Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD

The sweet smell of nostalgia, anyone? VHS vs. Beta Max? David vs. Goliath?

Whats the fracus all about? Well two large electronic corporate factions are set to wage war staged at the forefront of the storage industry revolution, with us, the consumers being the judges of who the winner will be. The issue: the next generation of digital storage media technology. Well the battlefield has been drawn and the rules of engagement have been established. These two technologies are set to go head to head against each other. Before I go into the details, lets take our time, to focus on the fine lines, so that we can depict the growth of each of these technologies that will do battle before us.

The Contenders: First Glance [4]

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Left Hand Corner: Team Sony + Philips Blu-Ray

Team Blu, with its core members being Sony and Philips, began their respective journeys together as far back as 1979 when they came up with the "Compact Disc", a venture that was spearheaded by successes that Philips had made in 1969 with its "Laserdisc". They teamed up again in 1990 to produce the Multimedia Compact Disc (MMCD) but this was more or less abandoned to Toshiba's Super Disc (SD) which had a vast majority of backers at the time, including Hitachi, Panasonic and Time Warner. The battles continued and in eventually Team Blu cut a deal with its competition, brokered by IBM in a new deal: the DVD. They enventually got the bottom hand on this deal as they were recieveing far less of the royalties from the DVD brand than their competitiors. They were not to be out done and begun work on the next generation of storage media the Professional Disc for Data or PDD, this has eventually let to the emergence of the Blu-Ray Disc.[1]

THE FACTS

Pros: Dual Layer Capacity: 50 Gb, Theoretical Capacity: 200 Gb
Cons: Lack of current availability. Loss in time worth in the market.
Marketing Strategy: "We will take our time, but you will not be disappointed..." [1]
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Right Hand Corner: Team Toshiba+Hitachi HD DVD

Toshiba has its roots as far back as 1990 where it was partenered by an entourage of powerhouses at the time led by Hitachi, Pioneer, Panasonic and Time Warner to produce the Super Disc (SD). It competed successfully and won against the MMCD and let to its opposition being force to cut a deal with them pivoted around IBM in 1990, at the time of birth of the DVD. They did very well particularly on account of royalties for the DVD brand, and continued on the success of the DVD through research, this research endeavor was intially titled the Advanced Optical Disc but was later renamed to the HD DVD that we see competing against the Blu-Ray today.[1]

THE FACTS

Pros: Current Availability. Time worth on the market, through early deployment.
Cons: Dual Layer Capacity: 30 Gb, Theoretical Capacity: 60 Gb
Marketing Strategy: "Next Gen Technology, you want it now? We've got it for you..."[1]
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In view of all that is mentioned in the respective sections above, several external factors play a major role. The industy of storage has an illustrious history of technology executions as with the Beta MAX - VHS battle. Beta MAX was actually a higher quality product, but failed to survive because of the simple reason that, at the time it would have taken the capacity of 2 BetaMAX storage units to record a regular movie, where as, it required only one VHS unit to store the same movie. Such fickle predications may yet be the deciding factor, even today. So is it too much to postulate the need for more storage, particulary with the induction of Hi-Definition services set to launch in the near future?

Further, what about the issue of compatibility? So far as we know it, the Blu-Ray contingency has usurped at least a 50% margin on its counterpart, in terms of industry supporting members ranging across the gaming, movie, data and IT industries. This is very much a hand in glove encounter, and it is close combat at its best, violent and dark analogies you say? Its just that real.

The Verdict

The message these words convey may seem politically correct to some, less prophetic than expected to others, but may still convey the greater truth, and those words are that both factions may just share the market... The reasons are fairly evolved in the sense that, in some instances the storage industry is discrete and in other instances they are continuous. By this I mean, that some subsets of the industry like gaming may require that a technology is selected during the process of platform development rather than a technology independant release of content, such as that of the movie industry. Most of the big players in the technology independant movie industry, have ironically selected to support both factions, typical of a non-discrete delpoyment industry subset. In the case of the gaming industry for example, corporates in view of their corporate strategy to maintain a competetive advantage, must evolve continuously by choosing the best technology that is available. It is for them that a short term solution might lend itself better than a marginally more proficient technology deployed several months later. So we may just see a situation of "horses for courses", of course the best situation would be total cross platform compatibility... But what are the chances of that? In either case, both players will have to play their cards just right, to end up on top, they face the reality of a "colossal fall" from grace, a painful lesson from yesteryear, did someone just mention BetaMAX?

--Rohith Ramkumar

References:

1. Engadget

2. The Shutdown

3. Cnet.com

4. Engadget Picture Source