HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are two competing formats in a technological war that began in 2006. Many in the industry believed that the competition between the two recording media would lead to a eventual show down similar to the classic VHS vs. Betamax debacle where early adopters of the Betamax tape format found themselves holding expensive players with no tapes to play in them. Unlike the Betamax fiasco the HD vs Blu-Ray debate shows no signs of ending any time soon. Until it does, use these tips and observations to make the right purchasing decision.
HD vs Blu-Ray: Disc Capacity
The 2 DVD formats have very different specifications. With the large difference between the two it is sometimes hard to understand why there is a format war at all. Consider the following statistics:
- HD-DVD currently has a maximum capacity of 30GB of data.
- Blu-Ray currently has a maximum capacity of 50GB of data.
The larger amount of data capacity on a Blu-Ray disc means that movie producers can squeeze more content onto a single disc and at much higher resolutions. However, HD-DVD has an as yet unrealized part to its specifications that may make 50+GB HD-DVD discs a possibility in the future. Stil, at the present time, Blu-Ray wins hands down in the area of overall capacity.
HD vs Blu-Ray: Movies Available
Each movie format has a number of studios signed on to their respective platform. Some of the more popular studios studios such as Dreamworks and Paramount have abandoned Blu-Ray in favor of producing movies in the HD-DVD format only. Stil, Blue-Ray retains other major studios such as Sony, 20th Century Fox, and Disney. In the end the winner of this category is dependent on the consumers personal taste in movies.
HD vs Blu-Ray: Market Dominance
Blu-Ray has one major advantage over HD-DVD in that Sony incorporated the Blu-Ray format into its wildly popular PlayStation 3 video game console. Microsoft's X-Box 360 now provides an add-on HD-DVD player to its system. HD-DVD seems to be making great strides in market share due to the lower equipment costs and a percieved stability in the way the specification has been implemented.
HD vs Blu-Ray: Which One To Buy
There is still no clear but answer to this question, but the pendulum seems to be slowly swinging in Blu-Ray's favor due in large part to the major movie studios beginning to move toward Blu-Ray. Still, the big question for most consumers should be whether or not the movies they want are available in the format they are going to purchase. Hybrid players that will read both formats are slowly coming on the market but at a high premium in price.
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