Nedko

At the time I am writing this the battle is over and the dust is starting to settle as Toshiba just waived the white flag and announced that they are going to discontinue their HD DVD campaign and stop manufacturing HD DVD products. And most likely as you are reading this HD DVD will just be a piece of history …important history which goes long before I was even born – these are the days of the magnetic media revolution; the days when VHS players could reach ridiculous prices and could cost – up to half the price of a luxury vehicle.

While DVD was great while it lasted and marked one of the greatest successes in the history of consumer electronics it was clear that its days were numbered. The standard definition that DVD had to offer was not enough to satisfy the likes of Hollywood. With technology racing at an unimaginable rate and HD video and audio reaching living rooms around the world the world for the next generation high definition format was started. That is a round 2 for Sony and the long forgotten Betamax Vs. Video Home System (or VHS as we all know it) for standard domination. The last time around Sony’s Betamax lost the battle despite being technologically superior. Better quality had recording time as a trade-off. The majority of consumers did not want to commit to a standard and movies were offered for both. Unlike this time the battle continued much longer and finally VHS’s dominant market share, higher recording capacity, and lower media costs forces Sony to pull out. Well, apparently the folks at Sony have learned a few lessons. Although Blue Ray still has a higher cost and the early momentum that HD DVD generated this time we have a much more competitive product. Starting with much higher capacity [50Gb for a dual layer compared to 30Gb for Toshiba's HD DVD] Blue Ray seems technologically superior. This time Sony took a different approach and overcame the somewhat established HD DVD lead by spending most time and applying pressure to the movie studios themselves. The tight competition forced studios to offer movies in one format or the other but not both. Same was valid for manufacturer support where Blue Ray had better success. All the success could also be partially credited to region coded support and better digital right management and copy protection. At the end it came down to Warner Brothers followed by Wal Mart who joined Sony and agreed to offer movies exclusively in Blue Ray. While those two add just one more to the count they represent 80% and 32% respectively of the market share in their industry which makes the decisions huge. Toshiba knew that was a big sway on Blue Ray’s direction – it was more than they could handle. Disappointing signs from investors forced the giant to discontinue the efforts to revive the initial momentum and under such pressures Toshiba made a press release announcing the end of the Blue Ray Vs. HD DVD war. Although Sony was ready for a long battle it can now claim the victory.

The score is not 1:1 and the question “Is <insert movie> coming to Blu-ray?” in section 4.3 of the Blue Ray FAQ much easier to answer. Lesson learned for Sony – what goes around comes around.

Filed under:
Uncategorized by Nedko