Blu-ray and HD-DVD: Some brief thoughts...

And now, a brief contemplation, blogged for your enjoyment -

The video delivery media of choice for the last 7 or so years now has been DVD. Only in the last 3 or 4 years have we really seen a near total adoption by independent productions utilizing this media for all or most of their projects. We are to the point now where if you do not deliver on DVD, you are being passed over.

In case you haven't already caught word of it, a new generation of discs intended to replace current DVD technology is now coming into the marketplace. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are two competing formats, supported by various companies on either side, vying for 1st place in this race. Media format wars are not new - CD-R media are made a variety of different ways by different manufacturers, but more recently we've dealt with the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R, with the arguments still ensuing.

Competition is good for the marketplace, but confusion certainly is not. In previous iterations of this format war, such as the recent -/+ division, the confusion was a result of the lack of a true winner. Both formats have a couple of advantages over the other. Regardless, these advantages are overemphasized at best and oversimplified at worst. When companies align themselves with a product, those users who typically align themselves with a company's other products will follow along - blindly at times - usually to their own detriment.

I'm not going to attempt to clear the waters here today on the new high-density DVD media (click the links above to do your best guessing). What I really came here to say is that with these new formats being developed and deployed, the marketplace is so eager for a new option that we have found ourselves rushing through development, choosing teams, and coming out the other side with two formats, neither of which seems to be a useful long-term option. What we seem to be headed for is another 8-year format, needing to redo it all again in another few years.

You may argue that with the ever-changing state of technology these days, a product that can hold us up for 8 years is a miracle. I do understand that point of view. However, media delivery does not sway so dramatically as the computing technology (a trend we are all too familiar with when our 5 month-old computer is considered "obsolete"). There is the ability for developers to predict the curve of our technology over a much longer span, and make a flexible media that will be able to manage a wider variety of circumstances than those currently available. The media we now have in Blu-ray and HD-DVD is clearly better in many respects to our current DVD solution - but sometimes "better" is not really cut out for "good" or "great."