Blu-Ray vs HD DVD - Has Walmart Decided The Battle HD DVD vs Blu-Ray | Home Theater System Reviews

Blu-Ray vs HD DVD - Has Walmart Decided The Battle HD DVD vs Blu-Ray

Has Walmart decided the battle of Blu-Ray vs HD DVD? As reported on Saturday in my local paper, Walmart said it will start offering High Definition DVD players and discs only in Sony's Blu-ray format and will phase out Toshiba's HD DVD format. More bad news for Toshiba in the format wars between Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD

Just last week, both Netflix and Best Buy stated that they were planning to stop selling movies in the Toshiba HD DVD format. This has got to be the biggest war since the VHS vs. BetaMax in the 1980's. And in January, Warner Brothers Entertainment said would stop releasing their movies in the HD DVD format by the end of May. But Viacom's Paramount Pictures and General Electric's Universal Pictures are still committed to the Toshiba HD DVD format.

Since 2002 when both HD DVD and Blu-Ray put their systems out, the industry has been working to sort out the best format for the market. As you may remember, Sony has a history for creating incompatible products like Beta-Max video tape (against VHS) and Memory Stick flash memory (against SD), so despite the initial advantages of Blu Ray vs Toshibas HD DVD format, there were many skeptics.

Are the consumers the ones driving these decisions of Blue-Ray vs HD DVD? Or is this decision being driven by the politics between the technology companies? Walmart executives insist that "we've listened to our customers, who are showing a clear preference toward Blu-ray products and movies with their purchases.

The current contenders proposing these formats had some heavyweight electronic giants in their corners. Companies like Sony, Panasonic and Dell support Blu-Ray Disc format while Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Microsoft, Hewlett-Pack and Intel have supported HD DVD.

Fortunately both formats operate in the same way as CD - meaning that a laser scans the reflective surface of the disc, reading or writing data which is stored in the form of microscopic pits that are molded into the disc.

Both formats use a blue violet laser to scan, operating at 450nm. The old red laser operating a 650nm is put at a disadvantage. It is out of date because the new laser technology can focus the laser spot with much greater precision. This allows more microscopic pits and therefore more data on the disc, giving greater capacity.

HD DVD physical format is close to the existing DVD format but with a blue/violet laser and new data processing techniques the capacity is increased.

Blu-Ray use an aperture lens on its laser which produces a cone like beam which will allow for even smaller microscopic pits and more data to be squeezed onto a disc.

That way the information can be more tightly packed. Blu-Ray claims it can fit five times more information on one disc than there is available on a conventional DVD. This extra space makes it possible to fit HD quality movies and sound that will not fit on currently available DVDs. Blu-Ray players will also be backward compatible, which means that they will play CDs and DVDs as well. It will not support the HD DVD format.

In terms of Video quality there is little difference as both Blu-Ray and HD DVD support MPEG 4 and MPEG 2 and Microsoft's VC1.

Overall, the two formats are very similar technologically. The only real difference is capacity. Yet Blu-Ray seems to have an edge on marketing their product. More studios and electronic companies are using the Blu-Ray format. The issue that has driven the bigger players like Microsoft into the HD DVD camp is the software. It allows you to use the interactive content on the disc and the mandatory manage copy feature. It's this very feature that some in Hollywood are keen to have closed after losing out to the pirate DVD market that cost them millions. That is the major division between computer companies and Hollywood.

So in the end it appears that in the format battle of Blu-Ray vs HD DVD, Blu-Ray will win because the people that make the content at the studios want more control over pirating and access to more capacity than Toshiba's HD DVD format provides. And unlike the VHS vs. Betamax ware, Sony will finally have a win.

Will the consumers also have a win? The free market society competition that drove these companies to offer better quality at a fair price has been great. And it has kept the video media industry from having a monopoly on a high demand product. Now it all comes down to pricing and affordability of the Blue-Ray format vs the HD DVD format for the consumers.

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