Blu-Ray & HD-DVD: Choices Ahead

By Chris Beveridge     January 12, 2005

Way back in 1996, the home video market was coming off something of a high in the "high end" area of laserdisc releases. A bit of a revival of sorts had occurred as prices had dropped down for regular releases somewhat, players were a bit more affordable and things had progressed so well that there were actually commercials during the holiday season for some big titles that said "Buy now on VHS and Laserdisc." Having been into the format a few years prior when Pioneer announced their entry into the anime market in the US by doing things on laserdisc only at first, I was enjoying the boom because it meant more movies in widescreen – often the only way at the time to see them in their original format as widescreen VHS was just starting to get its own niche in places like Suncoast – and more anime was coming out that way.



While the anime market itself wasn't large, especially as Pioneer shifted to more VHS releases after the first year or two due to the obvious market differences, a good number of folks who worked for the various companies had spent years prior in acquiring anime laserdiscs from Japan and had a certain love and affection for the format. So while there was a brief surge of anime releases of some top series, most never finished but there were some great things that came out of it. But while reading about everything, disturbing things were on the horizon. Some evil format called DVD was coming out in test markets in 1997 in six cities, though if you were lucky you could get the actual DVDs online. Initial rollouts of demonstrations to stores went bad in general with poorly authored discs and players that weren't fully in spec; some were probably even still just barely finished prototypes.



During that year, the hardcore videophile tended to fall into two camps; one was extremely defensive of their format and of their collections and machines while the other was dumping laserdiscs left and right onto eBay and other marketplaces that had cropped up during the start of the internet boom. One was extolling the virtues of the existing format because much of what they had seen of DVD had been ridiculously bad looking while the others had seen what the format had to offer and were jumping ship as fast as possible. The furor on the forums and newsgroups during that short time was amazing, particularly when you got the argument of certain movies never ever being released on anything other than laserdisc again. And for a good long time, that was true, but it's hard to believe here in 2005 when practically everything seems to be scrapped from the bottom of the barrel to be released.



Once out of the laserdisc market and not looking back, the growth of the DVD market was one that was fascinatingly fun back in late 1997. A few key sites had appeared, like the invaluable and opinionated DVD Resource site, but most from those days are no longer around and don't have the same kind of energy to them that they used to, mostly because over the last seven to eight years the format has matured and there isn't the same kind of problems there used to be. But back then, you had the days when the first dual layered disc came out and half the decks weren't able to play it because they were made before the dual layer spec itself was completely finalized. Then you had minimal studio support or those who gave lip service to it while others sat it out entirely, only to eventually put their cash behind the Circuit City release of Divx, the pay per play format.



Suffice to say, after all this time, the market chose what really worked while combined with the internet boom of retailers that have come and gone as well as the rise of a more active role by consumers in being able to shape opinion of things. The campaigns against the Divx format seem almost quaint from today's perspective, but back then ever little bit seemed to help the movement. The dire warnings have subsided for some time and most of the other attempts over the years to do something similar haven't had anywhere near the cash level or impetus that Divx did. Another advantage of that time was the retail market where the there was so much cash out there just to capture marketshare, never mind actually have sound business principles, that the consumers made out like bandits. When you could utilize coupons, discounts and other tricks to actually get companies like Reel.com to owe you money for buying a disc from their site, you just knew something was wrong but it felt so right. And with deals like that combined with continually dropping prices in players, it was easy to acquire a big collection of enjoyable titles.



Now in 2005, we're closing in on a similar scenario but with plenty of differences to it. The DVD format has matured and has served its purpose well as being a bridge format to the next generation of video. DVD was never originally intended to be quite the success it was and it ended up changing plans along the way for moving to the next generation of hardware. Over the past couple of years, things have moved forward however and while much of the debate has been in the background and followed by a much smaller crowd than before, it has been happening. Prior to DVD, there were a couple of different formats that eventually decided that one unified format was the only way to really get things done because they wanted to avoid the entire VHS/Betamax fiasco of the early 80's. In essence, the companies didn't want to screw around and wanted to just make money. Forming the DVD Forum and with a number of patents shared among them, some more than others of course, the format was launched with its share of problems and ended up radically changing the entire home video enterprise.



When you have actors, writers and directors all ensuring that their piece of the revenue pie includes the DVD releases, often because they're equal to or more than the theatrical release, the times have changed.



Over the last year, things have gone in a similar manner as two competing camps are working towards the next generation devices for home video and media storage. The camps fall along similar lines of the past so it isn't all too surprising. Much of 2004 was spent with some public rhetoric and a clearer view of who was angling towards where. The two camps fall like this:








HD-DVD



Backed by Toshiba and NEC with heavy support from Time/Warner and its various owned properties such as New Line and HBO. At the end of the year, they lined up support from Paramount and Universal (and thereby DreamWorks as well) and made promises of both standalone players and computer drives to be available in the 4th quarter of 2005. With the large amount of market share owned by Warner Bros. and its other properties as well as the sizeable catalog of movies that they control, as well as Universal and Paramount, HD-DVD has plenty of promise for a good catalog of releases for both new movies and older titles.



