Here we are again. The bad memories of Betamax vs VHS are still fresh in our memories, and now there is another war between rival formats: Blu-ray vs HD-DVD.
This
competition already created a great confusion with end-users, because each format promises better results than the rival one, but the "war" is still open and there is no clear winner in sight.
As we already saw with the competiton between +R and -R formats for DVD media, it seems that the only solution will be again a hybrid system. Whereas for DVD media the solution was to create hybrid hardware able to manage both formats, in the hi definition field it seems that the hybrid solution will be applied to the media, as you can read here about hybrid HD DVD disc.
As said by NetFlix CEO Reed Hastings in an interview:
'The solution is for all studios to join Warner |
From the end-consumers point of view, the hybrid disc seems the best solution, but I'm not sure that this is true. Even if many movies are available both in Blu-ray and HD-DVD in the same disc thanks to the hybrid media, what happens if a movie is available only in one format? It seems in fact that not all studios want to release movies in both formats.
So what? You still need a different hardware to watch movies not available in hybrid discs. The conclusion is rather simple: The consumer is again the only one damaged by these skirmishes between big industries.
Personally, I think that it will be better to join efforts and resources to create a better (and only ONE) standard, and not another patent war (the real purpose of this war) with the only result to waste more (end-consumers) money. 😉
Source: tvpredictions
