Blu-Ray: Chaos Reigns...

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117242,tk,dn080504X,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,117242,tk,dn080504X,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Specifics have been murky about how the Blu-ray Disc format can succeed DVD by enabling the recording of high-definition content. But the companies behind the format have recently tipped their hand to their strategy, including future enhancements. DVDs don't have the storage capacity to accommodate an entire movie in high-definition format but Blu-ray Disc does. That's largely because it uses blue lasers to read and write data on the disc, rather than the red lasers used by DVD. A blue laser makes a smaller spot on the disc surface, which means the space required for one bit of data is smaller--and more data can be fit onto a 12-centimeter disc..."</i><br /><br />After reading the rest of this article, I'm left with one inescapable conclusion: Blue-Ray is an even bigger mess than the early DVD +R/-R wars were. Check this out:<br /><br />"The path for early adopters isn't an easy one. The Sony machine uses 23GB discs while the Panasonic machine uses 25GB or 50GB discs. The result is that the Sony discs can be used for recording and playback in both machines but the same is not true of the Panasonic discs, according to Panasonic. The Sony machine can read the 25GB disc, after a 90-second delay in recognizing the disc, but recording onto the Panasonic discs using the Sony machine is impossible."<br /><br />My take on it? 8.5 GB from a dual-layer DVD burner is quite a bit of data, and the complexities of the current Blu-Ray landscape make it a no-mans zone for now. Until movies start coming out in Blu-Ray format, I don't need to care about having a blue laser DVD player. I'll look this one up again in 2006, but for now it just makes me yawn...

[Zack Mahdavi]

I agree. I have decided not to jump early into a new format, no matter how "promising" it is. A new technology always comes out with a bunch of different formats, and it takes time to decide who the clear winner will be. Till then, I'll enjoy my 3 year old DVD player. :)

[Felix Torres]

My take on it? 8.5 GB from a dual-layer DVD burner is quite a bit of data, and the complexities of the current Blu-Ray landscape make it a no-mans zone for now. Until movies start coming out in Blu-Ray format, I don't need to care about having a blue laser DVD player. I'll look this one up again in 2006, but for now it just makes me yawn...

The incompatibility between the Sony and Panasonic burner products pretty much kills all the advantage the Blu-Ray camp has over HD-DVD, which seems to have focused its early efforts not on getting recorder hardware out on the street but on working out the back-end production issues first.

The bit about how HD-DVD disk production is ready to go while the BD-ROM production lines won't be ready until 05 also resets the Blu-Ray clock.
Both camps are effectively at zero, if not negative market penetration...

All things considered, it now looks like HD-DVD may actualy have a fully workable system in place *before* the Blu-ray folks.

The decision of *when* to support either (if any) of the two camps is not going to be easy for the Hollywood crowd. If this Christmas sees significant HDTV display sales, the studios will have to do *something* to feed the market, by next summer at the latest...

I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to punt on Blue laser tech altogether and follow the chineese lead and go with an FVD-style approach for High Definition movies, cause right now it doesn't look like there will be much of a market for HD movies on blue laser devices until 06-07.