Blu-ray or HD-DVD?

I like to be somewhere near the front lines of new technology and as I near the purchase of a new video format player I thought it appropriate to document my findings on the rival Blu-ray and HD-DVD high definition video formats.

Lets look at each individually first.

Blu-ray is the format child of Sony (SNE). The technology was first introduced in the late 1990's but because the REST of technology hadn't caught up there was no easy or cheap way of storing the quantity of data that was needed to reproduce true high definition pictures. Remember that around the turn of the millennium, an 80 gig hard drive PC was a joke and only the true tech junkies even knew what a terrabyte was.

The "Blu" in blu-ray is not just a marketing ploy it actually derives from the technology that makes the storage and reproduction of high def movies possible. If you've ever looked in a CD or traditional DVD player you see that there is a red laser. That beam however operates at a longer wavelength than the blue laser used for the HD format and therefore can not focus on an area narrow enough to pack all the data necessary on an HD disk. The Blu ray disks can store between 25 and 50 gigabytes, yes, gigabytes.

HD-DVD is the format child of Toshiba and was developed after what seems to be some backstabbing of some of the members of the DVD Forum- yes there is such a thing.Read about the DVD Forum here

A decision as to whether or not to endorse the blue laser technology could not be reached and Toshiba, after not backing the technology as Chair of the DVD forum, began development of its own blue laser HD format which was later named HD DVD in 2003.

And so its stands now, there are two HD options which use technology that is just different enough that almost all players will only support one format. Despite their differences the technological ability of each format is virtually the same.

This new format war has left everyone that still has a beta max player in their basement very concerned.

That is really where we stand today, two separate formats that do essentially the same thing fighting each other out to become the standard. We as consumers wishing to be if not on the cutting edge, at least wish to be a technological bellwether for our friends and family are forced to....guess who will ultimately "win".

If you are interested in a non-scientific yet still interesting breakdown of the two formats check this out. It does a good job of describing how each of the formats are being utilized. I am going to focus on what will ultimately decide the war and that is which format the movie studios pick.

No matter how superior one format may be over the other, the real issue is who supports it. There are eight major movie studios:

Paramount
Fox
Sony
MGM
Lionsgate
Warner
Disney
Universal

Universal and more recently Paramount are exclusively HD-DVD
Disney, Fox, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM are all exclusively Blu-ray

Warner seems to be the guy left in the middle making available its movies for both formats and is working on a format that will play on both players that may debut in 2008. This format, called Total HiDef or THD will have the blu-ray format on one side and the HD-DVD format on the other.

The other thing to keep in mind is how the video game world is utilizing the technology.

Sony has the playstation and logically, the current generation play station utilizes Sony's own Blu-ray technology, this becomes important because the Playstation 3 actually plays blu ray disks. A Playstation 3 can actually be purchased for near the price of a blu-ray player.

Microsoft has sided with the HD-dvd format however an add on that costs about $150 is necessary to play HD-DVD's. The fact that Microsoft continues to lose money by producing Xbox systems, I give another check to Blu-ray and Sony.

The key for the war is getting their name included in the vernacular. Here again I give the advantage to Blu-ray. A lot of money was paid to promote the technology and many people understand Blu-ray as the hot new item. HD-dvd by virtue of its name runs the risk of being misconstrued as a technology not a format. Just like "googling" doesn't necessarily mean using the google website, it's become synonymous with using a search engine, much to the chagrin of both google (GOOG), for copyright issues, and Yahoo (YHOO)- the loser of the search engine wars.

Even though the most recent change in movie studios backing a format was paramounts change to exclusively supporting HD-DVD this format war is Blu-ray's to lose. They've got the biggest of the big dogs, Disney on board.

I think its safe to say it's time to go blu-ray shopping. If Disney (DIS) as a supporter of the technology is good how about retail giant Wal-mart (WMT). Check out this Holiday special that offers 15 free blu-ray dvd's with the purchase of a Playstation 3.