The format itself has certain advantages. The first and foremost is pure name recognition. The DVD brand means a lot but it's also starting to lose its value. A number of reports in the past year have shown that as DVDs show up in more and more places, from convenience stores to fast food joints, the power of the brand has begun to wane from overexposure. But in the home video world, being able to market a next generation player by using the same logo and slapping the letters HD before it can make a huge impact in consumer consciousness.



Not quite as much is fully publicly available for the format due to the lack of an Association website and easy to find specs, but the basics of the format are that on a single layer HD-DVD disc, it will hold 15 gigabytes of information. A dual layered disc is supposed to be just under 30 GB. When thinking of compressing high definition material, the easiest way though not always the most accurate way is to basically view an hour as between eight to ten gigabytes of information. A two hour movie should fit well within a single layer HD-DVD at 15 gigabytes with the standard data transfer rate of 19 Megabits per second at 1920 x 1080. I don't believe any dual layered discs have been showcased yet but it falls into similar lines as the DVD format itself, where most initial releases were single layered and held just the movie and the basic menus but looked great (at the time, compression and authoring has come a long way since just like it will once again with the next generation format).



What's actually being considered the biggest selling point for HD-DVD right now is that there is very little that needs to be done on the back end for moving to the format. Replication lines don't need much tweaking, authoring doesn't need too many changes and it’s a much more affordable format. When costs are low, especially going into something new, that's a highly attractive feature.








Blu-Ray



Backed heavily by Sony and Philips and drawing on considerable support from the computer industry by giants Dell, Hewlette Packard and electronics companies such as Panasonic, Hitachi and Pioneer, the Blu-Ray format (or BD) is what they've chosen as the best way of going forward. With a lot of hardware support, the BD format is backed by Sony's large library of movies (having come out as the biggest moneymaker of 2004 releases I believe) as well as acquiring a large interest in the MGM library which is nothing to sneeze at either, the format also has the support of the Walt Disney Company. While Fox hasn't officially signed on as releasing titles, they do sit on their Association that deals with formulating spec and policy.



For Sony, there's a sense of déjà vu that's likely going on as some parts of this feels like the 80's again with their competing format against what's a more brand friendly format. Unlike then though, there are some significant differences. While I do think it's overstated at times, their ability to churn out a lot of affordable next generation players inside their upcoming Playstation 3 isn't something to be underestimated. The Playstation 2's release came at a time when the prices in DVD players were dropping and this helped accelerate that while reaching into the youth market with its wads of disposable income. Sony also isn't quite as alone as they probably felt back in the 80's when the inferior format won out over theirs. Being able to talk about having companies like Electronics Arts (yes, all issues with their management and game quality aside) and Universal-Vivendi is nothing to sneeze at. When it comes to moving technology forwards, two things often really are at the center of it nowadays – gaming and pornography.



BD capable devices have been available since mid-2004 in Japan though they aren't compatible with anything else, pre-recorded content included because none exists, the first couple of models came out there to prove the viability of high definition recording. A few decks have been released in Korea in a similar attempt but overall much of the work has been focused on getting their spec completed and finalizing as much as possible. From what's been displayed and talked about during the end of 2004 and into the Consumer Electronics Show that has come and gone, here's the basic specs that are worth knowing about the BD format:



A single layer BD disc holds 25 gigabytes of storage while the dual layered discs, which have been proven and viable I believe, holds just under fifty GB. Work in the labs have been done that has proven the viability within the next two years of producing a disc with eight layers on it, capable of holding 200 gigabytes of storage. In recording high definition content, the single layer disc has the oft quoted 66% more storage space than the single layer HD-DVD disc which means less compression and more room for more features in general. While having the same resolution of 1920 x 1080, BD allows for 36 Megabits per second in its data transfer rate, though I've read that the two formats are now closer in this than before but the HD-DVD information just isn't as easily available.



What's talked about, though not in detail among the masses, is that the BD format has a higher up front cost because it requires changes in replication lines, new authoring techniques and a new learning curve. These are the same things that DVD itself faced back in 1997 back when most of the replicators that would provide DVD replication were "captured" replicators like WAMO. For Sony, they fall into the same problem right now as their captured replicator is one of the few places that can provide the service and other replicators would have to invest some capital to upgrade. Depending on how you feel about replicators though, that will influence your opinion as most feel that the replicators simply must go where the money is and that sometimes they do have to spend money to make money. Otherwise, like the laserdisc pressing plants, they go away.



