Posted by Mark Burns on 01/08/07 12:08

The Answer Man wrote:

> New news story that may put an end to this stupid debate.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/y5xr2h

Actualy, I believe that it only muddy's the water a bit more.

Hybrid disks are going to be complex and expensive to manufacture
compared to the HD-DVD or more expensive Sony Blu-ray. HD-DVDs can be
manufactured on existing DVD machinery. Blu-ray uses different
machinery to manufacture. There is a market for both formats, which is
why they didn't cross-license (still silly from a business viewpoint
imho).

The new LG player, from what I have gathered so far, is going to use
two laser heads to read the different formats, making it more expensive
to manufacture and more prone to defect and repair. Also, it is my
understanding that the LG will only play the HD-DVD movies and not have
access to the special features on the disk as does the Blu-ray. What
exactly those are will be forthcoming soon I suspect.

This may not be so much a format war as a format confusion for the
consumer, who will in most liklihood continue to sit on their wallets
until they feel comfortable with a choice. Many industry market
experts believe that it was five years too early to introduce any new
format, for consumers have only too recently made the conversion from
VHS to DVD.

There was an interesting article, and very good for a non-technical
publication, in Thursday's Jan 4th Wall Street Journal on the problem
(page B7) by Sarah McBride. One individual had returned his Blu-ray
player as he could not justify the quality difference between it and
his Denon 3910 upconverting player on a 60" Sony RPTV. I have seen the
Denon with a Fijitsu 50" plasma playing a standard DVD version of King
Kong and thought that it was awesome. He did concede that the Blu-ray
was better for some things, just not better enough.

I personaly have an Oppo 971 HDMI upconverter on a 3-yr old 52" JVC
RPTV as well as an Oppo 970 on a 3-month old 42" Visio LCD and am very
happy with both of those. I can't justify the Blu-ray or HD-DVD either
compared to what I am getting and what that I have seen in the stores.
I too believe that either of the new formats is better, just not better
enough. But those of us who buy $1200 Denons or $200 Oppos are not
anywhere near the majority of DVD buyers who are very happy with their
$75 walmart DVD players on their standard or extended definition
displays.

So there we have it, not just two competing technologies, but three
with new hardware being available to enhance the short comings or
incompatabilites of all. My future prediction is that there will be a
very good reliable player that will do very good upconversions of
existing DVDs, play Blu-ray, HD-DVD, DIV-X, XVID, MPEG-2-4, etc... for
about $350 in today's currency. This will probably take about five
years to complete.

What will be interesting to watch is how long that Walmart (about 35%
of dvd sales in the US) will stock Blu-ray or HD-DVD in their stores if
they don't sell, or if consumers will buy either of the new HD formats
if the availability of their titles is insufficient to bolster
confidence in the future of the format. These may be like the pre-DVD
Laser Disks that found a niche market but not a broad one and was
superceded by similar but better marketing and technology.

Until then, the debate (discussion) will continue I am sure.

Cheers...

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