20051128

More DVD Format Wars



For more than a year now, a bitter public relations war has been waged between supporters of Blu-ray and a rival Toshiba-backed technology known as HD DVD. Both are high-capacity discs that will support the distribution of high-definition versions of movies, with much better picture quality than what's possible with today's technology.

Blu-ray appears to have the lead, with most major movie studios saying they'll release films in the format next year. That's led to new concerns about mass production of DVDs in the new format. Since it represents a major break with past DVD and CD techniques, some worry Blu-ray will be expensive to support--at least in the short term--and could jack up prices for consumers.


For the last year, we've heard a lot about Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD. In the end, like so many other things, it may have little to do with the better format, and a lot more to do with the cost. Maybe we should just stick with DVD's for a while.

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