DVD Format War on the Horizon
Published April 20, 2004
Nothing like a format war to stop a successful technology in its tracks. This CNN post has all the information about an industry tussle over the future of DVD. On one side, we have Sony and a dozen companies backing their Blu-Ray technology; and, on the other, we have Toshiba and NEC backing their High Definition DVD technology. The latter has the backing of Microsoft, which is making its presence felt in the electronics space, and may prove decisive which format is ultimately adopted.
The ultimate prize is who will dominate high definition deletion (HDTV) market. Current DVDs are not designed take advantage of HDTV, so count on studios to re-release all their DVDs in the new format. Will it be Blu-Ray or Hi Definition DVD is anybody's guess. To be honest, I don't relish the idea or re-stocking my entire DVD collection (which, thank God, is a small one), and besides a few diehards, I doubt many others will either. The music industry tried it with DVD-Audio, and has yet to take off.
- DVD Format War on the Horizon
- Published: April 20, 2004
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Video: News
- Writer: Niraj
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The music industry tried it with DVD-Audio, and has yet to take off.
The music industry has a tough battle convincing consumers that DVD-Audio is substantially better sounding than what they already listen to. The same couldn't be said for the introduction of CDs... it was blatantly obvious the audible difference between CDs and tapes, for instance. So, the difference between a 480p-displayed anamorphic DVD and either 720p or 1080i display is more comparable with CD versus tape argument rather than the CD versus DVD-Audio.
As long as the new DVD players play the old DVDs, I don't really care what they do. I've seen HDTV, and looks very pretty, but I'm not going to re-buy DVDs just so they can be "optimized" for HDTV. I'm perfectly happy with the picture quality of DVDs now.
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High definition DVD will be for (wealthy) videophiles only. Current generation DVD is in no immediate danger. As for Blu-Ray, it's the better technology of the two. Sony hung on to Beta for damn near forever. They'll do the same with Blu-Ray.