Related link: http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=135729&liArticleT…
Well, looks like the next volley has been heard. Computer Weekly is carrying a story about Disney's decision to back Blu-Ray (the higher-capacity but reportedly less video-friendly format) DVDs. That's gotta carry weight. Probably a bit less weight since Disney lost Pixar, though. (Of course, now Pixar is in trouble over delays for their next film, but we're wandering way off topic here.)
Toshiba is also reporting a new dual-layer disc that contains one standard format DVD layer and one HD DVD layer. My guess is that's where we're headed. There are still arguments out there over the -R/+R formats, but those of us in the consumer world have pretty much forgotten about it because they both work. More or less, anyway. I have stacks of both formats and they both work fine in every Mac, PC, or standalone burner I've bought in the last 18 months. Both formats play back fine in all of the players I have so I usually just grab whichever stack is handy. I still author on -R media for duplication houses, but I really think that's habit more than anything else.
I know the technology to flip between Blu-Ray and HD DVD will be trickier than the +/- problem, but it's bound to be doable. In the meantime, the war between the two will certainly help those of us in end user land. Companies are driving to get their products to market so they can "beat the other guy" and gain credibility. The faster they can perfect the technology, the faster it'll get to a price point consumers can tolerate.
But while I'm all for getting the next generation of DVDs underway, what I really want is the next-next generation. I want to archive my terabyte RAID to a single shiny disc that I can store offsite. Or take with me on the road, you know, 'cuz I need to have the Star Wars trilogy available in HD for viewing in bad light on my 12" PowerBook. Even if they did mess with the story. (Han Solo so shot first. But now we're back in off-topic land...)
So is bigger better? The 10G difference in layer capacity seems like a big deal to me, but clearly that's not the only consideration. Who are you cheering for?
Read More Entries by Marc Loy.
