Why the world doesn't need High Def. DVDs (at least now)

Even though HD DVD has already hit the store shelves in April, platinumsword pointed out on our forum that the New York Times has published an article on why we don't need high definition DVDs, at least at this time.  To start with, the vast majority of people are happy with the picture quality of DVD, its sound tracks and other bonus features.  DVD players can be bought for the price of a few movies, there is a vast catalogue to choose from and 82% of American homes have a DVD player.

The first issue is the format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD.  Currently HD DVD has the lead with players and titles already on the shelves, pricing half that of the upcoming Blu-ray players and backing from big companies such as Microsoft and Universal studios.  While Blu-ray is not expected to launch until the end of June, it may have the lead with far more movie studios backing it, the discs have greater capacity and Sony's upcoming game console is a native Blu-ray player.  At present, there is a risk of buying something what the article calls "the Betamax of the new millennium".

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Early adopters of HD DVD already face issues with Toshiba's HD-A1 HD DVD player '“ Very pricey at $500, bulky in size like an old VCR, takes over a minute to power up, never mind 45 seconds to load a disc and finally not being able to skip the tedious FBI warning after that!  Even when the players come down in price, the benefit of high definition is very small with screen sizes of under around 35" as many consumers don't notice any real improvement on smaller displays and some need to see DVD and HD DVD side by side with large screens to actually see the benefit.  Basically, the improvement is nothing like the difference between VHS and DVD.  Finally, consumers will need to have a HDCP compliant HDTV set to view their discs in high definition should the studios finally decide to enact the ICT constraint on discs.

Over all, though, the A1 does deliver the spectacular picture and sound promised by Toshiba. Should you buy one, then?

Not unless you're an early-adopter masochist with money to burn.

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Reason 1: The average person can see the difference in picture quality, but only on a big, high-def screen, preferably side by side with a standard DVD signal. The leap forward is nowhere as great as it was from, say, VHS to DVD.

Reason 2: For a brand-new technology, the A1 is a reasonably priced razor '” but it's got a serious blade shortage. Only 20 will be available by the end of this month, priced at $20 to $40, and only a couple of hundred are expected by year's end. (Tens of thousands are available in the traditional DVD format.)

Reason 3 (and this is the big one): You could be placing a very big bet on the wrong horse.

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With such a small selection of HD DVD discs on the market at this time, the best thing to do is wait until the variety reaches a decent level.  By that time, there is a good chance the player's pricing will be a small fraction of the current pricing, have improved dramatically (particularly their performance) and possibly more compact than the current beasts.  By that stage, it may even be possible to tell which format is leading the market. 

On the other hand, these competing formats could end up turning out like the Super Audio CD vs DVD-Audio war, where neither format has succeed in taking over the compact disc format, never mind getting anywhere near sales of Audio CDs!  One other thing to note is that even though both these high definition audio disc formats have been out for around six years now, the discs and players are still fairly expensive and most DVD players and Hi-Fi systems cannot play either format.

Feel free to discuss about Blu-ray and HD DVD on our forum.

Source: The New York Times

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