NationStates Jolt Archive

With both new formats coming out, we will likely see a Beta vs. VHS format war. Who will win it? Blu Ray is the superior product, but then again Beta was superior to VHS. The hope for Blu Ray is that Sony learned their lesson and will properly market Blu Ray. Their disaster with Beta has become a frequently looked at case study of what happens with poor marketing.

PLease respond, I mean we are talking about the biggest step in terms of data storage since the CD was introduced. You will be able to have 200 GB on a single multi-layred Blu Ray disk that is the size of a DVD or CD. PS3 will also use Blu Ray. Imagine the games on a 200 GB disk. I can't wait for GTA IV with that much space at their disposal.

Meh, I'll wait till one of them becomes obsolete and start using the other one.

How long can it take for there's a machine that reads both?
I'm not sure either will turn obsolete. Just look at the plethora of memory cards; at least half a dozen formats, all still in use.

I know jackall about the different formats, but I seem to remember the last time this question was asked here someone mentioned that HD DVD was backwards compatable with regular DVDs and blu-ray wasn't. I think that makes all the difference in the world, especially having worked in a music store hearing people say that they didn't want to get a cd player because they didn't want to throw away all thier tapes. I would occasionally try and explain that the cd player doesn't smash their tape player when they go out, but it was an uphill battle.

Hmmm.. Considering I'm a huge fan of PS and with the PS3 coming out.. This 'Blu Ray' sounds pretty cool. But hey, I don't know anything about either.

I know jackall about the different formats, but I seem to remember the last time this question was asked here someone mentioned that HD DVD was backwards compatable with regular DVDs and blu-ray wasn't. I think that makes all the difference in the world, especially having worked in a music store hearing people say that they didn't want to get a cd player because they didn't want to throw away all thier tapes. I would occasionally try and explain that the cd player doesn't smash their tape player when they go out, but it was an uphill battle.

If is backwards compatible I'd probably get HD DVD (Once it comes down in price, obviously). I've seen the films that are slated to be released on Blu-ray, and to be honest I'm fine with not being able to watch them.

But to be honest. I'll probably sit this one out for a few years, and hopefully regular DVDs will come down in price.

I think consumers who remember VHS v Betamax will sit back and wait for one to achieve dominance; which could have the unitended consequence of making them both slow off the mark.

Neither will win. The real winner will be HVD, not to be confused with HD DVD. HVD stands for Holographic Versatile Disc.

These discs will be able to store up to 3.9 TB or 3900GB of data. This is approximately 6000 times the capacity of a CD-ROM, 830 times the capacity of a DVD and 160 times the capacity of Blu-Ray discs. It will have a transfer rate of 1GB per second.

I think we have a clear winner.

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

I doubt either will have a major breakthrough, at least in the beginning, if only for the fact that you pretty much have to invest in a HDTV if you want to enjoy the better quality. That means a double cost for TV + player. Also, the two competing formats risk killing each other. They might just go the way of the laser disc, or the MD.

Neither will win. The real winner will be HVD, not to be confused with HD DVD. HVD stands for Holographic Versatile Disc.

These discs will be able to store up to 3.9 TB or 3900GB of data. This is approximately 6000 times the capacity of a CD-ROM, 830 times the capacity of a DVD and 160 times the capacity of Blu-Ray discs. It will have a transfer rate of 1GB per second.

I think we have a clear winner.

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc


Wow... that will be the shit when the prices comes down... in 2025 or so... so I guess I'll go for a Blu-ray until then though:)

Neither will win. The real winner will be HVD, not to be confused with HD DVD. HVD stands for Holographic Versatile Disc.With the cost for a HVD-reader at around $15.000 and discs at $100, I don't think it will be a winner for the consumer market.
DVDs may take a bit more space, but considering I can buy thousands of them for the price of the reader, and a hundred for a disc, it's no contest.

I predict a long vicious battle, with neither side winning. Which could be god, becuase then both sides will have to try and undercut the other, so the consumers get cheaper electronics.

Wow thats short sighted. I seriously doubt it will take long for the price of technology like HVD to come down. And even if it takes 5, 10 years it will still blow the other two out of the water. I have currently got 4 top of the line computers and they just have the hard drive capacity of one HVD Disk. Even if it NEVER got cheap enough to reach the consumer market this thing is a dream come true for many companies.

Neither will win. The real winner will be HVD, not to be confused with HD DVD. HVD stands for Holographic Versatile Disc.

These discs will be able to store up to 3.9 TB or 3900GB of data. This is approximately 6000 times the capacity of a CD-ROM, 830 times the capacity of a DVD and 160 times the capacity of Blu-Ray discs. It will have a transfer rate of 1GB per second.

I think we have a clear winner.

More Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc
I can't find an article about HVD except ones in Feb. of 2005. The Wiki entry lists Optware coming out with one next month, but the closest thing I came by was a 30gb card that had the 1gps rate with cards that cost, if I was reading that right, $1. The reader cost $1800, but since P2 cards cost close to that I'd love to buy a reader for that and a bunch of 30gb cards and use that on the Panasonic AG-HVX200 instead of P2 cards...sorry, that last bit was just for me...

With the cost for a HVD-reader at around $15.000 and discs at $100, I don't think it will be a winner for the consumer market.
DVDs may take a bit more space, but considering I can buy thousands of them for the price of the reader, and a hundred for a disc, it's no contest.

Yeah, but the price of these things will drop pretty quickly. DVD+RWs weren't cheap a few years ago.

I just think we should put a freeze on technology. I'm fucking fed up of having to get used to CDs, and buying a £100 CD-RW recorder; then having to in a few years get a £100 DVD system and DVD-RW drive, get used to that, and then they tell me that i've got to either live in a cave for a few years while Blu-Ray and HDDVD duke it out and THEN a stupid holographic disc comes out.

So fuck Blu Ray and the PS3, i'll stick with the PS1 with the really cool games :)

The trick is not to upgrade until they release a feature you cannot emulate with what you have already, and then when forced, really bite the bullet don't bother waiting for that next great thing to come out, because there's always something great coming out. its a conspiracy to give us all head (and wallet) aches.

The only reason we're even debating this is not due to previous technologies being defunked, but rather down to the media distributers having invested so much money into both formats. They're simply worried that 'Joe Public' will realise both formats are superflous and won't spend their hard earned money on them.

Sony, MGM, Paramount and the like only want to introduce a format they have more copyright control over, in an attempt to stamp out piracy. We all know a screener will fit on a DVD anyway, so if piracy is your agenda (I'd like to point out that I personally don't condone the practice), you're still going to be able to watch and distribute the latest "Generic-Hollywood-Toss: 5" without having to switch to either format. No doubt it won't take long before some enterprising individuals work around the copyright protection anyway.

I'll just get the one that is cheaper.

The one that's cheaper to make, allways wins, when they both can provide basically the same thing as the other. And in this case, I guess it really doesn't matter that much, so it'll come down to price.

That's the first rule of business.

Oh it'll take no time at all for piracy to adjust. THe only people the new piracy ontrols will really adverslyaffect are the consumers. However new storage mediums offer import improvements to numerous industries they really arnt superflous.

Has the previous format been "defunked" well its not obselete, but its hardly ideal. Technology just precede and companies must make money, the two often dont mix well but they are both necessary.

The one that's cheaper to make, allways wins, when they both can provide basically the same thing as the other. And in this case, I guess it really doesn't matter that much, so it'll come down to price.

That's the first rule of business.

Not so. The one that is most profitable wins. It could be that one is cheaper to make but it takes a long time and you can't make very many in this case an easier to make and more expenive product will be more profitable because of the increased volume of sales.

I know jackall about the different formats, but I seem to remember the last time this question was asked here someone mentioned that HD DVD was backwards compatable with regular DVDs and blu-ray wasn't.
Um, both are backwards compatible.

How long can it take for there's a machine that reads both?
I'm not sure either will turn obsolete. Just look at the plethora of memory cards; at least half a dozen formats, all still in use.
Neither will be obsolete, but I doubt both will suceed. This same thing happened 30 years ago when VHS came out to compete with the superior Beta. VHS won because Sony's marketing department really fucked up. Almost every marketing class you will take in college will look at this case study.

Blu Ray will win though because the PC users will heavily favor it. HP and Dell will soon have PCs with Blu Ray drives. PC users love extra space and BluRay will win because of that.

I know jackall about the different formats, but I seem to remember the last time this question was asked here someone mentioned that HD DVD was backwards compatable with regular DVDs and blu-ray wasn't. I think that makes all the difference in the world, especially having worked in a music store hearing people say that they didn't want to get a cd player because they didn't want to throw away all thier tapes. I would occasionally try and explain that the cd player doesn't smash their tape player when they go out, but it was an uphill battle.
All Blu Ray players that are being released will have both the red laser used by DVDs and the blue laser for Blu Ray so they will be compatible with DVDs.

Digi-delivery will kill them both.

I don't know. Blu Ray sounds superior, but the name seems rather silly, with its purposeful misspelling and such compared to HD DVD.

This HVD is still in the research process and the specifications are only theoretical. It could take 10 years before one is made and another 10 years to perfect it and a year to release it. So, maybe in 2027, the HVD will come out and in 2030, it will be cheaper.

So, in 24 years time, I might use HVD.

Anyway, HD DVD will win the war. Sony are win-win anyway, because if they lose they will still use them on the PS3.

Also, the HD DVD is already done, but Blu-Ray isn't finished yet. So, that is another reason HD DVD will win.