Thoughts



Back in 1998 when I started this site, I did it because I believed DVD was the future and I wanted to in whatever small way possible influence how anime would be released on it. Back then there was the fear that Japanese language tracks would be dismissed and the everything would go English language only and the companies would miss the boat on what DVD could do for them. Suffice to say, that certainly hasn't happened and instead DVD has changed how many view anime. The ability to switch back and forth has been a boon for both sides I'd say as people can now try each side and find that there are things they like about the other. The hardcore lines still exist but the middle ground has expanded greatly since the choice fell from a purchase standpoint to one of what you feel like when you sit down and watch the show.



Over the past year I've paid some attention to the competing formats and have swung back and forth trying to figure out what the advantages are but mostly just hoping that those that are holding things apart get their acts together and realize that a single unified format is the only way to go to make everyone happy and to make everyone money. While I still hope for that to happen, I've spent the past week reading a lot of material, a lot of quotes and a lot of talk about the two formats that I've actually fallen into one of the camps and am quickly becoming an ardent supporter of.



I've actually gone 180 degrees in the opposite direction from where I was last year by now being fully behind Sony and the Blu-Ray format. There are a number of reasons for that but the first thing I have to say is that I am not a huge fan of Sony in terms of their electronics releases over the years. I do feel that over the years they've compromised a good deal of their commitment to quality in their gear and it's shown in a number of key pieces. I spent some time falling for Toshiba equipment but found that their video playback devices weren't for me at all, though their projection sets were great. What I've become a fan of in recent years though is Panasonic and their equipment across a number of levels, from their projection sets, camcorders, DVD players and more. With their strong support of BD I feel that there will be some interesting and user-friendly decks right from the start.



One area where I find Blu-Ray to be infinitely superior to the HD-DVD and DVD format is that one of the things they're getting right from the gate is including a finalized singular recording format with it. The lack of a unified recording spec has hampered the DVD format for years and caused more problems for people than I care to even think of. Even with the CD format, recording came years later almost as a "tacked on" feel that had plenty of compatibility problems at first as well. By providing this right out of the gate, and being high-definition recordable which is something that many of the early adopters like myself will want as we've skipped over D-VHS and are playing around with HD-DVR's now as a bridge, the singular format and greater space available on the single layered BD discs are highly appealing.



Another area where I see BD becoming more popular and more widespread is the support the format has from companies like Dell and HP. DVD hit a number of things that allowed it to become widespread and one of the key areas was the DVD-ROM drive and how it allowed people to watch videos on their computers with ease and a generally lower price. With the price of HD capable monitors going to drop fast in the next couple of years, this will once again becomes a viable market that will expand heavily I think. Combining the greater storage space and interactivity that's planned, BD will make some good inroads here and I think they'll make them deeper than HD-DVD will.



At the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the areas that the HD-DVD camp managed to do to out-do the BD camp was to announce nearly a hundred titles that they've got slated to hit HD-DVD. At first, this got me even more excited for the next format but then I started to think about it more. I realized just what was happening was another repeat of 1997 and 1998. While a trio of companies announced nearly a hundred releases, I don't doubt that the bulk of them will be single layer HD-DVD releases and that they'll be of the same kind of material we got back in 1997 and 1998; decent movies with decent compression that they'll churn out again a year or two later when the dual layered format is fully ready and they're able to use less compression, more extras and more to it. I fully realize that that the home video market is based on selling new shows fast and then re-selling the same shows over and over again for as long as you can, but there are limits.



Something else, though not quite as tangible, that has me supporting Blu-Ray is that I'm admittedly curious to let Sony have it for once. They didn't get a chance in the 80's with Betamax and they were part of the consortium in the 90's for DVD. We've had them on the losing end and we've had them in the team player mode. With the backing of the folks at Philips who hold the bulk of the patents for the CD and the support of the big computer makers and their large presence in the video game market, I'm of mind to let Sony go forward and try to take things to the next level themselves and to carry a wide number of industries along with it. Gaming will make out better with more storage space and high definition video inside of it. Camcorders with recordable BD discs popped in that are instantly playable on a BD player/recorder with cut and edit features with no compatibility issues is something that I've dreamed of. Having the ability to record high definition video (pending broadcast flags of course) for archival and re-viewing without having to be wary of space like I would be on HD-DVD is enticing.



While the benefits for the anime side of things aren't going to be quite as apparent as they were when going from VHS or LD to DVD, they are definitely going to be there. With the gorgeous shows we're getting now and the continual advances there, the next few years are going to produce some amazing pieces of work. In looking forward to that day, I want a format that's going to have the space to show these like they should be without the compromises that I keep seeing in the HD-DVD format. I want a format that's unified in its recording format and one that is much more cross-compatible than we've seen before.



And that's why we're putting our support behind the Blu-Ray format.

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For more reading, I'd recommend the following sites:

Official Blu-Ray Association Site

AVS Forum Discussion Thread

High Definition Forum



In addition, I recommend adding google news alerts for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray if you really want to keep current with all the news and announcements. This is quick and easy way to skim headlines as they happen for the formats.