The next-gen HD disc war is here. Sony and Pioneer are pushing Blu-Ray while Toshiba and others are backing HD-DVD while plenty of American media and software companies take sides. Both disc formats promise more capacity than DVD (15GB per layer with HD-DVD, and 25GB per layer with Blu-Ray (and Blu-Ray can support 8 layers for 200GB max)) and HD video and audio content. However, there is also smaller bases in other countries such as the Enhanced Versitile Disc (EVD) in China. Later, an even more powerful format will arrive; Holograpic discs with a 300GB prototype and 1TB projected capacity. What next-gen audio-visual platform will you throw countless hard-earned dollars at, or will you happily stick with the universal CD and DVD formats and avoid the movie-licensing, DRM, and compatibility issue swamp of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray?

My opinion is that it really doesn't matter what format wins this 'war', but that one format becomes a universal standard or everything becomes backwards-compatable. I'll live happily with my dual-layer DVDs untill this mess is sorted out. If I had to make a choice now, I would go with Blu-Ray because of it's data capacity advantage.

If the price of the first Blu-Ray rewriter available in the UK is anything to go by - a Pioneer at £680!!, the technology is likely to be completely irrelevant for the home user for some considerable period of time.

- Well for me most important thing is quality of disc surface (burning on PC), blu-ray is more volatile to damages, scratches etc..., hd-dvd is better here;

- for video content both formats provide high-end solution, no problem in this area, because of HD video standards;

- for home usage the price will be deciding (and support for older types of disks also);

- right now for data storage DVD is fulfilling me needs and for long time I will stick with DVD.

But this are my personal requirements and needs. Watching the evolution of optical data storage is very interesting in terms of technology, the better solution (or cheaper) will win at the end.

The Pioneer BDR-101A just became available in the U.S. - at $1000.
I said, 'countless dollars', didn't I?
I might spring for one, when the price is $200 - $300



They added some kind of heavy-duty scratch resistant layer to both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Supposedly you can rub steel wool against the disc and it will still work. Before that Blu-Ray was very weak. (early Japanese prototypes had cartridges to protect the discs)

Cannot say for sure what format I will use in the future. It's up to what the majority use and the price. From what I've heard so far, Blu-ray, IMO, is quite a good format. I hope it will become main stream format in the future.

edit: grammar

If nothing else, I'd like to see Blu-Ray be an advanced storage solution for backup and general burning. The Iomega REV drive caught my eye at one point, but I'd like to see where this is going to go, primarily because optical media always ends up being a more cost-effective storage format. Besides, who still uses ZIP or JAZ drives anyway? (besides me)

Blu-Ray
Drive: $1000 (now), Discs: $10-$20 for each 25GB disc
Iomega REV
Drive: $300-$400, Discs: about $50 for each 30GB disc

I'll stick to CDs and Harddrives

I don't even have use for DVDs

Besides the cost it's a compatiblity issue for me. You can use a CD everywhere and for almost everything, you can use a DVD for bigger bunches of data but if you want to use it for music you might have some compatiblity disadvantages (in compare to CDs).
None of those future technologies will be in widespread use in the next few years and i don't see real advantages in the higher storage volume 'cause Harddrives will still have theire advantages above the new discs in the backup case.

HVD is the best.
I choose HVD and 1.2pb of hdd

I don't even have a DVD writer, bought a DVDrom drive for my PC (18 Euro) some months ago for a DVD only game.

So, ask me in 5 years or so. For me it doesn't matter because the content is not there.. here in Europe, HD-TV for the masses is not even on the horizon.

All the stuff I like is pretty old, I couldn't care less for "King Kong" on HD or whatever Hollywood produces these days

My crystal ball is foggy today. Ask me one of these days in 2016 what I'm using.

I'll keep using CD and DVD until one of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD wins through I might try them both though.

The price of Blu-Ray rewriter is yet too high. Blu-Ray discs (25 GB) cost 20-25 $. Now I can burn this data on 5-6 DVD (5 $).

does anyone know the audio specs of HVD and or where to find them.
The HVD site is pretty lackluster in english and the chinese is a bit tough to read and or translate.

thanks
Marc

I will stay with DVD and CD for a long time and dont care at all about the current war. I simply have no need for higher capacity (currently, my entire data-collection does not even reach 100gb). Wake me again when the capacity tops 200 GB, is affordable, durable, and not drowned in DRM-crap..... then it may be interesting to store everything on one or two discs.... that would be nice....... but do i need it?

Not in the next 5 years. I'm way more interested in other stuff like mobility (i.e. LED-beamers getting mature and affordable..... or some other kind of notebook-batteries which can endure 10 hours of multimedia usage).



- Lyx

Staying with DVD here. The capacity increase just isn't that big, nor necessary for anything even an enthusiast needs today. Hell, I haven't even bought a dual-layer DVD±R yet. My feeling is that HD-DVD and Bluray are going to stay read-only in the general marketplace for a good long time.

If I had a real need for a 15-50gb cd-style format, I'd probably go with HD-DVD. Yet another Sony-controlled format just doesn't appeal to me.

Well, the next-gen disc formats themselves are not DRM'ed, its the commercial contents on them that may be. And for a simple removable storage solution, DRM simply has no relevance.

For me, I'd rather choose HD-DVD (15 GBs on a single [semi-]read-only media is more than enough for me, yet way too little comparing to a high-capacity HDD with normal rewrite capabilities), but no sooner than any backward-compatible rewriter's price drops to ~$100—150, and HD-DVD-R discs' to ~$2. And I don't see this anywhere in 2006 or 2007. Until then, DVD is my daddy.

These next-generation optical disc wars are quite annoying. It really all does come down to compatibility, which is something we are seeing less of with these companies today. I personally rarely have the need to use DVD's. The Holographic VD are pretty amazing from a technical standpoint though. HD-DVD is on the way, with the consumer market now

I'm still waiting for something that does not get scratched, falls apart after 5 years and is a pain to write/rw, so computer with TV-out for me.

TDK has already sampled a 6-layer version of their 33GB/layer Blu-Ray technology...used in the lab of course but the medium was brought along on their roadshow. That's 200GB.

One of the nice things about BD is that it was engineered toward layers (the platter surface is used for tracking only, IIRC). 25GB (1-layer/25GB per layer) and 50GB (2-layers/25GB per layer) are currently available.

Of course, I'm not touching the tech until the drives and media come down considerably in cost. And I haven't looked into longevity yet. Would make a nice upgrade for some of the 600-disc libraries I have on hand, though.

-brendan

I am a hard-disk fanboy. Exceptionally reliable compared to the optical. Rewriteable. Huge capacity. Cheap. I am actually skipping the DVD entirely. When I need to carry some data I use CD-R, or pendrive. And being an engineer I am amazed what HD manufacturers achieved. Truly amazing considering the mechanical parts.

Triza

I can only imagine the problems with writing quality that end-users will experience with the new formats.

I mean ... the manufacturers haven't even managed to deliver proper 16x DVD writing yet ... not to mention the compatibility and quality disaster with DL media.

And I'm with Triza on the HDD policy ... there is no real need for these new optical formats (unless you are working for SOme compaNY that wants to restrict the user in any possible way by implementing this HDCP crap ...)

I'll stick with hard drives, removable and internal as the need dictates.

For the price of the initial burners you can make a pretty huge disk array.

And while obviously hard drives don't hook up directly to hd-tv monitors, they are a lot more 'standard' than hddvd/blueray.