Hooray for Blu-ray
I've never used either a Blu-ray or an HD DVD disc, but I'm excited about the news that the former appears to well on its way to becoming the undisputed winner in the latest Format War. With Toshiba's waving of the white flag, there are no heavyweights remaining in HD DVD's corner, and consumers and manufacturers alike can start getting serious about creating and using high capacity discs.
I don't know if the best product won, based on the technical specs, although it's difficult to argue against Blu-ray's 25 gigabytes of capacity per disc, compared to HD's paltry 15. Make that 50 gig for a dual-layer disc and you're talking about serious storage capacity. The important point is that someone (or something) has won, and we can get on with business.
The biggest problem I see with such high capacity discs – regardless of format – is the time it takes to write them. According to this FAQ, a 1x Blu-ray drive takes 93 minutes to write a 25 gig disc, and a 2x drive takes, well, half as long. But 46 minutes is still a long time to wait for a backup to complete (and we all know how those theoretical speeds translate into the real world). Of course, the real question is how far away are we from 40x Blu-ray burners?
For those who have already invested in HD DVD players, you have my sympathy. I'm the guy who's still waiting for 8 tracks to make a comeback.
Tim is still holding out for BetaMax to make a comeback, so you're not alone, Eric. Well, and my dad is holding off on a CD player for the house because he knows DAT is really the better way to go...
On the flip side, maybe now that there's starting to be a "winner" on this, Tim'll let me replace our DVD player that hasn't worked in...oh...a year?
Posted by: beth at February 20, 2008 09:19 AMAbout the publisher
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Eric, re: "I don't know if the best product won" ..... unfortunately, that isn't always the case.
It would be interesting to read about Disney's impact on the Blu-Ray-or-HD-DVD debate. Their promotions for films being released on disc over the past year really emphasized the Blu-Ray brand.
One related industry that might be relieved to see the emergence of Blu-Ray is disc/player rental/sales ..... this will make management of their hi-def inventory a little easier.
You and I both remember a series of competitions between formats over the years ..... that doesn't mean we're getting old, does it?
Posted by: Jeff at February 20, 2008 05:42 AM