Blu-ray claims victory in high-def DVD wars

The death of HD DVD came about faster than I expected, and brings sudden clarity for those consumers waiting to make a move into high-definition DVD. Blu-ray Disc is now your one and only choice because of Toshiba’s decision, announced on February 19, to discontinue the development, manufacturing, and marketing of HD DVD players and recorders.

The battle between HD DVD (championed by Toshiba) and Blu-ray Disc (started by Sony and Pioneer) had been building since 2000. Despite attempts to agree on a single format, associations championing each of the two formats became entrenched, giving consumers a modern-day VHS–Betamax battle, a historical event for which Sony seems to have the memory of an elephant.

The winner of this war, which took place in the ’80s was ostensibly determined by the consumer, but was actually decided by movie distributors. VHS became the standard for video-cassette recorders because more movies—porn in particular—were available in that format. In terms of the high-definition optical-disc format war, it was both the movie distributors and the major retailers who made the decision, but they’ll tell you it was done because that’s what consumers wanted.

On January 4, two days before the start of the International Consumer Electronics Show, Warner Bros., which was the only remaining movie distributor to release films in both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats, announced that it was going Blu-ray exclusively. This left HD DVD with only two of the eight major U.S. studios—Paramount and Universal—while Blu-ray had the backing of the remaining six: Disney, Fox, Lions Gate, MGM, Sony, and suddenly Warner.

The decision by Warner Bros. came as a shock to the industry. The HD DVD Promotion Group abruptly cancelled a CES event and spent the rest of the show responding to questions about when it was going to give up the fight. The group kept up a stern front despite rumours that it was about to lose the support of the final two studios.

Within hours of Toshiba’s announcement, Universal came out in support of Blu-ray. Paramount, which last summer signed a deal to support HD DVD exclusively—stimulated by $150 million in promotional incentives paid by Toshiba to Paramount and DreamWorks Animation—revealed its support of Blu-ray a day later. Not that it had any choice in the matter.

The final nail in HD DVD’s coffin came not from the movie distributors, but from big U.S. retailers. Best Buy said on February 11 that it was going to drop HD DVD. That announcement was followed on February 15 with a media release from Wal-Mart stipulating that it was going to start phasing out HD DVD “within 30 days”.

The competitors have a lot in common. Both make use of the optical-disc format, although they employ blue-laser technology instead of the red lasers used with older, standard-definition DVDs, and both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD players are backwards-compatible with standard DVDs.

The big difference between the various optical discs is storage capacity. You can squeeze about 4.5 gigabytes of information onto a standard DVD. Blu-ray discs can support between 25 gigabytes (single layer) and 50 gigabytes (dual layer) of information, and 100-gigabyte (four layer) and 200-gigabyte (eight layer) discs have been demonstrated in laboratory settings. HD DVD, on the other hand, has a single-layer capacity of 15 gigabytes and a dual-layer capacity of 30 gigabytes.

One other feature Blu-ray can hold over the head of HD DVD is its antiscratch technology. Blue-laser discs are more susceptible to scratches and dust, so TDK came up with a new hard coat for Blu-ray Discs that makes them able to withstand damage by a screwdriver, of all things.

As well, Toshiba was hoping that the cheaper manufacturing cost of HD DVDs compared to Blu-ray Discs would give HD DVD an edge. The cost savings occurred because manufacturing facilities that made DVDs were able to quickly retrofit to produce HD DVDs; Blu-ray Discs, however, required new production facilities.

Sony, though, seemed determined to win this battle—almost as if its chairman had issued a decree that the company must never again lose a format war. Including a Blu-ray player in every PlayStation 3 console was a bold move for Sony. It meant that the installed base for Blu-ray jumped immediately upon release of the player at the end of 2006. Putting the burden of making Blu-ray a standard format on the shoulders of the gaming console nearly ended the PS3 before it got off the ground, but the strategy seems to have paid off in the end.

The movie studios are glad the format war is over, even though some issued press releases proclaiming sadness about the demise of HD DVD. Movies that were planned for release on HD DVD will not be coming, of course. One of the most high-profile boxed sets that was to be exclusively released on HD DVD was the second season of the original Star Trek, scheduled for release in March. That’s been delayed and will almost certainly be cancelled by Paramount. As for all those Paramount and Universal films that were released on HD DVD exclusively, you should see those on Blu-ray before the year is out.

Now that the format battle is settled, you can actually expect the price of Blu-ray machines to drop, because manufacturers can project their sales figures based on the volume that will come from being the only format in the market.

Those of you who own HD DVD players shouldn’t despair, though. For one thing, you’ll be able to purchase HD DVD films for cheap over the next few months. These are fine DVD players, and most provide great up-conversion of standard-definition DVDs so they look better on your high-definition television. When you do make the move to Blu-ray, you can pack up the HD DVD and give it to your parents, who will still be watching tapes on a tube television anyway.