“With Samsung set to release the first Blu-ray disk player next month, the Blu-ray Disk Association is confident that it will prevail in the next-generation format battle with rival HD-DVD. Blu-ray representatives said consumers need to look no further than the companies supporting each format to know which format will ultimately win. ‘We have just about everybody in the consumer electronics industry supporting Blu-ray at this point,’ Andy Parsons, senior vice president of product development for Pioneer, told Macworld. ‘These are all the brands that are associated with new technologies like Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, LG, Samsung and others.’ Supporters of the HD-DVD format include Toshiba, NEC, Intel and Microsoft, but Parsons said when it comes to getting players into peoples homes Blu-ray has the power of the consumer electronics companies behind them,” Jim Dalrymple reports for Macworld.
“Looking at what will ultimately drive adoption of a particular format, Parsons says the ‘killer app’ for this format battle will be no different than in the past — content. ‘The killer app for this technology is high-definition motion picture distribution — that is the underlying premise that drives everything else,’ said Parsons. With content as king, both Blu-ray and HD-DVD went after the motion picture studios to publish content in their respective formats. While there were wins for both sides, ultimately Blu-ray came out on top,” Dalrymple reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple is playing both sides of the fence in a wait and see mode. In a press release from April 17, 2005, Apple stated: “Apple is committed to both emerging high definition DVD standards—Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. Apple is an active member of the DVD Forum which developed the HD DVD standard, and last month joined the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association.” According to The Blu-ray Disc Association’s website, HD DVD’s pre-recorded capacities are 15 GB for a single layer disc, or 30 GB for a double layer disc. Blu-ray Disc provides 67% more capacity per layer at 25 GB for a single layer and 50GB for a double layer disc.
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Related articles:
RUMOR: Apple asks studios to include iPod video content on Blu-ray discs – April 25, 2006
Blu-Ray or HD DVD? – March 10, 2006
Broadcom announces decoder chip that plays both Blu-ray and HD DVD – January 03, 2006
Forrester Research: Apple-backed Blu-ray will win over Microsoft-backed HD DVD – October 20, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘it looks as if HD DVD’s days are numbered’ – October 07, 2005
China to develop own as-yet-unnamed DVD format; Blu-ray vs. HD DVD vs ? – October 07, 2005
Paramount’s decision gives Blu-ray slight lead over HD DVD in next gen DVD format war – October 04, 2005
Record set straight on Blu-ray Disc Association’s superior high definition format – September 29, 2005
Microsoft backs cheaper, less sophisticated, lower capacity HD DVD over Apple-backed Blu-ray format – September 27, 2005
Twentieth Century Fox joins Apple, Dell, HP, others to support Blu-ray Disc format – July 29, 2005
Poll shows Apple-backed Blu-ray preferred by consumers over HD DVD for next-gen DVD standard – July 14, 2005
Microsoft allies with Toshiba on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc backers Apple and Sony – June 27, 2005
Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors – March 10, 2005
Bill Gates has just announced a new format that he’s discovered that he thinks will win out over both of these formats: it’s something called ‘Betamax’
You’re close… but I think Bill actually is backing VHS, since it is inferior technology and has the market potential to win this format war…
It seems Apple has learned its lesson since supporting DVD-Ram rather than CD-R in early G4s.
Yawwwwwn!
That should be “disc” with a “C”
Disks are computer disks, discs are optical media.
There should not be a battle to begin with. They need to work together to create a standard that fits best with the consumer. and provides the consumer the best bang for the buck. Screw this competition and battles. if they worked together this HD-disc technology would be mainstream already…
Why would they do that? Do you understand that Sony is set to make billions in royalties if their Blu-Ray format wins? This is a high stakes game, much more high stakes then seeing that the “consumer” has the best product
This battle is over royalties and nothing but royalties. Everyone knows that.
