January 9, 2008
HD DVD Spartans beaten down by Blu-ray Persians
If HD DVD is about to lose the next-generation DVD format war to Blu-ray, comparisons with the Betamax-VHS battle and even (for UK readers) the squarial versus Rupert Murdoch’s Sky television, seem particularly apt.
Both Betamax and British Satellite Broadcasting offered better technology than their victorious rivals and the same can be argued for HD DVD.
When Microsoft and Intel came out in support of HD DVD in September 2005, they listed its technological advantages.
These included “managed copy”, a feature that allows consumers to copy movies to their portable devices, “hybrid discs” – copies in both HD DVD and standard DVD formats on the same disc, as well as greater capacity, interactivity and picture-in-picture capabilities.
In contrast, many Blu-ray releases have been a disappointment with their conversions of standard definition films to the HD format, their lack of extra features and capacity constraints.
For an example showing the dramatic difference between what the two formats have been offering, look at the abundant extra features available on the HD DVD version of the movie 300 here (scroll down) compared to the lack of features and poor conversion to Blu-ray for the same movie here.
The one Blu-ray disk I have bought (rather than renting) is the BBC’s Planet Earth, which was actually filmed in high-definition, making the pictures look truly spectacular through a high-definition Blu-ray player and TV.
I still felt cheated though as I paid far more than for the standard DVD set, which included extra features such as mini-documentaries on how the series was made that were missing from the Blu-ray version.
However, times have changed, and while VHS was never going to beat Betamax for quality, Blu-ray can catch up with HD DVD.
Today’s consumer electronic devices are becoming memory-card upgradable and even internet-connected. The forthcoming specification for Blu-ray, Profile 2.0 or "BD Live", was demonstrated at CES this week and has many of the HD DVD features praised by Microsoft and Intel.
They can be added as simply as an operating system upgrade over the internet connection of a PlayStation 3.
The CES demo and Blu-ray booth showed ringtones from a movie soundtrack being transferred from a Blu-ray disc over the internet to a mobile phone and copies of movies being made to a PS3 and then transferred for watching on a PlayStation Portable. A role-playing game is included in the upcoming Alien vs Predator release and Mologs – interactive movie blogs with viewers sharing thoughts on films – will be introduced with SAW 4.
It looks like a brave new Blu-ray world that probably won’t have HD DVD in it.
Either DreamWorks are stupid or there is something going on behind closed doors that no one knows about, there is really no other explanation why they are still holding onto the HD DVD Recordable Format.
“We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through,” DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said on Tuesday.
“As you know, we have been well-compensated for our support. It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We’re poised either way to jump into the marketplace when the conditions are right to do so,” he said.
Loyalty is a hard thing to come by these days any way you look at it, but this seems rather ridiculous. Toshiba dropped out, Katzenberg. They don’t give a heap load of dung what you do with “Bee Movie”, either. But then again, digital downloads are more than likely going to put Blu-ray Format to bed so maybe Katzenberg is onto something.
Posted by: Danny | March 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 am | Report this comment