Blu-ray vs HD-DVD
Don’t tell me. It’s Betamax all over again isn’t it?
How could I have been so wrong on this one? I’ve written two columns over the past couple of years predicting the imminent arrival of the Blu-ray DVD format, the revolution driven by blue lasers that promises enormous capacity on DVD drives, many multiples of today’s 4.75 GB limit.
Sony’s Blu-ray looked a surefire winner over the competing HD-DVD format led by Japanese rival Toshiba.
Both manufacturers are actually the fronts for a stable of other manufacturers and, more importantly, content producers and movie distributors.
Blu-ray had an impressive lineup of backers but that lineup looks set to disintegrate in light of an unexpected announcement from two of the truly big guns. In a joint release last month, Microsoft and Intel said they would be backing HD-DVD and that they had essentially lost faith in the Blu-ray consortium’s ability to deliver a working product in a timely fashion.
Prior to the announcement it appeared that the stars were aligning in favour of Blu-ray and that nothing could stop the momentum it had built up with the big Hollywood distributors. But in reality some of these producers were hedging their bets, not wanting to be caught flat-footed should the other horse prove to be a winner.
At this stage, about six months before anything in the larger capacity DVD format begins to ship, it looks like HD-DVD will be first out of the gate. That was actually anticipated, but even the Toshiba product has been moved back from its originally expected arrival on store shelves.
Not even a week after the WinTel announcement, Paramount, previously believed to be favouring the HD format, said it would be backing Blu-ray.
About all that can be said at the moment is that the blue laser medium of choice, the winner if you will, cannot be identified with any certainty. It is possible that unity talks are going on behind the scenes. After all, the team that tosses in the towel is acknowledging defeat in one of the most expensive product races of all time.
Saving face, and considerable financial humiliation, may be a requirement if a company wants a piece of the DVD pie over the next decade. The DVD player is widely acknowledged to be the most rapidly adopted consumer electronics product of all time. Even if the next generation DVD format is adopted by a fraction of present DVD player owners it will be a lucrative pie.
But wait.
Sony’s Blu-ray may still come out on top. The Blu-ray model is about more than just video/DVD content. It’s also about gaming and Sony’s Playstation 3 will ship with the Blu-ray technology on board. That represents millions of customers right off the bat.
Perhaps the Microsoft alignment with Toshiba was a little disingenuous. Microsoft after all, is just about to release its XBOX 360 gaming platform, and, you guessed it, Playstation 3 is the main rival.
In mid October market research group Forrester (www.forrester.com) predicted that Blu-ray will eventually win the battle of the blue laser DVD formats but that the victory would be a drawn out affair.
In fact the Forrester report authors called for Toshiba and its HD DVD supporters to essentially give up now, arguing that stretching out the battle would do neither side any good and would result in potential customers awaiting a clear outcome. Although an outcome might be several years off, Forrester suggested that Sony would be the eventual victor.
So there you have it. When I started writing this piece it seemed as if the tide had turned against the Sony camp. The backwash may now be carrying off the Toshiba side’s technology. It should be interesting over the next little while to see how this electronics war plays out.
How will all this matter to you? For starters, expect to be buying a second-generation DVD player in relatively short order. In the computer field expect CD burners to all but disappear. At Blu-ray’s current maximum capacity in testing, 200 GB, backup of software and large amounts of data to DVD becomes practical.
All this is actually a side battle to the coming television wars. Not only is there the deadline for the switchover to digital from analogue broadcasting, there is entirely new life being breathed into the venerable cathode ray tube technology that has served us well for a half century or so.
Watch for the demise of the plasma screen and LCD formats as the promise of nano-technology meets the glass picture tube. You read it here first: an SED television, coupled to a Blu-ray DVD player, could be in your living room within a couple of years.
Background reading:
Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD
www.engadget.com/entry/1234000623059130/
Developments in TV Technology
www.hdbeat.com/2005/08/16/sed-technology-explained
www.hdtvsolutions.com/sed_tvs.htm
E-Waste Intentions Paper
Years after programs to manage electronics waste were introduced in California and more recently in Alberta, our provincial government has finally released an “Intentions Paper” on a proposed program to handle the recycling of computers, monitors, printers and other home-grown electronics waste.
Public reaction to the paper must be received by November 15, a short turnaround time indeed. The paper was not yet indexed on government web servers as this column went to press. Try a search on the government web site (www.gov.bc.ca) for news release 2005ENV0087-000951.
Peter Vogel is a Physics and Computer Sciences teacher at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School (www.ndrs.org). Suggestions and comments may be sent via email to peterv@portal.ca.
