The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

DVD has been in existence roughly since 1997, and with the 10th anniversary of the format approaching, it is already the beginning of the end for this format. While I personally don't think DVD really took off as the true "must have" format until five-six years ago, the industry is telling up there are new, higher quality formats consumers will have to choose from. Quite frankly, I think this is too early, and the wave of the future isn't on discs but what can be put onto the hard drive of your PC. But I'll get to that in a second.

Toshiba has actually already released a format called HD-DVD, which is a good name considering the word DVD is familar to consumers and doesn't seem to be too much of a stretch to move on to this system. The main difference is the storage capacity of the disc, where it can hold 15GB of storage space whereas a standard DVD holds about 4.4GB. And because the materials and production methods are similar to typical DVD, it is said there won't be too much variance in the price. There was little fanfare with the release of HD-DVD so it's curious as to just exactly how they planned to generate sales when the players first became available.

Blu-Ray technology is led by Sony, and thus we are probably headed to having a Beta vs VHS type war developing as the big players in the electronics industry did not come to an agreement on just one format to support to ease confusion in the marketplace. Blu-Ray had the advantage of holding a whopping 25GB of data one one disc. Because the manufacturing process is completely new, its drawback with consumers is that the discs and players are going to cost more. The players are starting off at $999.99USD at the Sonystyle.com site, while HD-DVD players are coming in at around $499.99USD. Sony is launching it's Playstation 3 later this year, and will be Blu-Ray compatible which should no doubt help the format along. Similarly, Microsoft is backing HD-DVD and will have an external HD-DVD drive available for those who own an X-Box 360. Having the formats avaiable on gaming systems in some ways makes it cheaper for customers to acquire, if you divy the cost of buying one gaming system AND a new player as opposed to the cost of acquiring one system that can both play games and play the new formats.

The good news for DVD owners is that both formats have backwards capability meaning that your existing DVDs will be able to play on both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players. However, I am not thrilled at the idea of another format war, especially when the future of watching video is downloading to your PC or some form of hard drive. With the latest craze in TV being the use of the PVR (Personal Video Recorder), users can point and click what they want to watch, when they want to watch it and enjoy at their own leisure. High definition transfers are already possible. Why not make a format where a consumer can legally download video to their PVRs, and store them for viewing at their pleasure? Why have the consumer buy an HD-DVD player only to be told a year later that it is no longer a supported format and they have to shell out more cash for a Blu-Ray player?

I think the industry isn't ready for a format war right now. I think consumers are getting comforable with their DVDs and haven't really demanded an upgrade from it yet. When I put in my DVD for Star Wars, I don't look at it and think, "Wow, the picture sucks". What consumers are exploring are new avenues of acquiring media, as tangible discs and tapes seem to be fading, something the industry overall seems to ignore.

We'll see what happens.