Blu-Ray Vs HD-DVD… The War Continues….

In Jan 2007, Korean Electronic Giant LG decided to go for it, the Dual player that plays both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. So where does this really lead to? The end of the war, where the consumer finally is happy with something that supports both?

Well I see that this kind of a player will only help a small segment of undecided buyers. Most others have decided on what they really want, but since the new generation players a burn in the pocket, the consumer himself is playing a wait & watch game.

The dual players are again a lot more expensive? So how long are these players going to survive? Well the answer lies with what Movie studios & game developers decide. The final format that they think is the best one to support. The reason behind this is the huge storage needed now, is only for better quality movies & high graphics games. If it is for any other purpose, a DVD should really suffice when it comes to storage.

So when it comes to the wait & watch policy, who are the other electronic giants doing it? HP & Samsung seems to be the only other companies that have openly agreed to support both the formats. Ruling out HP as a "player" manufacture, but as only a Drive manufacturer, Samsung seems to be the next in the lead to make a dual player.

Are they going to make it? Well they are looking at LG’s success as a benchmark & would go on with it only if LG succeeds. So what the big deal with having both the formats on a single player? Nothing much for a consumer, except that you have a choice of buying what format you feel like.

How is it different for a retailer? Warner Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer stated in a press release that "The retailer wants to sell hardware and doesn't want to be forced into stocking two formats for everything". So what does Warner come up with a Dual Format Disc, which has Blu-Ray on one side and HD-DVD on the other. So all that the consumer has to do is pick up what he needs and play it on whatever kind of player he has at home.

Doesn’t all of these seem a unnecessary? Why cant we just have one format and get on with it? Well all I could think of with this is that Corporations have gotta make money & how best to do that? Force more on to the consumer. It’s us who finally pays :-|

I have no clue as to how long is this war's going to go. If Pioneer has their way with the UV Disc ( See my previous post). The Blu-ray & the HD-DVD both gotta did their grave.

Copyright © Dennis D Maliekal
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