Blu-ray Tips

This will be a brief discussion of which technology - Blu-ray or HD-DVD - has more likelihood to be the dominant high definition technology.

First let’s look at the players.

HD-DVD is the development of Toshiba.  Currently, the list of companies that are so far major companies supporting the HD-DVD format are Microsoft, Intel, and Universal. 

Blu-ray was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), and is the collaborative efforts of over 170 companies.  Currently, the board of directors consists of:

Apple Computer, Inc.
Dell Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
TDK Corporation
Thomson Multimedia
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures
Warner Bros. Entertainment
Overall, seven major movie studios (including 5 of the top 6) have agreed to produce Blu-ray formatted discs, though not necessarily exclusively.  Only Universal is exclusively producing HD-DVD formatted discs.

So far - Blu-ray 1, HD-DVd 0

However, HD-DVD movies are already on the shelves in major electronics stores nationwide.  The new Toshiba HD-DVD players are also available, although in short supply. 

Blu-ray movies won’t be coming out until this summer.

Blu-ray 1  HD-DVD 1

Pricing:

When it comes to pricing, HD-DVD again has the advantage.  The HD-DVD players will initially costs hundreds less than Blu-ray players when they become available.

Blu-ray 1 - HD-DVD 2

PS3:

I realize this is kind of a wildcard, but we shouldn’t discount the fact that the Playstation 3, since it’s a sony product, will be shipping with a Blu-ray player, not HD-DVD.  The PS2 has sold over 100 million units, so if the PS3 performs similarily, there will be a lot of households that have Blu-ray players, but not HD-DVD, in the next several years.  Given the fact that Sony will sell the PS3 at a significant loss, will allow it to price its Blu-ray player competetively with HD-DVD players.

Blu-ray 2 - HD-DVD 2

Major Players

The largest names that have joined the HD-DVD group at Microsoft and Intel.

Blu-ray has Sony, Dell, Panasonic, Walt Disney, and Twentieth Century Fox.

It’s hard to pick a clear cut winner on this one, but there’s probably a slight edge for Blu-ray here.

Which brings our total to Blu-ray 3 - HD-DVD 2

I’m not saying that Blu-ray is certain to win this battle, and they may both survive, but from the looks of things, they have a small advantage presently.

My recommendation, however, is that unless you absolutley need to be on the bleeding edge of technology, you may want to wait until new players that play both formats are available (Phillips is currently developing one).  Also, the new 1080p displays required to take full advantage of these movies still aren’t out, and run around $10k, so waiting a little while probably isn’t a bad idea.

~Gary Ruplinger - Bluraytips.com