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hmurchison
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: LV 426
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2005-03-11, 11:22

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My money's on Blu-Ray now. The HD guys have a less advanced product and it's hard to see Toshiba NEC Warner standing up against the like of Sony Matsushita Dell HP Apple in the marketplace. First Blu-Ray devices expected Q4 this year
You might want to read this link first

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/186/4 it's very fair and balanced. Then you might want to check out www.hddvdprg.com

Let me explain why Blu-Ray is assumed to be superior in a nutshell.

Let's preface this by stating what the movie studio's goals are in a new format.

1. They want a HD format that is inexpensive yet has quality.
2. They want a HD format that fits on one disc saving costs
3. They want to amortize the costs of their pressing plants.

Thus you had 100's of companies joining the DVD Forum with the goal of creating a unified new architecture for the next generation DVD. HD-DVD.

Sony had been working on their ProData optical storage using Blue Laser tech for some time and evidently they saw the opportunity to branch out on their own. They left the group and took "friends" with them to create Blu-Ray.

So ...now we have a fractured strategy. What was once the design for a unified format now is a two horse race. The question is what horse wins? Let's sum them up.

Blu-Ray -

This is a strong thoroughbred indeed. 25GB of capacity in a single layer and 50GB for a dual layer. Sony achieves this by have a very narrow track pitch , pit length and numerical aperature. Sony achieves this by having a very small protective layer at .1 mm versus a standard DVD layer of .6 mm. This is why Blu-Ray discs initially came with a caddy. This is also why Blu-Ray has a definitive advantage in storage space.

The downsides are that this change in track pitch, pit length and NA are different from DVD in such a way that using todays pressing plants is not an option. Thus we gain the extra space but we lose any trace to DVD's lineage. Pressing plants will need to buy Blu-Ray specific presses which cannot be retrofitted to produce SD DVD. With Blu-Ray we break from the past and start anew. Red Laser support in Blue Ray is tacked on at best.

HD-DVD-

Because HD-DVD was designed to be the next generation DVD format it stays with its lineage by using the same disc structure and numerical aperture. HD-DVD is able to support red laser DVD quite easily as they have a single-lens optical head that supports red and blue diodes and many of today's pressing plants can be pressing HD-DVDs with 5 minutes of change over. Each individual HD-DVD disc can be stamped in about 2.8 seconds. A full second over Blu-Ray estimates. This translates into more discs stamped in a day and cost savings.

Summary -

HD-DVD was designed to be the natural successor to DVD. They have created and elegant solution that gives studios the 2hrs of HD content they desire at the lowest cost and least amount of expenditure for pressing plants. Sony has given us wonderful optical technology that eschews many of the design goals desired by the DVD Forum and movie studios. Because of that you are seeing a couple of things that are salient.

1. HD-DVD discs are easier to manufacture and to whit they have announced 89 titles for delivery in 2005. Blu-Ray has yet to announce any titles.

2. The HD-DVD groups are fairly confident to toss out $1k for the players. The Blu-Ray group must remain silent until they actually know what the players and discs will cost.

It is reasonable to assume given the infomation we have now that HD-DVD will remain the price leader for HD and should gain marketshare with a very price conscious population worldwide. I believe many of us will have two drives but if one drive had to be chosen HD-DVD would be the logical format in my opinion based on the facts.

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