Ugh, as a DVD author I can’t even explain what a huge pain in the ass it is with the one established format out there (DVD) and the 2 HD versions (HD-DVD and Blu-ray). Each is programmed completely differently, need different encodes, and they all have different specs on what they’re capable of. To release on all formats the disc is done 3 times, with no overlap.
So why did I bother telling you this? Because this week, with no end in the format war in sight, steps were taken to ensure both will succeed in the marketplace. Toshiba announced a 51GB, 3-layer disc, still in development. This follows up the January announcement of a disc with HD-DVD on one side and Blu-ray on the other. But wait, There’s more!
New Medium Enterprises announced a format that can handle true HD using standard red-laser technology. Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) can do dual-format so as to solve the newer blue-laser market but it also offers enough capacity for HD with a red-laser with a new VMD format.
NME has been working quietly and quickly to secure region deals around the globe and have partnered with a company called PC Rush to produce low-cost dvd compatible VMD players for around $200, significantly less than any of the current HD-DVD or Blu-ray players.
What we as consumers (and me as a programmer) need is a single format, not a 3rd. Adding another format adds a huge amount of expense into the creation and manufacturing of these DVD’s. And the movie studios aren’t going to eat that difference, they’re going to pass it onto the consumers.
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19 Responses to “Yeah! Just what we need, a 4th DVD format.”
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March 1st, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Ahh, the days of paper.
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:38 am
Dvd writeable disks are bad enough to sell:
DVD-R
DVD+R
DVD-RW
DVD+RW
DVD-RDL
DVD+RDL
DVD Ram (Cart)
DVD Ram Disc!
Jee, I can’t wait for the 30 or so outcomes of Blue Ray, HD-DVD and crapfest VMD!
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:31 am
can we really say this is the 4th DVD format? technically its only the 3rd right? the blu-ray isn’t a DVD. but i am just getting into details in nomenclature and whatnot. the word DVD gets the point across. really though, i just wish we had a format that we could just call it a DVD and not care what it really is whether its VMD, hd-dvd or blu ray. I want ot go to the store and get a DVD movie. i think that is why its going to take a lot to get any of these formats to take off. the mass consumer sees no point in getting any of these if they have to pay more money for some format they don’t know what it means. they just want movies on dvds, it was hard enough to get them to do that. now companies are trying to push the HD and the mass consumer won’t see the difference or wont think that they need it all that soon and when they decide they do need it they will probably go with -hd-dvd for the simple fact of the word DVD in it. but its late at night and i have rambled on too long and nobody is going to read this comment anyways, so i must go retire to my bed behind me.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:31 am
I have been waiting for this to settle down before plumping for a drive. Now what am I to do? Shall I just get a HD-DVD drive for my 360? Will this handle 3 layer discs??? What a load of shyte.
March 2nd, 2007 at 1:35 am
Put the facts together, and it becomes clear.
The USA is becoming a police state:
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/PoliceState.html
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:02 am
Do we really need HD every day? Sure its nice to see hd every once an a while but if every Dvd u bouht was hdtv u would need to be rich.us Im gonna stay with dvd for casual use. (ps i did this on my wii
March 2nd, 2007 at 2:48 am
see http://www.idlest.com/
March 2nd, 2007 at 3:11 am
“Adding another format adds a huge amount of expense into the creation and manufacturing of these DVD’s. And the movie studios aren’t going to eat that difference, they’re going to pass it onto the consumers.”
wrong.
the end.
March 2nd, 2007 at 4:53 am
I think you’re missing the point. If the company producing this format is able to muster the leverage, this format could kill dead the Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD war in its tracks. Any product that can offer similar results at a fraction of the cost will easily take out the competition, providing the force behind it is able to get the publishers to cooperate and market it effectively.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:00 am
excellent point “m”, that’s a very clear explanation and you make a very good point… Is there another reason the DVD/HD-DVD combo discs that are in the stores now cost 5 bucks more than the HD-DVD ones? And why exactly would manufacturing the disc more than once NOT increase costs?
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:54 am
It always bothers me when they create hybrid discs. Other than the transfer speed what these discs offer is space to store the HD video, but when you make hybrid discs you cheat yourself out of a large portion of that space. I don’t know if there is any solution, but I’m not buying into either any time soon.
March 2nd, 2007 at 5:54 am
This is actually very good news. The more messy these format wars become, and the more frustrated the customers are, the fastest we’ll see the arrival of downloadable, medium-less content, which will rid us of all these silly things.
