HD-DVD is Dead in the water.

[Psycho]

Well as anyone who isn't living in a hole will know there has been a format war going on recently, HD-DVD and PS3 With different companies supporting each such as Toshiba, Microsoft and Universal who were advocates of HD-DVD, whereas Fox, Sony and Disney were Blu-ray supporters.

 

But it looks like it is going Blu-rays way, this is due to many of the big companies choosing this formats side, including just recently Netflix and Best Buy who will only be stocking Blu-ray discs in the future. Even more importantly Toshiba one of the bigger supporters of HD-DVD from the beginning have also left the format presumable to go over to Blu-Ray to maximise their sales.

 

This therefore means the war is pretty much over and if you are thinking about buying a console not only to play games but also to play films amongst other things that will inevitable come out on Blu-ray, the best thing to do would be to buy a PS3, which even now is one of the best Blu-ray players out there with the ability to do more with the Blu-ray format and its different codecs than other dedicated Blu-ray player; that is completely ignoring the point it can play PS3 games as well.

 

Now most might think this is good news for Blu-ray but that may not be so. However, it will be good news for Sony who supply one of the best Blu-ray players. These new events will attract anyone who wants the console for not only games but other applications. The reason the news maybe more dire for Blu-ray in the short term is due to the fact they will now loose a lot of free advertising, the two formats were getting a lot of coverage due to their status with companies making pinnacle decisions between the two, critics comparing them to inform the consumer of their pros and cons, but even then people still really weren't going out and buying them in big numbers, most opting for up-scaling DVD players which makes use of your HDTV with your original DVD collection which is the cheaper option.

 

This will therefore mean that until people feel it necessary to go out and buy a Blu-ray player, such as when some films aren't put on DVD or they can afford an HDTV, they may not choose too. This will cause a reduction in sales and the consumer may even forget about the format completely until that point comes around.

 

It may have been different if HD-DVD had won due to the fact you could still play DVDs on the player, and this is what really needs to be integrated into the Blu-ray player drive, or even a combo between VCR, DVD and Blu-ray.

 

Now comes the question is it the best format, in most peoples eyes each had their own niches with HD-DVD drives working with DVDs making them more versatile as you would only need one drive in both computers and dedicated players for both formats. However if you think to the future when DVDs start to disappear like with videos then Blu-ray wins due to the fact it has larger storage capacities (Dual layered - 50GB) and faster read/write speeds of 216Mbit/sec (27MB/s), whereas HD-DVD could only hold 30GB on a dual layered disc and its read/write speed was only 72Mbit/s (9MB/s).

 

What comes for the future can only be speculated, maybe the price of Blu-ray won't reduce as fast due to less competition between formats, maybe it will reduce faster due to intra-competition between companies in the same market all changing their resources to make Blu-ray players increasing supply, of course which ever of these happens technology advancements within complementary products for the Blu-ray disc will evolve fast and better, due to the inevitable increase in sales.

 

But for now it is time to say goodbye to the past and look to the future of digital storage technology, Blu-ray.

[Pangloss]

The rumor mill was flying this morning on the Reuters story that Toshiba is about to cease manufacturing. This follows Wal-Mart's announcement on Friday that they would stop stocking the players.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSL1643184420080216

[Psyber]

Of course if we went to X-ray recording we could pack even more on to a disc. The shielding and disposal of used components needs a litle thought though!

[Klaynos]

Of course if we went to X-ray recording we could pack even more on to a disc. The shielding and disposal of used components needs a litle thought though!

 

Semiconductor lasers are difficult to manfacture (so VERY expensive) for shorter wavelengths than blue atm...

[YT2095]

well I for one am quite pleased about this, now all I have to do is wait ~5 years and go dumpster diving for some Blue Laser goodies

 

so far my 240mW Green is great, but I`v a feeling Blue might be even Better.

 

as for Gamma Ray Lasers, Please, don`t make me drool all over my desk!

[5614]

YT I had exactly the same thought! Currently most of the blue laser pointers are based on dismantled BluRay players, and as such are very expensive. Increased demand for BluRay means cheaper units, meaning cheaper blue lasers!!

[insane_alien]

HDDVD uses a blue laser as well, just wait till everyone is chucking those out because there are no movies for it.

[Pangloss]

Right, HD DVD also used a blue laser, and the current low-end player is selling at Amazon for only $139. That's practically dumpster-diving territory already. (grin)

 

What could you do with something like that, YT? Just curious.

[insane_alien]

its YT, so probably something along the lines of world domination would be the likely route.

[YT2095]

^^^ Wot he said ^^^

[YT2095]

btw, does anyone know off hand if these blue lasers are straight semiconductor types or DPSSFD types?

either way I still have a driver board and housing, I just wondered about it`s geometry.