HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray
Several companies have developed alternatives to the existing DVD standard. The two forerunners are HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Competition between the two has escalated, drawing inevitable comparisons to the struggle between VHS and Betamax. Here are the highlights:- Both formats use blue lasers rather than red.
- Both have the same options for video and audio compression.
- Blu-ray offers significantly more storage space -- 50 GB on a dual-layer disc versus HD-DVD's 30 GB.
- The DVD Forum, which creates DVD standards, has approved HD-DVD and has not approved Blu-ray.
- HD-DVD is less expensive than Blu-ray, partly because HD-DVDs can be produced on existing equipment, and Blu-ray discs can't. HD-DVD players are selling for around $399 (Toshiba HD-A2), and the cheapest Blu-ray player is selling for around $699 (PlayStation3).
- HD-DVD players hit the market on April 18, 2006, two months before the first Blu-ray player hit the U.S. market in June 2006.
HD-DVD Capacity: DVD Capacity: Compression: High-definition Playback, 15 GB: High-definition playback, 50 GB: |
![]() Photo courtesy Amazon The Xbox 360 HD-DVD player |
Even though Blu-ray seems to have the backing of more of the industry, the battle isn't over. Some companies, like Hewlett Packard, previously supported only Blu-ray but now support both formats. Critics of Blu-ray point out that it may have more capacity than any movie could ever use, even with special features. Many people theorize that HD-DVD will be the winner solely because it is so much cheaper.
For lots more information about high-definition video and related technology, check out the links on the next page.
The likeliest culprits for those numbers not adding up are bit rate and encoding. A file recorded at a low bit rate will take less space. In addition, many early Blu-ray tests used MPEG-2 encoding, which is less efficient than MPEG-4. |


