Blu-ray to sting HD-DVD
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Blu-ray to sting HD-DVD
Peter Familari
February 28, 2007 12:00am
AMERICA'S porn kings may decide who wins the biggest format stoush as the battle for the next-generation to replace DVDs heats up.
And this is the biggest battle since the Betamax VCR took on its rival VHS in the 1980s.
In January, anyone looking for a winner of the war between the two next-generation discs designed to replace DVD would have picked Blu-ray over the opposing HD-DVD format by a country mile.
The bet looked well-placed: the first two Blu-ray players, Samsung's BD-P1000 and Panasonic's BD10, along with a handful of GB BD movies, were in Australian stores in December.
HD-DVD movies were scarce and a player nowhere in sight.
Software support for Blu-ray is hefty. Every big Hollywood studio except Universal backs Blu-ray, and only a handful of labels are opting to press movies in both formats.
Blu-ray can also count on the hardware support of the world's highest-profile consumer electronics companies including Sony, Panasonic, Apple Computers, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Dell, LG and Hitachi.
The HD-DVD camp includes Toshiba, Microsoft, GE, Kenwood, Canon, Onkyo, Teac, NEC and Mitsubishi.
But the clincher for Blu-ray is Sony's Blu-ray-equipped PS3.
The high-resolution gaming console is due out on March 23 and will be snapped up.
No wonder that last month it looked like a 3-0 to Blu-ray.
But just when it looked like being all over for HD-DVD two things happened.
Both prove why a month is a long time in the ever-shifting and often murky politics of consumer electronics.
The arrival of the HD-E1 -- Toshiba's first HD-DVD player -- in Australia -- in the middle of last month was the first.
The second occurred a week earlier at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an event at which the adult industry holds a concurrent exhibition.
The whisper coming from LA got louder as the show went on.
Word was the $72 billion-a-year worldwide porn industry would use HD-DVD to maintain its 10 per cent share of an annual market of standard DVDs worth an estimated $30.3 billion.
The official reason was HD-DVD's lower cost of production.
Unofficially, it is Sony's longstanding and praiseworthy policy of disallowing its media to handle pornography.
The upshot is a Lazarus-like revival of HD-DVD.
But the smart money is still on Blu-ray. The format has the software and hardware firepower to see off HD-DVD, notwithstanding the latter's support from the adult industry.
In the long run, HD-DVD will survive only if the opposing camps agree to build dual-format machines.
It's a rerun of the recordable-DVD debacle all over again, when opposing groups publicly refused to build dual-format recorders.
The confused public bought neither.
In the end everyone caved in and nearly all DVD recorders read the -R and +R recorder formats.
Until the format issue is resolved, Toshiba is pressing on with HD-DVD and has finally released its first Australian high-definition player, the $1099 HD-E1.
The HD-E1 was meant to arrive before December, but after a frustrating number of false starts Australia's first HD-DVD player has finally arrived. -
Why worry..... let both Blu-Ray and HD DvD kill each other 1st, then see who the winner lah. Most if not all of us don't have a HDTV at home anyway..... And still, most player and HDTV can't display at 1080P...... by the time MediaCorp or Cable TV offer all HD channel, it will be at least 3-5 years from now..... HDTV price will fall to rock bottom..... with better model some more. S
So, just wait for few more years lah..... no hurry
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In truth, there is no necessity for such high definition TV. Who the fark can see the difference.
The personal electronics industry just wants to introduce a new technology as they have reached the upper limit in selling DVD players. They just want a new adoption to increase profits.
Same thing as Vista, MS needs to force upgrades in order to push revenues up.
Best thing of all, I see alot of giam kana singaporeans buy expensive widescreen TV, fancy dvd player, then buy pirated DVD. Pirated DVD quality like sh*t like that, play on this kind of device also waste money.