Harry Goldbar
Special to the Turnagain Times
The battle for the next generation movie is on. Sony’s Blu-Ray and Toshiba/Samsung’s HD-DVD have stormed the market, both offering movies in high definition. But which of these provides the better viewing experience and has the capabilities to deliver HD to your home theater now and in the future?
Just over 24 million televisions in America have HD capabilities, yet only half of those televisions are actually used for HD viewing. Buying an HD set and hooking it up to your cable signal doesn’t provide any more detail than a regular TV set. To experience HD to its fullest, you need HD programming through HD cable service. Last year both Sony and Toshiba/Samsung released solutions in the form of Blu-ray and HD-DVD, respectively. Both formats offer HD content for the home theater environment, but the way in which they deliver that content is fundamentally different.
The most important thing to know about HD is that it takes up memory, lots of memory. A regular DVD holds 4.7 gigabytes (GB) of information on a single layer disc and 12 GB on a dual layer disc. HD-DVDs can hold up to 15 GB of data on a single layer, 25GB on a dual layer. Blu-Ray holds up to 25 GB of single layer data and 50 GB on a dual layer. The more data you can put on your discs, the clearer picture and sound you will get. Clearly, Blu-Ray holds an edge on the competition here.
A major impact on which format will end up being the dominant one depends on which format the studios release their films on. HD-DVD has exclusive rights to two studios, Universal and The Weinstein Company. Blu-Ray has exclusive rights to five studios, including Columbia Pictures, MGM, Disney, Lionsgate, and 20th Century Fox. Once again there is a clear advantage for Blu-Ray here.
A positive for HD-DVD are the four major studios that have committed to releasing their films on both formats: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. Even so, the number of titles released for HD-DVD has dropped off in recent months, and with the exclusive Blu-ray release of some big films, sales have swung in favor of Sony’s format.
Quite possibly the most important factor of these two formats is cost. The cost of films and the players are about even (around $300 per player). HD-DVD players used to be significantly cheaper than Blu-Ray players. Since their release, however, Blu-Ray players have come down in price and now rival that of the HD-DVD players. There is no real edge here but with more studios producing Blu-Ray discs, the smart consumer would buy a Blu-Ray Player.
The fourth and final consideration is the ability to make your own content. It could be argued that the availability of recordable media for both CDs and DVDs really helped cement their foothold in the market. Currently, anyone can go down to the local electronics store and purchase a Blu-ray burner and blank discs in both 25 and 50 gig varieties and provide someone with their own high-definition content. This isn’t the case for HD-DVD. The material does exist, but it’s not widely available and is generally much harder to get your hands on than Blu-Ray-related items.
This speaks volumes to the penetration of the Blu-ray format into the market. Stripped away of all the hype, both formats offer excellent quality, but when you take a hard look to see which format currently has the most going for it, the answer is clear or should I say Blu.