The death of DVDs

All this new technology is pretty confusing for consumers, who have probably never even got round to figuring out how to programme their video players. Too late now, as these now-archaic machines stack up in the dumpsters, replaced by slimline DVD players.

But save a space in the dustbin for your DVD player too, because the Next Big Thing is high-density disks with up to forty times the capacity of a current DVD. No more boxed sets: the next version of Friends will be at most one disk per series, except for series coming out in high-definition formats with lots of behind-the-scenes footage and extras.

A battle begins

The problem is that a battle has begun over two competing formats of next generation disk. In the left corner: HD DVD; in the right: Blu-Ray. Without delving too deep into obscure technical details relating to layers and wavelengths and disc surface density, it's safe to say that from the consumer's point of view, both formats will offer a huge improvement on current DVDs - assuming your TV screen or home cinema set up is capable of showing the difference.

HD DVD initially had more backers from film studios than Blu-Ray, but that's changed over the past years with companies such as Paramount, Warner Bros and MGM agreeding to support both formats. HD DVD is also supported by Microsoft, Intel, Sanyo, NEC, Toshiba and more recently HP, which is hedging its bets.

Blu-Ray is backed by an even bigger host of IT and consumer electronics companies: Sony, Apple, LG, HP, Mitsubishi, Dell, Panasonic, Samsung, Hitachi, Sharp, Philips, Thomson, Pioneer and TDK.

Is bigger better?

In terms of data capacity, Blu-Ray currently has the edge, holding 25 gigabytes of data compared to HD DVD's 15 gigabytes. Quad-layer Blu-Ray disks with 100 gigabytes of data are also on the way; 200 gigabytes is also being researched.

But one of the disadvantages of Blu-Ray is considered to be its delicateness: with so much more data held in such a thinner amount of plastic, one scratch could wipe data out. Blu-Ray has developed a special protective coating, but it adds to the cost of each disk.

A fair fight

Battle lines are so far fairly evenly drawn, with industry opinion oscillating each month between the two formats. HD DVD was predicted to have a big head start on Blu-Ray by being included in the new Xbox360 gaming consoles. But Microsoft failed to include it, at least in the first generation of 360s. It currently plans to release an external HD-DVD attachment to play high-definition movies.

Blu-Ray was then thought to have the edge by being included in the new Playstation3 gaming consoles. But the PS3 launch date has moved back from Spring 2006 to November at the earliest, by which time a second generation of Xbox360s featuring in-built HD DVD may be around.

So it's impossible to predict which format will win the war, or even gain the early lead. It's likely that the advent of hybrid "HD-Ray" players, that can handle both formats, will see both Blu-Ray and HD DVD continue in parallel.