A Possible Conclusion to the War Between HD-DVD and Blu-ray by Julia Hall

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A Possible Conclusion to the War Between HD-DVD and Blu-ray
by Julia Hall

High Definition Television is widely considered to be the next generation of television technology because it offers a theater-like picture and sound quality that can be experienced right in the living room. While this wide screen, high resolution format shows a lot of promise, it's been relatively slow to catch on in the United States. The sluggishness of Americans to accept HDTV can be attributed to a number of things like high price of equipment, scarcity of programming, and a lack of complimentary technology like a high definition version of DVD's and Digital Video Recorders.

Electronics manufacturers are working on solving a number of these problems. Prices are coming down on equipment, HD Digital Video Recorders are available, and there's more programming in the High Def format now than there's ever been before. There still remains a problem with a high definition version of DVD's, though. The technology exists to put High Definition video on a video disc and to play that video back on a High Definition television set. The problem is that there are two competing formats of high definition DVD's: HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Both have advantages over each other. Blu-ray discs can hold more data, but their players are more expensive and some people claim that their quality is inferior to HD-DVD's. The problem comes from the fact that some major players in the home entertainment electronics, computer, and motion picture industries are backing each of these formats. That means that which one will come out on top could be determined more by who can release the most attractive movie and software titles in one format or the other rather than which technology is superior. Since it's generally agreed that only one format will come out on top, the consumer response has been to avoid buying either product until the whole mess sorts itself out and a winner has been declared.

Recently however, a possible technological solution to this largely economic problem has appeared. Three employees of Warner Bros. have recently filed a patent for a new type of high definition video disc that can be played on either Blu-ray players or HD-DVD players. It takes advantage of the fact that Blu-ray and HD-DVD players read information encoded at different depths in the disk. That way it's possible to have Blu-ray formatted data on the same side of a disc as HD-DVD formatted data. If this technology becomes the standard for manufacturing discs, then consumers will be free to buy HD-DVD players or Blu-ray players without having to worry about being stuck with a worthless lump of electronics when a winner appears. In fact this technology could make it a draw and the two formats could compete purely on the basis of which player is better.

There are some potential problems that need to be resolved though. On the technical side, we have to wonder if this technology would drive the cost of the discs up enough to be prohibitively expensive. On the legal side, could this technology be blocked by the possibility of a law suit by Warner Bros. against the employees who filed for the patent? On the economic side, do the big businesses who have invested either of the formats have enough to lose by seeing this compromise go through, that they'll engage in some kind of legal (or illegal) meddling to block it?

Another thing that could get in the way, is the possibility that movie studios releasing DVD's won't get on board with the technology. After all, if consumers aren't reassured about the technology, they won't buy the players to begin with, and if this technology doesn't become mainstream it won't do anything to move this mess toward a conclusion.

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Posted on: January 4,2007

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