the HD Guy

Warner Bros. Entertainment has just announced they will release high definition DVD exclusively in the Blu-ray format… This sounds like very bad news for the other side, the HD-DVD in the high def format war.

The HD-DVD group even cancelled their CES press conference because of this announcement.

Some rumours talk about a large money incentive to explain Warner’s switch. Others talk about Microsoft supporting the HD-DVD side, only to maintain the war, and eventually push high def downloads and streaming… Even more rumours talk about the other current “HD-DVD” backers, turning to Blu-ray as well.

But what does it really mean for the end user?
Of course one format is better than two. But the player cost is also important. Several HD-DVD players can be found for less than $200 but no Blu-ray players at this point.

It’s also interesting to mention that at CES 2008, several dual format high def players have been released from companies such as LG or Samsung. (even though for a price)

Another important factor to consider before declaring Blu-ray the winner, is the fact that the porn industry seems to have chosen the HD-DVD side…

We will probably see more changes and announcements in the next few weeks, that will help the big high def picture to become clearer.

At the end of the 90s, we started replacing our VHS tapes, with tiny shiny discs providing a much better quality, some interactivity, and taking less room on the shelves: DVDs. The good news was, as long as you stay in your “region", you could get your DVDs from anywhere without having to worry.

Comes the world of High Definition… Unfortunately, the industry was unable to agree on one standard, and two of them appeared completely incompatible: HD-DVD and Blu-ray.

HD-DVD is lead by Toshiba, Hitachi and Microsoft and is technically closer to the previous generation making the transition itself easier for the manufacturers.

Blu-Ray is lead by Sony, with multiple Consumer Electronics manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, Philips… and has a higher capacity per disk while being more expensive to manufacture.

But the real problem is that you cannot expect to have the same content on both formats: some of the movie studios have decided to release their movies exclusively on one of the other.

A good advice at this point: because the two technologies are completely incompatible, be careful that the high def DVD you purchase are compatible with the players they will be played on.

More later on the great HD DVD war…