The battle rages on between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD for domination of all future digital formats. While interested consumers may have already chosen their favorite, others may not have a clue as to why or if they should care about how this struggle turns out. It is fairly clear that the market cannot sustain both formats for a long period of time. Like the Betamax/VHS battle of the 1980s, a clear winner will inevitably share out.
But what is the difference anyway? Should movie enthusiasts care who wins? Below is a summary of the similarities and differences of the two formats.
Format Similarities
- Both use Blue Laser technology (despite packaging colors)
- Both discs are mastered in 1080p/24
- Both use the same audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD, and Uncompressed PCM)
- Both use the same video formats: (MPEG2, VC1, H264, MPEG4)
- Both players play standard DVDs and can upscale existing DVDs to improve viewing.
- Both can use the same audio and video transfer connection (HDMI)
Format Differences
- Where HD-DVD players must have an Ethernet port for access the web for things like direct firmware downloads. Blu-ray disc players have Ethernet ports as optional features only.
- Blu-ray use BD-Java for its interactive capabilities, HD-DVD uses iHD.
- Blu-ray discs are able to store more than HD-DVD discs, though both are more than capable to store movies, audio and special features.
- Blu-ray will implement BD+, an extra level of copy protection. Both formats have existing copy-protection systems that have been hacked.
- Blu-ray uses a region coding system, HD-DVD does not, though they have reserved the right to implement one in the future.
So take a look at these differences. Do they matter much to you? Is there a clear winner in your eyes? I’m not sure how I feel about either option at the moment – it seems the differences are subtle and truly don’t matter much to the general consumer. But we will see if they differentiate themselves more in the future.
Information provided by Robert Silva
