Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD

BETA vs. VHS? Never again? Hold on to your pocket books, for Sony and Toshiba are going to war over their respective DVD formats.

By Gadget (Roger D. Noriega)

Didn't we just buy our third DVD player? Or at least, haven't you purchased yours yet? I made the transition to DVD back in March of 2001, knowing of course that I had made the decision to make such a move one year earlier. The DVD player is the next best thing to sliced bread (you know, I now know why they say this) and unlike VHS tapes, the picture NEVER degrades on DVD's.

I have over a hundred movies and I am sure that I will surpass my VHS collection which numbers maybe forty to fifty and host of recorded television shows and movies. The reason why I recorded so much was simply because amassing the VHS library was cost prohibitive. While DVD is not inexpensive, is clearly beats VHS by storage capacity. Three DVD's fit in the same amount of space as one VHS tape - enough said.

Wait a minute. I have been hearing rumblings all summer about the next generation of consumer players and even though I didn't pay with my pocket book, I clearly remember the BETA vs. VHS battle. Sony (Blu-Ray) and Toshiba (HD-DVD) are now engaged in a titanic conflict for the next generation consumer market standard. CNN has additional details here, but simply put, even though both sides have experience in this, looking at the details, Sony would be my guess to capture the market. Capacity is the deal . . . how much can you store on the media? Sony's model which is already in stores in Japan already has more data space than the Toshiba's. Toshiba's technology already fits with current technology models and the cost will be less to manufacture - this is a major point on Toshiba's side. MGM was purchased by Sony so that a library of movies is already at its disposal. Toshiba does have the backing of rival manufacturers and the DVD forum. Sony has announced that Playstation 3 will be Blu-Ray format.

What to do? Which will we buy? How much will we spend? What will I do with what I already have? Not to fret, either technology will allow you to play your current DVD's. 

CNN article may be found here.

Home