DVD and Blu-Ray Disc

Today's regular DVDs can embrace 4.7GB of data, but several want a higher-volume successor to accommodate the better data load of high-definition video. HD DVD and Blu-ray together use blue lasers to read and write information; for the reason that blue carries a shorter wavelength than the red used in DVD and CD lasers, information could be packed additional densely with a disc and a single disc can embrace extra. mutually HD DVD and Blu-ray drives can read present-generation DVDs.it is no shock why producers want part of the manufacturing. DVD player shipments, including next-generation designs, will lessen from 113 million this year to 78 million in 2009, offset by a DVD recorder increase from 17 million this year to 74 million in 2009, supposed iSupply analyst Chris Crotty.

What are the differences between Blu-ray and HD DVD?
Each next-generation DVD format comes in single-layer and dual-layer formats. For HD DVD, that means capacities of 15GB and 30GB; for Blu-ray, it's 25GB and 50GB. Toshiba earlier expected HD DVD to arrive this year, but now the company plans to launch products worldwide in the first quarter of 2006. That's about the same time as the spring launch of Blu-ray, eliminating the early debut advantage. Blu-ray uses Sun Microsystems' Java software for built-in interactive features, whereas HD DVD uses a technology called iHD that Microsoft and Toshiba have worked on.

Why did Microsoft and Intel side with HD DVD?
The companies cited several reasons for their decision. They said the 50GB version of Blu-ray was "nowhere in sight," giving the 30GB HD DVD the capacity advantage for the time being. They also said HD DVD guarantees a feature they want, "managed copy," which lets a computer user copy a movie to a computer hard drive so it can be beamed around the house. The iHD software offers "greater interactivity," for example, letting a small screen with a movie director be overlaid onto the main video screen. HD DVD manufacturing is easier than for Blu-ray's BD-ROM, and its "hybrid disk" feature will mean an owner of today's DVD player will be able to buy a dual-format disk that can be played in tomorrow's HD DVD player.

What was Blu-ray's response?
In short, hogwash. They say the 50GB discs will arrive with no trouble in the spring, that HD DVD has no advantage in the managed copy area, and it has a hybrid disk technology as well. Neither side is winning the debate: "There are so many charges from both sides that it's very difficult to discern reality from propaganda," Crotty said.

What problems does the split cause?
Plenty. Consumers must gamble that investments in disc players and video collections are in a format that will prevail. And they'll be more cautious embracing digital entertainment technology: "You have to allow consumers to build their digital home over a very long time--a decade. You can't have this fiddle-faddle with standards," said Endpoint Technology Associates analyst Roger Kay.
Studios and video rental stores must either maintain duplicate inventory for the two formats or worry that one format might not have all the content consumers want. Electronics retailers have to explain the different standards. And the industry overall is faced with a more sluggish arrival of the next-generation technology at the same time other alternatives develop--including content that's downloaded directly or that's recorded onto hard drives built into set-top boxes and personal video records, Crotty said.

Can the two sides get together?
it really is conceivable. Doherty observes that it got 18 months of struggle before two disputing factions--Super Disc and Multimedia CD--handled to compromise with a unified standard that turned DVD, and the normal was the better for it. But on this late date, few see cooperation as likely. it really is quite potential there could be no single victor, as happened when using the rewritable disc standards DVD-RW and DVD+RW, equally of which are used in the market. In that case, it is likely drive and player manufacturers will develop twin -format drives, a move Samsung has supposed it can make if no unification happens.