Blu-ray winning DVD battle

BY BILLY BRUCE

VALDOSTA — In a battle much like that of the 1980s when Beta video tape and players lost the market to VHS and wound up joining 8-track audio media in the dinosaurs’ graveyard, the evolving world of high-definition video received similar news earlier this month when another major movie studio announced that Blu-ray is the wave of the future.

Blu-ray DVD (digital video discs) has been winning its battle against the competing HD DVD (high definition digital video disc) format, with Blu-ray disc sales clobbering HD DVD by a 10-to-1 margin in the U.S. and taking 73 percent of sales in Europe in 2007, according to First Glimpse Magazine (see www.firstglimpsemag.com).

But the announcement Jan. 4 by Warner Brothers that it will only release its movies in Blu-ray format may spell the death knell for HD DVD, some industry observers say. Warner Bros. joins seven of eight major movie studios that have released titles in Blu-ray formats, including Fox, Disney, Paramount, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM.

Warner Bros. officials say the switch is consumer driven because more people buy Blu-ray than HD DVD.

“The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger,” said Barry Meyer, Warner Brothers’ chairman and chief executive, in a prepared statement. “We believe that exclusively distributing Blu-ray will further the potential for mass-market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers and, most importantly, consumers.”

Blu-ray, owned by Sony, is not compatible with players that play HD DVD, and vice versa, the same as when the smaller Beta video tapes were not compatible with the larger VHS video-tape players and recorders.

This time, however, the argument has gone digital in a world that is growing in expectations for extremely high-resolution pictures that are so crisp and clear that they seem three dimensional, or like looking through a window at real-time life.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba and NEC. Although it has a different format than Blu-ray, it, too, relies heavily on blue-laser technology to achieve higher storage capacity. The higher capacity is needed to create the 1080p lines of resolution that deliver those incredible pictures. Standard DVD delivers pictures of only 480p, the “p” standing for “progressive” scan. Remember when DVD first came out and people threw away VHS tapes to begin enjoying this great new incredible DVD picture? It seems like 100 years ago. How fast the times are a-changin’ at a head-spinning pace.

So when shopping for a high-definition DVD player or high-definition TV screen, consider your options and the recent news, Best Buy Home Theater Specialist Todd Cox advises.

There is a lot to learn, but Cox says Best Buy is dedicated to giving sound advice to those who are gradually making the switch to the high-definition world. More customers, than one might assume, are doing their homework before they come in the store, Cox noted.

“Some come in asking questions like you are,” Cox said, “but our pledge is to make sure our customers know the differences and we help them make the best decision by finding out what their lifestyles are. If they are big movie watchers, we more than likely would point them towards Blu-ray. I mean, look at our Blu-ray stock as compared to our HD DVD stock. We have way more Blu-ray movie titles here than HD DVD because that’s what our customers are buying and because there are more Blu-ray titles available. Blu-ray seems to be leading the way.”

Cox pointed out several anomalies that the high-definition industry has thrown into the mix for consumers to wade through.

• A Blu-ray or HD DVD player will not play a standard DVD.

• Those who own a collection of standard DVDs at 480p resolution will be able to watch those on a new breed of “upconvert” high-definition players that “upconvert” the 480p resolution to 1080p. The picture won’t be as good as a Blu-ray or HD DVD, but it will be much improved over the 480p. And you won’t have to toss out your standard DVDs as did the Beta videotape owners who had to switch to VHS when Beta died.

An article in Forbes magazine published at Forbes.com, Jan. 7, quotes an industry analyst predicting that consumers switch to Blu-ray will be slow because the upconvert players make it possible for them to continue to view standard DVDs and many consumers won’t notice a difference in the resolution that a true Blu-ray disc would provide, or won’t care.

The same article notes that HD DVDs are cheaper to produce than Blu-ray discs, and HD DVD players start at $99, compared to $350 for a Blu-ray player. But prices at Valdosta’s Best Buy seemed more competitive, although upconvert players were seen for as low as $59. Try $600 or more for the Samsung or LG players that play both HD DVD and Blu-ray.

• Samsung and LG make a high-definition DVD player that plays both HD DVD and Blu-ray — the only players that are compatible with both formats. But when Blu-ray eventually wins the battle against HD DVD, those players may become obsolete.

• If you connect a standard DVD player to a high-definition TV screen, and play a standard DVD, you will only get 480p resolution.

• If you buy an upconvert player or a Blu-ray or HD DVD player, you won’t get the expensive High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable required to deliver the 1080p picture and digital audio signals to the high-definition TV screen. The cables go for around $40 to $80 depending on the purported quality.

• If you are looking to buy a high-definition TV screen, be sure you get at least two or more HDMI cable inputs on the TV. That way, you won’t have to use as many remote controls to switch between cable or satellite high-definition programming or the HD DVD or Blu-ray player. The more HDMI cable inputs or outputs on players, TV screens or surround-sound amplifiers, the better. For example, on a high-definition screen that has two HDMI inputs, one input can come from the Blu-ray player, and the other input can handle either the high-definition cable signal or the high-definition satellite signal.

• Surround-sound amplifiers also utilize HDMI cables to help free up remote use, and those options are many.

• If you get high-definition packages from Mediacom Communications or Comcast, or from satellite services like the Dish Network or Direct TV, and you have a high-definition TV screen that supports 1080p resolution, you will only get 1080i resolution. The “i” stands for “interlace,” and it is not as crisp a high-definition picture as the 1080p picture, although many might not notice the difference. The 1080i resolution skips one line every other line, so in reality it is not as crisp as 1080p. Cable and satellite systems do not yet deliver a 1080p signal through cable lines. The only way to get the 1080p resolution is from Blu-ray or HD DVD players, Cox said.

• Direct TV has a high-definition converter box that allows the consumer to switch the signal by the push of easily accessible buttons from 480i to 480p to 720p to 1080i signals. Cable companies also can set the resolution upon installation of a high-definition package box.

For more information, see some great FAQs at www.blu-ray.com/faq or www.digital-digest.com/hidefdvd/faq.html.

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