buying these current red ray movies all over again?


Maybe 5-10 years from now...

This message was edited by Raijin1999 on May 06 2005.

I agree totally about waiting on the technology for a while. Just because its there doesn't mean that the average consumer can pay for it. I really wish people would focus on making the technology affordable rather than just making it bigger and better.