Blu-ray/HD DVD combo players and discs won’t end format war anytime soon

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 05 January 2007 19:23

Your IT - Entertainment

Next week’s CES sees the forced marriage of the Blu-ray and HD DVD standard through a unified player and a new dual format disc, but it won’t be until much later in 2007 that consumers will truly see any benefit. Thank goodness these developments have happened, as they’ll help to end the format war madness. But why did we ever have to go through this ridiculous pain at all?

It all comes down to profits. Sony and Philips, co-developers of the CD standard, enjoyed royalties from the creation of the format for 20 years, until the royalty stream stopped thanks to the patent expiring.

Ever since then, every other major consumer electronics manufacturer wanted to emulate that success to guarantee themselves a royalty cash cow for years to come. It’s what fueled the war between DVD- and DVD+ discs, and it’s what fueled the war between Blu-ray and HD DVD.

Instead of sharing, consortiums of companies wanted to join together to fight the other group, all in a land grab for next generation optical disc profits.

While I’m all for capitalism, and more especially libertarianism, where has this left the consumer, the supposed ultimate winner?

Stuck in a frustrating waiting game to see who’ll win, so precious dollars aren’t wasted on dead-end technology. After all, at the prices these Blu-ray and HD DVD players have emerged at, you could buy many other digital devices and get much more satisfaction, from games consoles to televisions to digital cameras or complete computer systems.

Manufacturers have to remember that consumers aren’t always flush with cash – we have to work for the money, save up to pay for goods and services, and if you use credit cards, you need to pay the damn things off eventually, preferably sooner rather than later!

So instead of 2006 being the year of the next-generation DVD, it turned into the year of format war once again. No-one ever seems to learn from history, but instead we’re all doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over!

Now, thankfully, we have two possible solutions that will hopefully force the hands of both manufacturers and Hollywood studios. Sadly, the LG dual-disc player, and the new dual-format discs will be expensive to start with.

But prices will come down, and by Christmas 2007, we’ll have plenty more choices when it comes to dual-disc players, and there’ll be plenty more dual-format discs on shelves, negating the need to stock a Blu-ray title, an HD DVD title and a DVD title – of the same movie!

2007 will be a year of stop-start adoption of next-generation movie players, with 2008 the year we’ll start seeing sane prices for players. But by then it might be too late. Who’ll need Blu-ray or HD DVD when consumers will be downloading movie and TV show content in standard and high-def right to their hard drives in greater numbers than ever before?

Hurry up, Blu-ray and HD DVD, and take this golden opportunity to sort out your problems sooner rather than later, or you’ll miss the boat and very simply, no-one will care. There’s no profit in that!