High Definition DVD's versus Blu Ray DVD's

Were in the middle of another format war. One camp is pushing evolution, a format that develops on from DVD to make it easy for the industry and the consumers to make the change. The other is preaching revolution, a format offering higher capacities now and even more storage in the future. Both initiatives claim their victory is inevitable, but when Sony, Panasonic and Dell square off against Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel nothing can be so certain. This is the mother of all format wars.

On a fundamental level, both operate in the same way as a CD. A laser scans the reflective surface of a disc, reading or writing data stored in the form of microscopic pits moulded into a substrate layer.

The physical format of the HD DVD media is close to that of DVD. It's the blue laser and some advanced data processing techniques that give it the increased capacity. Blu Ray however uses an increased aperture lens on the laser to concentrate the beam into a cone, allowing for even smaller pits and so even more data.

In terms of speed, there's no real difference. HD DVD has a base read/write speed of 36.5mb/s. Blu ray runs at 36mb/s.

So what about video quality? There's little to choose between the two formats, for the simple reason that both use the same three video codecs.

Early drives are expected to be expensive, but competition from Taiwanese manufacturers is certain to drive down prices. Having a drive that does both looks unlikely. Even if the technical differences in the read/write heads and media didn't make it difficult on a practical level, the licensing agreements and specifications involved make it impossible unless some compromise can be brokered.

Blu ray has the critical mass of the world's biggest electronics brand names, but HD DVD has the edge on pricing.

So the real differences between HD DVD and Blu Ray are more ones of vision than technology. Who will win? We will have to wait and see.

Special thank you to the Good Guys at Chatswood for letting us use their store to record this segment.

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