How could I have been so wrong on this one? I’ve written two columns over the past couple of years predicting the imminent arrival of the Blu-ray DVD format, the revolution driven by blue lasers that promises enormous capacity on DVD drives, many multiples of today’s 4.75 GB limit.
Sony’s Blu-ray looked a surefire winner over the competing HD-DVD format led by Japanese rival Toshiba.
Both manufacturers are actually the fronts for a stable of other manufacturers and, more importantly, content producers and movie distributors.
Blu-ray had an impressive lineup of backers but that lineup looks set to disintegrate in light of an unexpected announcement from two of the truly big guns. In a joint release last month, Microsoft and Intel said they would be backing HD-DVD and that they had essentially lost faith in the Blu-ray consortium’s ability to deliver a working product in a timely fashion.
Prior to the announcement it appeared that the stars were aligning in favour of Blu-ray and that nothing could stop the momentum it had built up with the big Hollywood distributors. But in reality some of these producers were hedging their bets, not wanting to be caught flat-footed should the other horse prove to be a winner.
At this stage, about six months before anything in the larger capacity DVD format begins to ship, it looks like HD-DVD will be first out of the gate. That was actually anticipated, but even the Toshiba product has been moved back from its originally expected arrival on store shelves.
Not even a week after the WinTel announcement, Paramount, previously believed to be favouring the HD format, said it would be backing Blu-ray.
About all that can be said at the moment is that the blue laser medium of choice, the winner if you will, cannot be identified with any certainty. It is possible that unity talks are going on behind the scenes. After all, the team that tosses in the towel is acknowledging defeat in one of the most expensive product races of all time.
Saving face, and considerable financial humiliation, may be a requirement if a company wants a piece of the DVD pie over the next decade. The DVD player is widely acknowledged to be the most rapidly adopted consumer electronics product of all time. Even if the next generation DVD format is adopted by a fraction of present DVD player owners it will be a lucrative pie.
But wait.
Sony’s Blu-ray may still come out on top. The Blu-ray model is about more than just video/DVD content. It’s also about gaming and Sony’s Playstation 3 will ship with the Blu-ray technology on board. That represents millions of customers right off the bat.
Perhaps the Microsoft alignment with Toshiba was a little disingenuous. Microsoft after all, is just about to release its XBOX 360 gaming platform, and, you guessed it, Playstation 3 is the main rival.
In mid October market research group Forrester (www.forrester.com) predicted that Blu-ray will eventually win the battle of the blue laser DVD formats but that the victory would be a drawn out affair.
In fact the Forrester report authors called for Toshiba and its HD DVD supporters to essentially give up now, arguing that stretching out the battle would do neither side any good and would result in potential customers awaiting a clear outcome. Although an outcome might be several years off, Forrester suggested that Sony would be the eventual victor.
So there you have it. When I started writing this piece it seemed as if the tide had turned against the Sony camp. The backwash may now be carrying off the Toshiba side’s technology. It should be interesting over the next little while to see how this electronics war plays out.
How will all this matter to you? For starters, expect to be buying a second-generation DVD player in relatively short order. In the computer field expect CD burners to all but disappear. At Blu-ray’s current maximum capacity in testing, 200 GB, backup of software and large amounts of data to DVD becomes practical.
All this is actually a side battle to the coming television wars. Not only is there the deadline for the switchover to digital from analogue broadcasting, there is entirely new life being breathed into the venerable cathode ray tube technology that has served us well for a half century or so.
Watch for the demise of the plasma screen and LCD formats as the promise of nano-technology meets the glass picture tube. You read it here first: an SED television, coupled to a Blu-ray DVD player, could be in your living room within a couple of years.
Background reading:
Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD
www.engadget.com/entry/1234000623059130/
Developments in TV Technology
www.hdbeat.com/2005/08/16/sed-technology-explained
www.hdtvsolutions.com/sed_tvs.htm
E-Waste Intentions Paper
Years after programs to manage electronics waste were introduced in California and more recently in Alberta, our provincial government has finally released an “Intentions Paper” on a proposed program to handle the recycling of computers, monitors, printers and other home-grown electronics waste.
Public reaction to the paper must be received by November 15, a short turnaround time indeed. The paper was not yet indexed on government web servers as this column went to press. Try a search on the government web site (www.gov.bc.ca) for news release 2005ENV0087-000951.
Peter Vogel is a Physics and Computer Sciences teacher at Notre Dame Regional Secondary School (www.ndrs.org). Suggestions and comments may be sent via email to peterv@portal.ca.
posted by Peter Vogel at 10:01 PM
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