Disc Technology
Disc technology has come a long way in recent years with the introduction of Blu-ray Discs and HD DVDs. The introduction of these high definition discs has seen the producers of these products in a war to win the market share in much the same way that Beta and VHS fought for market share in the 1980 when videos first hit the consumer market.
Blu-ray Discs currently enjoy an advantage with latest gaming console, “Playstation 3,” incorporating Blu-ray Disc technology. The Blu-ray Disc got its name from the blue-violet laser which is used to read and write on this type of disc.
Similar to the High Definition DVD, the Blue Ray Disc offers its users far greater storage space (25 gigabytes, GB) than your normal DVD (4.7 GB). The HD DVD cans store 15 GB of data.
Blu-ray Discs also have a region code with Australia grouped alongside Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa and New Zealand. It is interesting to note on the map below that the leading Blu-ray manufacturers (Japan, Korea, Malaysia) have been bracketed with the U.S. to ensure the early releases of U.S. content to those markets.
However, this may pave the way for HD DVDs to gain more than their market share in another big market, Europe.
Blu-ray Discs seem to be winning the war at the moment. One of the key comments for the HD DVD side fo the argument is that the majority of Blu-ray Discs released prior to 2007 have been released onto the market in the 25 GB single layer format. All HD DVD movies have been released in the 30 GB dual layer format.
That’s a valid point if you want to have an argument about which product holds sway pre 2007. Movie companies such as Sony, Disney, and Fox are all using the Blu-ray disc while Warner releases movies in both formats.
The price of Blu-ray Discs has also fallen recently and they are now competitive with HD DVDs.