In a rather surprising move, DVD Forum (the authority which controls the development of the DVD standards), has chosen a technology by NEC and Toshiba to work as a blueprint for next generation blue-laser DVDs.

This is big setback for a Blu-Ray Consortium, a group of nine big consumer electronic companies, who launched their blue-laser specs earlier this year hoping that by uniting their forces they could avoid current situation where markets have two competing red-laser technologies, the "minus" and the "plus" formats. But now it seems that this will be exactly the same story with blue-laser recordable standards as well.

NEC-Toshiba model users 0.6mm cover layer disk system, similiar to those used currently in red-laser DVD discs, while Blu-Ray uses 0.1mm cover layer. Blu-Ray can store upto 27GB of data per side, but the NEC-Toshiba disc can hold only appx. 20GB per side.

Originally posted by vivarey
From Afterdawn.com (11/11/03) :



Read another article about it at EETimes. The bad news about blue laser technology (from what I've read) is that it's NOT backward compatible with our current DVDs.

HD-DVD The Real Issue
But a format war might be a moot point if the studios can't figure out how to make the next generation of DVD compelling for people to buy. As it stands now the key selling points for HD-DVD are: 1) it's got much better copy protection than DVD (something that was repeated over and over and over again through out the day); 2) it has higher resolution picture; and, 3) "Interactivity". When pressed about what exactly 'Interactivity' means, the best response I could get was a 'Wow Experience', but throughout the day no one could really quite define or describe exactly what that was. Unfortunately, I believe no one can define 'Interactivity' because they simply don't have any idea what it really is. Studios on the whole seem to be a little surprised at just how successful DVD is, and just how popular all special features are with consumers, I think they are hard pressed to come up with anything to 'one up DVD'.

When you really boil it down, the rush to HD-DVD is less about what consumers want or need and more about the needs of the studios. The two biggest issues facing studios are copy protection and an end to the explosive growth of home video. Studios somehow think that they can capture lightning in a bottle and re-create the DVD explosion with HD-DVD. Several presenters at the DVD in 50 convention likened the launch of HD-DVD to a 'PS-2' type event with visions of consumers quickly tossing aside their DVD Players and collections and re-purchasing their favorite titles again in HD. I think some of these studios are going to get a serious wake-up call. Home Video isn't games and the jump from DVD to HD is no where near the tremendous leap between PS1 and PS2 or Nintendo 64 and Gamecube. Studios look at the consumer behavior surrounding game systems and think it can be emulated in the Home Video Market. It can't. I believe that DVD buyers are going to take more of a 'wait and see' approach to HD-DVD instead of fire selling their DVD collections on Ebay to jump on the HD-DVD bandwagon. I also think that studios are over estimating how quickly people are going to actually be upgrading their standard TVs to view HD content. Currently the FCC has a 2006 deadline for total broadcast conversion to HD. Most of the big name retailers I spoke with at the show admit that the 2006 deadline won't be met and they don't expect HD to be as mass a product as DVD until as late as 2010! All this combined with a format war, I fear HD-DVD has a fairly rocky road ahead of it.

Sony - Blue Ray HD-DVD and Its Ties to PS3
Make no mistake about it, Sony IS doing Blue Ray. The Blue Ray format is currently being sold in Japan as a recordable format and they're making it clear that they intend to pursue the Blue Ray format for the US. So far Sony has lined up Panasonic, Phillips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, Hitachi, and Mitsubishi who all have pledged their support for Blue Ray. It seems like Sony may green light Blue Ray with or without the broader support of the DVD Forum. In a talk about the future of DVD and HD-DVD Benjamin Feingold, president of Columbia Tri-Star Home Entertainment (A Sony Company) tipped his hand when he suggested that Sony was looking to the capacity provided by blue laser, not only for moves but also video games. He also suggested that the next generation Sony game systems could very well use Blue Laser. I strongly believe that Sony is so determined to be on the winning side of a format (Betamax, Mini Disc, SACD), that they're going to be betting the farm on Blue.

Originally posted by Tom Campbell
After reading the EETimes article, the impression I got was that the Toshiba-NEC model was gooing to be backwards compaticle.

Okay, here's where it gets a little twisted. Toshiba & NEC didn't join the Blu-ray group. They proposed their own Blue-laser format; a high-capacity, High Definition, blue-laser format available as early as next year which allows manufacturers to continue using existing DVD plants & equipment. And, allows backwards compatibility with existing red-laser discs, but will be incompatible with Blu-ray. Toshiba & NEC also plan for Blue-laser to cover both read-only high definition discs as well as read-and-write discs. They feel "it provides a cost-effective upgrade path for media vendors & backward-compatible solution for the many consumers who have built DVD libraries."

Originally posted by iove
The can put all the formats they want out to the public. Competition between formats is good for us consumers and technology. However it is the market that will ultimately decide which one lives or dies. I just hope that if there is a format war that it is resolved quickly (remember divx?) rather than years (like Betamax and VHS).

i don't know why every one complains about backwards compatibility, does your vcr, play dvd's no!

Originally posted by Corky Roxbury
tom, but everyone already rebuys new dvd that get a new transfer anyways so there will be no need for backwards compabalitily, the new HD transfers will blow everything else out of the water, the only reason to still have a dvd player will be to watch movies not yet released, just like a vcr is used for today.

I have already sold off most of my dvd's that I knew I would not need to view more than once in rhe next 2-3 years. I for one am damn ready for Hd-DVD, and will buy the first player, no matter what the cost. I already have owned 7 HDtv's and currently own 4, and I am a 22 year old on a measly salary, so I am sure others will jump ship as well.

Originally posted by Tarnower
My neighbor even has over 200 DVDs of duplicated porn on DVD.

Originally posted by Gyno Rhino
I don't think HD-DVD is going to be anything like what people are expecting.

DVD succeeded because it offered such a significant advantage over VHS that people HAD to pay attention to it. HD-DVD does not.

We are not the majority here. J6P is.

J6P may like the better picture, but that wasn't the main selling point of DVD to him. The main point was that "Wow, you don't have to rewind them? And there's MORE than just a movie on there?"

Unless HD-DVD can serve me dinner and jerk me off, I'm not going to care too much.