The Clash of Titans: Another Format War for the next generation of optical media
There is a growing need for new optical media that could store large amounts of data. That’s why the Blu-Ray group, formed by 9 powerful consumer electronics companies and HD-DVD, (also called AOD) have come up with two different optical media formats. Nowadays, there is an ongoing format war between them. Both of these have some advantages and disadvantages that may be decisive for their survival or death. The Blu-Ray disc (BD-ROM) can hold up to 25GB of data on a single-sided disc, which corresponds to 8 hours of DVD quality video or 2 hours of High Definition (HD) video that has a stunning 1920x1080 resolution compared to the DVD resolution of 720x576. The BD-ROM is stored in a plastic cartridge, which protects the disc from scratches and dust but this feature is generally seen as a disadvantage by the consumers.
Another disadvantage for BD-ROM is that it is not compatible with the DVDs, that is, a BD player will require a red laser lens alongside the blue laser lens in order to read DVDs, therefore your BD player will be either expensive or unable to read DVDs. Although HD-DVD stores only 15GB, it has none of the disadvantages BD possesses since it does not require cartridge protection and thanks to a new innovation of the developers of HD-DVD, new generation players will be able to play both red laser discs and blue laser discs with one lens. Despite its limited capacity, the HD-DVD will be able to hold 2 hours of HD video, due to it’s high compression ratio. No doubt, the external supports given to these formats will play a crucial role for their survival. So far, Warner Studios and DVD Forum, the worldwide DVD authority, are supporting HD-DVD, whereas BD has the support of 2 large IT companies and Columbia Tristar in addition to 9 major consumer electronics companies, but these balances can change over time. The Blu-Ray group has announced that both BD players and recorders will be available in the US and Japan by 2005. Release date in Europe has not been officially announced but the expectations are that these devices should be sold somewhere around 2006 or 2007.
The HD-DVD camp has not yet released any product, but has only shown some prototypes at electronics fairs. According to their projections, HD-DVD products should be available in Japan and the US by late 2004 or early 2005. HD movies in both formats are expected to be available around 2005.

Eren Tezmen (MAN/III)