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HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray

By Male Muse ⋅ December 24, 2007 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Have you had a chance to watch one of your favorite movies in HD-DVD format?  I recently purchased a Toshiba HD-DVD player and all I can say is WOW!

You probably already have heard of the "format wars" going on between the two different standards proposed for the next generation high definition DVD format.  If not, here it is in brief:  The competing systems are called HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

For those of you old enough to remember, the last time the consumer was faced with a similar commercial video format conflict it was between Betamax (Sony) and VHS (just about everyone else).  The winner as we all know became the VHS video tape format.

Again the consumer is confronted with a choice.  We are facing this choice because the major electronic manufacturers were again unable to come to consensus on which format should be standardized going forward for next-gen home entertainment.

This situation is a pity because consumers will be choosing the players and disks for one system or the other and one system will most likely be rendered obsolete as soon as there becomes a majority stake in the marketplace.
With the players averaging $300 and the disks $25 each anyone choosing the loosing standard has a chance to waste a considerable investment.

If history is to repeat itself (Betamax = Blu-Ray, HD-DVD = VHS) it is most likely that the HD-DVD system will prevail.  Let's face it, if you, or someone you know has a video cassette tape collection, what format are the tapes?

I decided to purchase a HD-DVD player.  Several friends tried to convince me that the Blu-Ray format will become the standard because Sony PlayStation 3 has a Blu-Ray player inside.  Well, I have a Sony PSP with their "UMD" disk standard and that format is not exactly burning up the charts in sales either.  Additionally, the Sony PlayStation 3 has disappointed sales-wise due to it's high cost compared to competing video game consoles.
Another friend pointed me to some statistics available on the Internet where Blu-Ray proponents claim that Blu-Ray disk sales are 2:1 over HD-DVD sales.  To that statistic I point them to the announcement a couple months ago where Blockbuster stated that they will be supporting Blu-Ray.  As I write this Blockbuster is closing almost all their stores in my area.  I suspect that the Blu-Ray sales statistics take into account that Blockbuster may or may not have purchased a significant amount of disks before folding.

I can say that I based my purchase decision simply on bang for the buck.  I watched both disk formats in action on high-end systems (way better than what I have at home at least) in several stores.  These always were attached to large screen systems of the flat panel and projection variety.  To my eyes there is no noticeable difference in the picture quality, both are gorgeous.  What I found while shopping around is that HD-DVD players can be purchased for at least $100 less than Blu-Ray players.

The disks themselves are more or less equal in their cost.

I am very happy with my HD-DVD purchase, the movies I have purchased so far in HD-DVD format all look amazing, and my existing "normal" DVD collection also looks better now also because the Toshiba HD-DVD player does what is called up-scaling which improves the quality noticeably.

So go and check out HD-DVD yourself, I'm sure you will also find that it is the way to go for next generation DVD movies!