Play that DVD again Sam

How the DVD format war finally drove me insane.

from JoeUser Forums

Well, the DVD forum has done it again (and again, and again, and again). On November 19th the DVD Forum steering committee approved the blue-laser HD-DVD "standard" (I put that in quotes for good reason) for continued work. This action (supposedly) creates one standard for HD-DVD, but as it was last time their action is non-authoritative and meaningless.

The "new" HD DVD "standard" will hold 15-20GB a disk. This new format (sometimes called blue-laser HD-DVD) seems like shoe-in for the replacement. Current DVD recordables only fit around 4.7 GIGS on a blank DVD so this would be a boon for high definition video, personal data storage and data/audio/video "back-ups" ;-). The problem with the "standard" however is that, for over a year, many companies (Sony, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony and Thomson to name the founders) have been pouring money into another standard called "Blu-Ray" (actually there are about 5 contenders, but this seems to be the front runner). This standard will hold around 25 GIGS on a DVD. The thing that amazes me about this conundrum is that most of the companies that founded the "Blu-ray" format participate on the DVD forum that just voted on the "new" standard. One probably evident point, but I feel it needs mentioning is that these two formats are not compatible. Looks like the "Blu-ray" founders lost the vote eh? I am sure there is a long sorted story that includes many back room conversations that I would love to hear if anyone knows what really happened.

So here we are AGAIN, with two (at least) "next gen" DVD format standards. What appears like it would be a boon to the industry will again turn out to be an all out war that only serves to do two things:

1) Confuse the consumer
2) Stall product implementation

What can we do? Not much.

Well, I am not the only person a little put out by this state of affairs. Quasar Tech has already started a HD-DVD: ONE FORMAT ONLY CAMPAIGN. Check out their site. I don't know what impact they will have, but the site has everything you ever wanted to know about this issue so it will be a good seat from which you can watch the carnage.

I guess if push comes to shove we could all march their next conference wearing ONE FORMAT t-shirts (their last few meetings have been in warm climates, so judging from their track record at least it will probably be a nice destination) but that might be a bit overkill. A petition would be good, but I think it will fall on deaf ears as the problem really lies in the fact that this all boils down to a return on R&D money which is even more of a desperate struggle than peace in our time. Which is sad, very sad. So I guess we just sit and bitch, er I mean wait.

I guess we should be happy that there are new advances in this technology that hold more data. However I can't but stop and observe how capitalism gives with one hand and takes away with another. There doesn't seem to be a good solution to that problem, but if I come up with one you will definately be the last to know. After all, a guys gotta make a living right? ;-)

Whew. Well, I am happy I got that off my chest. Thanks for listening, and good night.

6,868 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Dont forget the main advantage to backing more than one standard.....

...selling more than one standard.

:)
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
In my mind though, they would make the same amount of (or maybe even more) money if they sold one standard rather than two. They would sell more units out of the gate (because people would not be reluctant to buy a unit that supports the "non-standard" standard.) Besides, they don't make money from selling a standard (except maybe some licensing of that standard, but I bet that was written out of the contract once they put their technology "up" to be a standard) they make money from selling units (irregardless of what standard they are based upon).

Are you are saying that people are going to buy TWO units (so they can read/write both standards)? I don't think that will happen as a rule (except for the early adoptors).
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
The newer DVD's have all formats including DVD9 & 5 so this will not be a problem in the future for in the past it has been a nightmare for people not versed in DVD players.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
You can't really blame the DVD Forum anyway - they're essentially, little difference from ANSI, ISO or VESA. They only create/vote/whatever standards. They have absolutely no authority whatsoever to ensure companies pay attention to, or follow those standards.

Just look at copy-protected audio CDs still being sold as Audio CDs - when they in fact, completely break the audio CD standard.

Though, personally, I wish DVDs would catch on in computers - I'm tired of buying games on multiple CDs - and Linux distros are -so- much more manageable on a single DVD than on CD. *sigh*
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Here is a great HDTV forum that may help you guys http://www.hdtv-info.org