Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD War Heats Up
The medium on which our entertainment has been brought to us has been shifting continuously over the past century. It got interesting though with the advent of the tape, followed closely by the record and then the CD. There were alternatives for those who would classify themselves geekier than thou, but those alternatives were pricey.
Then came DVD, and everything seemed to get wiped away for a time.
But then the need for higher storage capabilities became an issue, and
the natural course was for a new format war to break out.
In a
quick summary, ever since the DVD revolutionized the industry, experts
have been awaiting the “next generation” of storage medium. This
arrived with the introduction of two formats, similar in quality but
with diehard camps that will claim otherwise. Blu-Ray was launched by
Sony in 2004, and backed by industry giants such as Apple Inc., Dell,
and Panasonic.
HD-DVD on the other hand was engineered jointly by Toshiba and NEC, and released late 2003. The big backers behind HD-DVD are Microsoft and HP, with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 providing a HD-DVD player in conjunction with its gaming platform, following in line with Sony’s Playstation 3, which comes with built in Blu-Ray.
So it comes as no surprise that we are forever hearing of companies and experts taking sides, often for the sole sake of earning more money.
There has been mis-reporting like never before, with news outlets even being dragged in to a “who will win” style reporting, which has had many consumers simply baffled as to who to buy, if any. Now putting aside the fact that experts (me included) are behind neither, and are simply awaiting further advances in digital downloading, there is no denying the battle continues to heat up between the two new formats.
Michael Bay recently took a rather public side, when he announced his extreme unhappiness with Paramount’s decision to drop the Blu-Ray disc to focus solely on releasing their movies through the HD-DVD medium.
"I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For
them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by
having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!"
This quick sound-bite
like post was published on his personal blog, and was very much out of
the blue. However today, only a day after his loud disapproval, he has
recanted all and pledged his alliance to the cause.
However once again misreporting has made much more of this story than was needed, with every outlet I’ve so far cast my eyes on suggesting that Bay has admitted to “drinking the kool-aid” of the HD-DVD camp. What Bay has actually said was that, the “kool-aid” that he fell for “hook line and sinker” was the Blu-Ray diatribe, and not the HD-DVD. Having seen that Paramount’s decision to back the HD-DVD format is based upon HD players nearing the magical $200 mark, and a quality that pleases him, he is back on to do Transformers 2.
As for those who are suggesting that Michael Bay is at the beck and call of Paramount bosses, I would feel compelled to remind you that he is probably the man who pulls the strings, considering the amount of money his directing has brought in.
So, Michael Bay is back on for Transformers 2, and HD-DVD is a-OK with him! As for who will win the war…?
Posted by Josh Hill.
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