A sad day has come upon us all.
It has to be said, the passing of any format is in itself is a bitter-sweet moment. A time of reflection on what could have been, what should have been and an expectation of what is to come. In the case of the HD-DVD Blu-Ray ‘fight to the death’ format war, this is especially so.
HD-DVD was an excellent high definition format. Not only was it cheaper than its rival, but the hardware was upgradable, music to the ears of any price and investment conscious consumer.
Lets look at the bare facts:
HD-DVD - Blu-Ray FEATURE COMPARISON
| Capacity | |||
| Blu-Ray | HD DVD |
||
| ROM single layer: ROM dual layer: RW single layer: RW dual layer: Highest test: Theoretical limit: |
25GB 50GB 27GB 54GB 100GB 200GB |
Single layer: Dual layer: - - Highest test: Theoretical limit: |
15GB 30GB - - 45GB 60GB |
With bags more space Blu-Ray wins hands down if you go large on the data capacity front.
| Resolution | |||
| Max resolution: | 1080p | Max Resolution: | 1080p |
Surprise surprise both hit the resolution standard of 1080p
Looking at the above stats its a no brainer to choose Blu-Ray, but what about the players. Now there is a different story. HD-DVD were, and for the short term are, network upgradable. Not that this would be any good as a dead format like HD-DVD don’t get much showtime at Toshiba these days, especially on the network front. But Ah, what could have been.
Blu-Ray is not, and no where near network support. If you bought into the Blu-Ray buzz years ago you are most likely stuck with a player which in reality may not me much more useful than a HD-DVD player in a few years time.
Why? ‘caus they went and upgraded Blu-Ray while no-one was watching. Blu-Ray 2.0 they call it. Shame theres no network support as then you’d just be able to upgrade the player and yo ho you’d be back on the hot technology hi-def curve without shelling out a single cent.
There is of course one exception, owned by Sony and get more updates than you get hot dinners. Thats of course the PS3. A machine currently being pushed with all the corporate might of price drops ,& upgrades.
Nice to have on the market one of the very few futureproof Blu-Ray players on the market.
So there you have it.
A rant on the merits of a betamax wannabe.
