Why Blu Ray Won the Format War
We have been without a good format war since the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s, when we watched VHS vs. Beta. In 2008 the hunger for a new challenger was satisfied. HD DVD teased us, leading us to believe it may be the next one to claim the title. That was until February 2008 when the contender, HD DVD backed down…Toshiba chose to no longer develop and no longer manufacture HD DVD players. Blu Ray was waiting in the wings for its chance to claim the title and it was not in vain. Blu Ray has been declared the winner! By March of 2008, the HD DVD Promotion Group was dissolved. In 2008 major content manufacturers and key retailers stopped supporting the format.
So what is the difference between Blu Ray and HD DVD and why did Blu-ray win the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD format war? Before answering that question, the first thing to do is to learn more about each format.
HD DVD
High-definition digital versatile disc is the long name for HD DVD. The original design was developed as a successor to the DVD format that most users are familiar with. Toshiba was the principal developer of this technology. The single layer capacity for HD DVD is 30 GB and double layer capacity is 60 GB for a HD DVD-ROM. More on HD DVD:
- High quality video and audio
SD video capacity about 13 hours
HD video capacity 3.3 or 5.1 hours
Discs and players are not region coded
BLU-RAY
The shorter wavelength of a blue-violet laser makes it possible to focus the laser spot with effective precision. This allows an increased amount of data to be packed closer together which uses less space for storage. This means the Blu-ray can fit more data on a disc. Combined with the change of numerical aperture (how much the laser spreads out) to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB. More on Blu-ray:
- High quality video and audio
SD video capacity about 23 hours
HD video capacity 5.6 or 8.5 hours
Discs and players are region coded
Blu-ray won the format war with HD DVD due to it being superior in capacity and quality. Blu-ray also had many more manufacturers and movie studios supporting it.