March 2nd, 2007 at 6:10 am
I think a lot of the these are really good points. Who wants to have to choose between 4 different formats to watch a movie? Who wants to pay 5 bucks more for a movie for a feature they will never use(DVD/HD-DVD combo)? For me the choice has been to get the HD-DVD add-on for xbox 360 ($200), a Sony DVD 400 disc jukebox($300), and a membership to either Netflix or Blockbuster Online ($20/month).
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:18 am
Does this mean there will be four times as many bogus menus with no regard for usability that make you miss the old times when you simply stuck a tape in your VCR and presed play?
Sometimes I whish there was a standard menu for every movie. That would reduce the costs for multi-format DVDs and it would save us the ‘creativity’ of some studios. I hate selectiong a menu option and having to watch a stupid cutscene over and over. I love watching movies in english with spanish subtitles. 99% of the times I have to press ‘language’-watch dumb cutscene-select soundtrack-watch cutscene again-select language again(I was kicked back to main menu)-watch the STUPID cutscene again-select subtitles-and (you guessed) … the custscene again. (don’t take it personally, I don’t know about your own work on this area).
So, before we standardize on data format, why not give us the option to spare ourselves the ‘cool for some but painful and useless menu thingamajiggies’. Some authors should at least read wikipedia´s entry on ‘usability’ because obviously they have no idea of what it means. Authoring would be less creative but it would also be cheaper: one standard interface for all. For christ sake, I feel much more comfortable browsing files with my divx player and pressing play!
I know some people enjoy these menus and also that some may be even cool and such. But as far as I’m concerned, I’d be happy to use any DVD format which let you insert the disc, see a familiar menu, set up your options with no hassle and watch the ***** movie which is what you bought it for in the firs place.
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:33 am
little talker: not only do I not take it personally, I completely agree with you. I program the DVD’s, I don’t design the menus. If I did it wouldn’t take more than 5 seconds for an “intro” animation into the main menu, and no more than 2 seconds for a transition between menus.. thought I prefer nothing at all… just a simple animated menu does fine.
There’s nothing more cringe inducing for me at work than to put together some menu structure that I know just annoys the hell out of people… sadly those creative decisions are out of my hands
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:50 am
“-Toshiba announced a 51GB, 3-layer disc, still in development-”
HD-DVD is Toshiba’s format. They’re not insane so they’re not trying to kill this format. I’m guessing this story is simply about this 3-layer HD-DVD disc seeing are there are no good details in this story.
There’d been talk for years that they’d be able to make a 3 layer HD-DVD which would be ~45G to fairly match a dual layer Blu-Ray disc’s 50G.
Sounds like they’re STILL not able to do this but are again ‘talking’ about it. And now it’s claimed to be 51G instead of ~45G -which would make it exactly equal to Blu-Ray (not that it needs to be as a 30G dual layer HD-DVD is enough space for any movie with lossless audio).
Originally HD-DVD was red laser but the newest/best compression formats and Blu-Ray was blue laser but old MPEG-2 formats, but by the time both actually came out, they’d both decided to use blue lasers and the newest compression formats making them pretty much equal.
Blu-Ray got behind and only used MPEG-2 for a while and took a while longer to get dual layer discs but now both formats are pretty much the same.
Studios are putting the same content on both formats so they only have to encode once.
Blu-Ray has more ‘claimed’ studio support and technically a bit more (not really needed) space on a disc but HD-DVD has been out longer, cheaper players, and better quality initially.
They’re both great so it’s a mess for people to pick which one’s the ‘winner’. They both are… which makes them both the loser.
I think the prices will continue to drop down though and both formats will hang on so long that both will keep alive. It’ll be like having a card reader that does Compact Flash, Memory Stick and SD -while at the same time down-loading rental movies will build up speed for the masses that just want to see a flick in HD and don’t need to own it forever.
March 2nd, 2007 at 11:11 am
I say.. Format war or not, let the industry work itself out. Everyone needs their own option, the welfare kids can have the 200 dollar players and the rest can spend their time with Blu-Ray / HD-DVD. If the publishers are going to complain about how many times they have to publish something to a new medium, then just pick a fucking medium and use it. Don’t want to use the new one? Fine, dont.. more people have DVD anyway.. stick to that, go to HD-DVD.. try out Blu-Ray or support the new one. Who cares.. It’s not even a realistic option to do all of them anyway.
April 13th, 2007 at 5:15 am
Eh, progress is progress. You have to have competition to drive prices down and churn out better product. I’m counting on the Blu-Ray camp myself. Sales numbers are already saying it’s in the lead. Besides Debbie Does Dallas…Again (I’m not even kidding) is coming out on Blu-Ray BEFORE HD-DVD. I think that says enough doesn’t it?
May 27th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Blu-Ray rules. Disney supports Blu-Ray and not HD-DVD, so I want all of that racist Disney goodness.