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| The Battle of DVD Formats |
The battle between the two DVD formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD, is heating up following comments from Dell and HP regarding Microsoft and Intel’s support for HD DVD.
HP claims that Blu-ray offers 67% to 150% greater storage capacity than HD DVD, with higher resolution and interactivity. Blu-ray also features copyright protection and can hold up to 50GB of data. However, they have not announced when this product will officially launch.
Microsoft and Intel have responded harshly, with the two tech giants stating that Blu-ray does not allow secure transmission of movie data to handheld devices, a feature referred to as content management. “Content management is not a feature of the optical disc format, but rather a feature of the system’s content security,” the two companies stated.
In response to this claim, HD DVD supporters argue that their format has built-in features for securing data during transmission.
Both DVD formats have sparked a “war” among the giants of operating system, CPU, and computer manufacturing. Furthermore, media entertainment companies are also starting to choose sides: Twentieth Century Fox, Vivendi, and Walt Disney support Blu-ray, while New Line Cinema, Universal, and Warner Home Video back HD DVD.
According to Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Home Entertainment, “We plan to broadly support Blu-ray, especially integrating Blu-ray into PlayStation 3.” After conducting detailed assessments and considering new data on pricing, production security solutions, and copying, we have decided to continue with the Blu-ray format, he added.
Interestingly, Paramount will also produce films based on the HD DVD format, allowing consumers to choose according to their preferences.
Both formats are set to be utilized early next year, and between now and the official launch, there will undoubtedly be many more heated exchanges among the giants.
