There’s a small battle being fought in technology.. Just like the Betamax /VHS battle in the 70’s, this time it’s between the Sony Bluray camp and Toshiba’s HD-DVD. What’s with the new formats? Let’s take a look at the precursor and today’s supposed start of the HD-DVD /Bluray war.. (Blu Ray is supposed to be launched today)
Prologue: Betamax/VHS
Betamax(A Sony standard) is a cassette tape derived from an earlier format. Betamax video recorders were also sold by various manufacturers including Toshiba. The advantages it had over the VHs format is very significant.. It had a better resolution, audio hifi and also a lot more in terms. In fact it was the first to bring home recording to Home owners.
VHS was introduced by JVC in the 70’s. It was of a lesser quality (resolution wise) and was lacking in a lot of features. However, one thing in its favor was the cost factor. And then came RCA with the features for a VHS player -remote pause and a built-in timer. Besides the porn industry had a significant say in VHS sales which Sony refused.
Sony was too late in following catch up from then on. It did try to innovate by adding the features of the VHS players, but nevertheless, it tanked.
There are various reasons attributed to its failure…
a. It was simply too expensive at that time.
b. At the time of launch, the Betamax tapes could store slightly under 45 mins while the VHS tapes was 2 hours which later was increased to 4 hours (now standard in VHS tapes).
c. VHS is “open source” standard, while Sony intended to keep Betamax proprietary. So the cost of manufacture was higher.
d. Due to early adoption by the largest consumer of VHS tapes, “the porn” industry, it quickly became cheaper to manufacture and more used. By the end of 80’s, very few people remembered Betamax as a standard (Other than a few collectors)
e. Sony was entangled in a lawsuit with a few major movie studios at the time and had additional litigation costs (recently settled)
f. Front-load¬ing cassette hatches almost obsoleted the top loading decks by Sony.
g. JVC got into content licensing. That meant the initial movies were available for rental only on VHS. A lot of video rental stores mushroomed overnight!
Sony finally accepted defeat in 1988 when it began producing VHS recorders (And those were it’s money spinners)! But Sony had still not learnt it’s lessons. It tried to introduce another proprietary licensing system called DRM. Due to the bad media and focus on DRM, they quietly withdrew the update.
Round 2: BluRay/HD-DVD
This time the content war is between two DVD disk types. And both attempt to store an entire movie uncompressed with the original quality.
Philips’s developed Laserdisc and partnered with Sony to create the CD back in the pre80’s. Both companies developed the Multimedia CD but the format was abandoned in favor of Toshiba’s Super Density Disc’s (SD), which was widely accepted.
As quoted from an internet site, ” The two brokered (by IBM) a deal, on a new format: DVD. Toshiba wound up on top again. Sony and Philips, who didn’t earn much, immediately worked on a next gen technology. The Professional Disc for DATA, which was based on an optical disc system Sony had been developing in the side, would eventually become the Blu-ray disc. Toshiba, not to be outdone, started work on a next gen system, the Advanced Optical Disc, which evolved into HD DVD. “
So what is it all about? They use different technologies using the same hardware. For ex., the laser would pickup data at 0.65 for HDDVD and 0.85 for Bluray. It means that Sony wants to introduce proprietary standards with the same hardware but with different specifications. HD-DVD uses a 0.6 mm thickness while the Bluray would use a 0.85 mm thickness. It means
a. The Bluray disks would cost more due to the thinner surface. They also require a special substance to protect the data (Much like Moser Baer and their plastic coating). However the advantage is more data storage. Below are the specifics for data storage from the same site.
Single layer Bluray (25 GB) HD DVD (15GB)
Dual layer Bluray (50 GB) HDDVD (30GB)
Highest possible Bluray (100 GB) HDDVD (45 GB)
Now compare the below from the Cnet site.
https://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6463_7-6462511-2.html?tag=nav
b. The resolution and the sound formats are mostly the same. In this case, the industrial standard is what counts in the resolution (1080i, 1080p) (Normal DVDs are 480p). Both support all major sound systems and technologies. And both are planning to use copy protection technologies. (The third major factor) Toshiba is sticking to just one copy protection technology while Sony has gone in for multiple options. The resolution makes sense if you have a HDTV. It would be simple awesome!
c. The current prices for the cheapest HD-DVD player are 200$ (for 1080p resolution). Price will play a major factor. The number of movie titles released for each camp is the other. I now see quite a few products already with HD-DVD from most sellers. So are the HD-DVD movies. At launch, it was around 31-35 dollars. And currently is an average of 20 dollars with the highest being 29 dollars(Amazon). (The promised pricing was between 29-40 dollars)
d. The other is the industry backing and the acceptance in their products. The PC (HP, Dell, IBM) industry had significantly backed the Bluray camp but later changed stating that they would introduce both. But the biggest support comes in terms of Intel and Microsoft. M$ probably did not want to use next gen Bluray for their Xbox 360. (It would mean a loss of face in the gamer’s segment with Play station outselling Xbox in every way) M$ is offering a HD DVD player for an additional 99 dollars. Incidentally Sony is planning to release the Bluray with it’s Play station 3.. (Wait for it!) retailing between 500 and 900 $
e. But when is Bluray being launched? They have been announcing postponements for a long time. The last I read was The BDP-S1 Blu-ray player is targeted to ship in July for about $1, 000. The VAIO PC with Blu-ray Disc will be available for about $2, 300. And the movies for the first players? They were supposed to be launched today (May 23) retailing in between 29 to 40 dollars. I am awaiting news at the site.
Epilogue: Online storage?
While these same companies are investing in these technologies, they have completely forgotten about online storage.. Will it become an unforeseen winner? Sony is depending on the Bluray to make a difference to it’s bottom lines. If that tanks, then I guess they would get rid of a few products and stick to their winning products. Toshiba seems to be winning as of now. But haven’t they forgotten one thing? Online storage. It took off way back in 2000 when movies were pay per viewable on Tv. (In the US) I could watch any movie by making the appropriate selection for a small fee. That is probably the best though I see that it failed miserably here. But then, isn’t that a better choice? Even Hotmail has increased it’s mail box to 250 MB (following Gmail’s 1GB offer) Agreed, there are specific purposes for storage on CDs too. Like Backups. But the initial versions of both HD-DVD and BluRay do not contain a recorder. They would need to wait for it. That would decide whether it is the HD-DVD or the Bluray.
But till then, I think online storage is a clear winner.