This information is from the great www.dvdboxoffice.com website. A great place to get DVD and a great price. Free shipping and no taxes on import.
Keyword: HD-DVD, Blu-Ray
2005 promises to be an exciting year for High-Def fans. This is the year that will see the launch of one of the biggest format wars in home entertainment since VHS vs. Betamax in the late 1970's/early 1980's.
In one corner is Sony's Blu-Ray, with its impressive roster of supporters, larger overall capacity, and already-released hardware in Japan. In the other corner is HD-DVD with it's smaller (but no less impressive) posse, and prophecied lower price tag. Who will emerge victorious? Only time will tell.
Enter your email address into the form below to be automatically sent news on the Next-Gen front lines, and join us as we track their progress through home entertainment history.
Blu-Ray
Getting the early start, Blu-ray has enjoyed more mindshare than HD-DVD, as well as a conglomerate of powerful backers. Technologically, the biggest edge Blu-ray appears to have over HD-DVD is that it offers 30 percent more capacity and is designed for recording high-def video. Rewritable BD-RW discs, with similar features to Panasonic's current DVD-RAM discs, can play back content while recording to the disc at the same time. Also, Sony owns Columbia Pictures and recently bought MGM, which gives it a leg up on releasing content. And PlayStation 3 certainly will carry a huge chunk of clout in the marketplace. The biggest knock against Blu-ray is that the discs--initially, at least--will be more costly to produce than HD-DVD media (though Sony claims otherwise).
Current Supporters
Sony (incl. Columbia Tri-Star and MGM), Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric, Philips Electronics, Pioneer Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, TDK, Thomson Multimedia, The Walt Disney Co.
Release Dates:Players already released in Japan. Expect to see some content released Q4 2005
HD-DVD
The name-- or phrase-- of the game for HD-DVD has been "Evolution, not Revolution". The name itself, HD-DVD, is far more familar and consumer-friendly than Blu-ray. HD-DVDs carry the same basic structure as current DVDs, so converting existing DVD manufacturing lines into HD-DVD lines is supposedly simple and cost effective. Memory-Tech, a leading Japanese manufacturer of optical media, stated that producing HD-DVD discs would initially cost only 10 percent more than for existing DVDs and that it could quickly bring the cost down to match that of standard DVD. However, for all it's apparent ease of integration, HD-DVD is still lacking in the capacity department. With a single side of a single layer disc ringing in at just 15GB, there's just no real competing with Blu-Ray in that arena at least.
Current Supporters
Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Memory-Tech, Microsoft (to support HD-DVD in next version of Windows operating system), Warner Home Video, Universal Studios, Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Dates: 89 titles announced from Warner, Universal and Paramount. Release dates to follow.
Latest News
EA and Vivendi Universal Games join Blu-Ray The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has announced that two leading game publishers, Electronic Arts (EA Games) and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games), have joined the BDA. "The delivery of high-definition games is becoming increasingly important to us. Blu-ray Disc has the capacity, functionality and interactivity we need for the kinds of projects we have in mind." said Scott Cronce, Electronic Arts Worldwide Studio CTO. "The technical requirements for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc technologies. Blu-ray Disc offers the capacity, performance and high-speed Internet connectivity to take us into the future of gaming." said Michael Heilemann, Chief Technology Officer, VU Games. The support from these two leading game publishers further strengthens the already overwhelming support for the Blu-ray Disc format among the world's leading gaming, consumer electronics, PC and entertainment companies.
Blu-Ray/DVD Hybrid Discs Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) today announced that it has developed the world's first Blu-ray/DVD combo disc technology, which opens the way for the emergence of video releases containing content in both Blu-ray and DVD formats on a single disc. The new combo disc, which has a total storage capacity of 33.5GB (25GB BD-ROM, 8.5GB DVD), uses a triple layer structure made possible by the development of a proprietary high-performance reflective film that reflects the blue laser used for Blu-ray, but is transparent to the red laser used for DVDs. JVC will forward a proposal to the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) to have the technology accepted as a specification for future commercialization. The company is also working on a Blu-ray/DVD combo disc with an even larger 58.5GB (50GB BD-ROM, 8.5GB DVD) storage capacity.