Written by James Fohl
Do you remember those old VHS tapes? Of course you did; for over twenty years, pretty much every Hollywood movie was released on this format. Then the DVD format came out in the mid 1990's, and although it took some time to take control of the United States market, by the year 2003 new movies were only being released on the DVD format.
It has not even been ten years since the first DVD players were released, but already the DVD format is getting ready to retire. It is not because its a faulty format, it is just because every body seems to be adopting high definition television sets, and the current DVD format does not really take full advantage of the high definition television sets.
As a result, a couple of new technologies are starting to emerge with the ultimate goal of taking over the DVD format, and becoming the video format kind. One of these new video formats is something called HD DVD, or High Definition DVD.
Don't think that just because the new format has DVD in the title that you will be able to use your regular DVD player to watch new HD DVD movies. You will need a new HD DVD player, and because they are such a new technology they are not going to be cheap; the first HD DVD players, made by Toshiba are going to be priced between five and eight hundred dollars.
Getting back on the subject, new HD DVD discs are the same size as regular DVDs and CDs. The only difference is the way that the data is written to the disc. Instead of holding 4.7 gigabytes of data like a regular DVD, HD DVDs can hold fifteen to thirty gigabytes of data on a single disc. While this may sound like a lot, it is important to consider the fact that high definition movies require more storage space as opposed to older DVDs; as a direct result, a regular high definition DVD can store around four hours of video, while a dual layer disc has the ability to hold around eight hours of video, or a standard Hollywood move along with several hours of bonus materials.
The very first home HD DVD players will be released near the end of March, and various model will retail for $599 and $799. The first batch of HD DVD movies are supposed to be on sale at the same time at a retail price of around twenty nine dollars. Companies supporting the new HD DVD format are trying to get the players and movies out the door as quick as possible, in hopes of gaining a large market share even before the first Bluray players are released. One of the major problems is the fact that a lot of movie studios are having problems getting their movies in the HD DVD format in time for the launch of the HD DVD players. As a result, there are not going to be as many titles available as once thought.
The competition between Bluray and the HD DVD format is starting to heat up. Hardware companies every where are pledging to support one format over another, while movie studios are being pressured to only release movies on one format. Because HD DVD players are going to be available long before Bluray players make it to the market, many people are considering HD DVD to be the number one format, even though HD DVD is considered to be technologically inferior to the Bluray format.
Being technologically inferior really does not matter though in the world of video entertainment. Betamax delivered a better picture over the VHS format that it had competed against in the early eighties, but VHS was still able to win that media war. VHS also fought against the LaserDisc in the eighties, which was superior in a vast variety of ways, but VHS still came out on top.
If the players behind HD DVD are able to market the HD DVD players correctly, then chances are they have a relatively high chance of winning the high definition video war against the Bluray format.
