And it is now official.

Hi-def battle ends as Toshiba quits HD DVD

I meant to respond to this earlier and forgot (although it is a bit of a moot point):

HD DVD
Disc capacity
15GB (single layer)
30GB (dual layer)
51GB (prototype triple layer)

Video capacity (per dual-layer disc)
SD: approximately 13 hours
HD: 5.1 or 3.3 hours, depending on encoding method



Blu-ray
Disc capacity
25GB (single layer)
50GB (dual layer)
100GB (prototype quad layer)

Video capacity (per dual-layer disc)
SD: approximately 23 hours
HD: 8.5 or 5.6 hours, depending on encoding method

Whatever. Technical specs were never going to decide this. It happens that the winner has the better specs on paper, but in the end, it was entirely a war won from a business standpoint. Sony made it more worthwhile for the studios to sign on, end of story.

A lesson that Sony probably remembers well from the VHS vs. Betamax war.

Yep, and just like that one ... the majority of criitcal reports that I read (and I read many of them) gave a slight picture quality edge to HDTV.


But, in light of the Betamax fiasco, I'm kinda glad it won this format war with its lower quality product.


imo, this is not going to revolutionalize home video in the ways that VHS and DVD did.

I'm honestly surprised that either "won". With the trend today to be to just support everything (go look at how many different connection standards a new TV supports), I wouldn't have been surprised to see both of them linger on for quite a while. At least until delivery methods more like AppleTV/Vudu/Amazon UnBox* caught on and made physical media obsolete.


* Note, I'm not saying any of those are DVD killers as they are now. But it won't be long before internet delivery of content becomes the norm. Unless, of course, net neutrality dies, making such delivery prohibitively expensive.

To be fair, the only revolutionary product of the two listed was VHS, which in and of itself was just something that followed the path Betamax blazed, since VHS actually changed, or disrupted, a previous behavior - namely going to the movies. DVD was a mere innovation, as is Blu-Ray/HDDVD, though perhaps less-so than the DVD was... Aside from quality and size, there are no radical differences with the technology.

I'm a big fan of innovation. :)

Well, I'd say that DVD was revolutionary in that it facilitated the crossing over of the PC into the world of entertainment centers. It's a media that worked in both worlds and eventually melded them into each other.

I suppose, but I still consider it an innovation, since it wasn't entirely disruptive to a previous behavior, at least not in the way that VHS was. DVDs only facilitated the crossover as much as the Internet, mp3s, and other varying technologies did. So, it was part and party to the whole she-bang, but not the ultimate cause of it.

Thanks Kevy! That is interesting!

I agree, and I'm very surprised (and relived) that it is over. I'll be going HD soon!