Will the Battle Between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc Come Up Again

by Gerry Gelens

New technology is continuingly brought into people’s life which is known to all human beings, just like the years they have gone through. Seen from that, people have seen lots of products changing which is more common in modern society. No matter you are reading DVD Burning software review this moment or you have your decision to buy the one will satisfy you, reading this article will help you to get more clear about the war between the HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. Maybe it will guide you to another way for your choice.

There is nothing wrong with the good old DVD since there are lots of people still prefer to use them. However, with the development of high-definition televisions and television services, the disc manufacturers also want to create new technology to be the leading of the industry. When they start to do that great job, they find that the ordinary DVD cannot provide enough room. As a result, they devote themselves to developing another update to take the role which the DVD cannot play for people’s convenience. Of course, not only one company wants to do such a job, to find a new way to store more information and provide a high definition watching experience for DVD has been a fashion.

The pioneers are Sony and Toshiba which develop two different type new tech for people. Sony firstly released its new technology at Japan’s Ceatec show on October 5th 2000 which is the basis for Blu-ray. It was put forward by nine very successful electronics companies, surely headed by Sony. And then, to be different and to seize the opportunities, a few months later, NEC and Toshiba put forward plans for a competing product, the high-definition disc which is called HD DVD later.

And at 2002, both this two parties unveiled their new technology. To get the licensing for your new technology is very expensive which is not affordable by the group. However, the Sony side is very generous to get the license which make them the legal one on market. Even though, the Blu-ray has its advances to allow data storage, not only in terms of film, but in terms of business which allows companies to store presentations, documents, and others they want to put on the disc. It is like a memory-massive version of the CD. And this feature makes it equal to the HD DVD on the market.
To seize the market, Toshiba unveiled the first prototype HD DVD player in 2004, which is also compatible with DVD. The pleasing feature is favored by lots of customers who own DVDs. However, great times always lasts short. Five days later, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, another two major electronics companies, made a public statement to back the Blu-ray disc. Worse than that, on September 21st, Sony announced that their PlayStation 3 would support Blu-ray discs which is a canny business strategy since they know that many people who play PlayStation games are also a major section of the film-buying market. Thus, those games players who already have the player surely would have a try of the Blu-rays. And to fight back, Toshiba find several world-famous film studios to give their support for the HD DVD. Five of them are Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, HBO, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures. Wow! Cannot you say they are not super.

And there is favorable turn in mid-2005. Sony’s president made a show of wishing to compromise or integrate with HD DVD. Then talks were held for several months between Toshiba and Sony. And during the second half of the year, Paramount Home Entertainment declared to offer their films on both HD DVD and Blu-ray. And some others followed the suit.

And later, to reverse the situation, Toshiba released their new update HD DVD player which contains an HD DVD drive and-on for the Microsoft Xbox 360 in March 2006. And it can be a overwhelming success during the years of combating for Toshiba side. Besides, it is cheaper than Blu-ray player, which only costs $ 2000. Thus HD DVD take over the market in 2007. To sale well during Christmas time, Sony also reduce the price of their PlayStation 3 in early November.

If there is no accident, the market will goes on as it was then. However, Warner Bros. Dropped a bombshell in the new year. They quit from the Toshiba group and went over to support Blu-ray. That could be the deadly blow to HD DVD’s part. With this huge change, customers began to side more and more with Blu-ray products. And with the drop out of companies NetFlix and BestBuy from HD DVD, this series products gradually go downhill. And the war ended up as the Toshiba declared to halted production of HD DVD players.

Even though, there are still other manufacturers continue to producing HD DVD products. Maybe someday, when the times is mature, the HD DVD will get back. Or there would be other PC system utilities for sale come out.

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