HD DVD vs Blu-ray

The largest format war since VHS v Betamax is currently being waged on the pages of every technology web site and every DVD/Movie magazine available.

The vast majority of people are ignoring the technology, in fact, while all TVs sold are currently HD ready the sales of high definition playback devices are painfully slow. With the exception of Toshiba HD DVD players and Sony Blu-ray DVD players the volume of Sky HD boxes, playback devices like Apple TV and other movie format devices are almost non existent.

In my humble opinion the sales of DVD players has been slowed due to 1. the lack of availability of titles, or the perceived lack of titles 2. the price of the players in question. 3. the fact that most punters are happy with the standard definition DVD.

Apple’s announcement that movie rentals, with HD content, will be available for download through iTunes and Applt TV, is the most significant milestone on the HD road so far…OK so it’s only available in the US and the Apple TV only plays back in 720p, but I do believe this is a taste of things to come. iTunes currently dominates the US market for music to an extent that it is currently nigh on impossible to find a CD store in Manhattan .

One of the major issues I would have in purchasing a new player is I still need a standard DVD player to play my collection, only some players will be backward compatible. So for now I’ll buy a DVD player that upscales my standard DVDs.

Have a look at the links below to try make sense of it all.

http://www.arcam.co.uk/downloads/Arcam%20Technical%20Report%20Making%20Sense%20HD%20Disc%20Formats.pdf

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0275797200801

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9864122-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt

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