HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray – the War for Confidence

The idea that there is some kind of 'war' between Toshiba' HD-DVD technology and Sony's Blu-Ray technology is rather a hoax, though these are the main competitors on the market of digital video disc formats.

These high definition digital video disc formats are equally used by the consumers since appeared on the market. By the way they were presented to the public almost simultaneously. Both technologies are equally demanded because the Sony Company as well as the Toshiba Company promotes their own high quality technological standards.

The history goes around

The above mentioned format war where the market is the main target reminds the story of VHS and Beta-max video tapes. Though it occurred not more than a few decades ago, the story tends to repeat with the digital video disc formats.

Being aware of the fact that there can be only one format that will conquer the market, most of the consumers are waiting to witness which standard will be on tops. There would be at least two parties which will loose the war – one of the providers and the consumers who support it. The last ones will get burned investing in the obsolete technology.

The interesting thing about this is that the consumers are the ones to determine the outcome! Still many await the outcome before investing. It's smart, but creates an obvious vicious cycle. The heroes of the 'war' will be the ones who will always invest in what they think is the best for them despite the risk.

The dilemma: win confidence or get bankrupt!

Companies such as Sony and Toshiba spend billions of dollars to promote their technologies and eventually hope to win the war! But to succeed they need to win battle after battle, and the first one is for consumers confidence.

The question of the day is: how to gain confidence without ending up as Beta-max video did? Or, in other words, how to get the trust of consumers in your format without putting the eggs in one basket? One of the answers is – advertising and partnerships.

The format itself (with its advantages and disadvantages) means much less than the 'art' of a company to gain trust. In the long run the format perception by the consumers will determine which technology stays grounded and which is cast into oblivion.

The chain reaction

The company whose technology will win credits is likely to stay up for another five years or so. This will launch a chain reaction as many technology areas will stem from the winner's format. This will also influence the production of software to run the format, devices to play the format and content in the very format.

Be it Blue-ray or HD-DVD, the movie studios and software companies analyzing consumers behavior will work on more titles in this or that format. The irony is that consumers seeing a lot of titles in a certain format will favor the one and eventually determine who is the best.

The backing policy

Probably the most powerful maneuver in favor of winning consumers' credits is backing! The extraweight Twentieth Century Fox has recently announced that its intention is to release numerous movie titles in the Blu-ray format. This undoubtedly offers a strong back to Sony's format! Twentieth Century Fox releases from five to ten titles per month, which inclines the balance in favor of Blu-ray format and pulls it forward for the winner's nomination.

High quality can loose the war

Many consider Blu-ray is technologically advantaged over the HD-DVD format. It is applauded by TV and computer technology promoters.

It should be pointed out that people often pay attention to immediate advantages instead of taking some time for digging deeper. In case of HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats, the advantage of the latter is to store 25GB of data on each side of the disc, while HD-DVD discs can store 15GB on each side for a total of 30GB.

However, both of them rely on similar types of laser technology, have the same physical size, etc. The cruel truth about technological wars is that unfortunately the superior technology isn't always a winner.