The HD disc format war is likely to turn out like Laserdisc — video connoisseurs will buy into it, but before any “winner” can be declared all home video will be solid state. Camcorders are already heading that way. As a repair tech I love it; no moving parts.
It’s ironic that just as HD is hitting the marketplace (as “time shifted” media — I know the TVs have been around) consumers are also heading the other way with portable content, like the videos on iPod.
Personally, I wished they had came out with this last year. I’ve been watching hi-def content on cable for awhile and have been waiting needlessly over this. Plus, I’ve got a h-def camera but no ability to watch it anywhere else but my Mac (unless I use my cam as a VTR).
Just hurry it up already!
Oh yea, Best Buy is selling HD-DVD players for $500… seems like a pretty good intro price for technology…
Y’know it’s only ‘disc’ with a ‘c’ because they weren’t allowed to trademark ‘compact disk’, so I suppose either are correct.
Same thing with ‘Blu ray’
WHY OH WHY cant they just make ‘ONE’ HD Disc Format… i hate this one or the other, its stupid and BORING!!! Get together and make a super HD disc thing…
They could make a million varieties and formats and I wouldn’t care. I’ll just wait and see what gets to market and it’s quality. Why tie yourself in a knot now?
I’ll wait for the players to drop in price to about 200 or less.
It will be interesting what drives Apple finally decides to use in their macs. I would imagine the drive would need to be able to play and burn regular DVDs and CDs in it is to be used in laptops, minis and imacs. I figure that may take a few years to happen.
The major motion picture industry did NOT lead the video formats. It was the pornography industry to lead, both, the VHS and DVD formats.
HD-DVD doesn’t bother me because it’s MS’s choice, it bothers me because it STORES less and DOES less.
Porn won’t lead this change BTW. Nobody needs high-def porn. Shudder.
Apple is smart to not fight this one. Just being ready for both or either is the right position. But there is one difference that could affect Apple and Microsoft — 1080p. Blue ray supports 1080p and HD DVD does not, IIRC. The Apple Mac Mini has been shown to be able to handle 1080p. If M$ fails to support 1080p on their media center, they could be cursed with the “inferior” label.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all that Apple’s first HD drive offering will be HD-DVD. It is the only one that is backward compatible with DVD and therefore it’s the only way that they will be able to continue to sell computers on their iLife merits (iDVD, iMovie HD, etc.). And that’s only if the HD-DVD drives are DVD-burnable. I haven’t heard anyone yet suggest that HD-DVD disks are expected to have a burnable consumer version anytime soon.
From the article: “Looking at what will ultimately drive adoption of a particular format, … the ‘killer app’… will be … content… [H]igh-definition motion picture distribution … drives everything else… [B]oth Blu-ray and HD-DVD went after the motion picture studios to publish content in their respective formats. While there were wins for both sides, ultimately Blu-ray came out on top…”
That last statement remains to be seen. In fact, the ‘battle lines’ are continuously being re-drawn as the companies jocky for position, and as that process has played out HD-DVD has gained more than it’s lost.
The reason for that is simple – cost and availability. These factors are what will “ultimately drive adoption”, because content is a given; once consumers decide which they can better find and afford, content providers will follow suit like kids following the ice cream man’s truck.
As is well known now, HD-DVD is substantially less expensive then BluRay – to make, to sell, and even to play (when once considers the price of BluRay players being 2x higher). Yes, cost to the consumer will come down for BluRay discs and gear as time goes by and production ramps up, but the same thing is true for already cheaper HD-DVD. And when all is said and done, as long as a high def movie disc (which a single-sided 15GB HD-DVD disc is more than capable of handling, let alone a 30GB double-side one) fits in the same case with a regular DVD disc filled with all the extras (b/c no one will care whether that stuff’s high def or not), then the vast majority of the public will be satisfied. Again, cost to the consumer will determine which of these technologies wins out.
Apple was dumb for jumping on the BluRay bandwagon so early, but they’re smart to hedge their bets now. BluRay won’t come out on top in this fight.
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