« Last Month's iPods Don't Fade Away –They Get Discounted | Main | Does Nintendo Have A Wii Pre-Sale Supply Problem? »
Could Multi-Format Disks Allow Blu-ray and HD-DVD To Peacefully Coexist?
Electronics | Oct 6, 06
The battle between Sony's Blu-ray and Toshiba's HD-DVD high-definition digital recording formats has seen manufacturers and content providers lining up in shifting alliances. I've commented before on the potential for a "lock-in" effect favoring one standard over the other, similar to the one that allowed VHS to eclipse Betamax in the VCR wars of old (see "Can Wintel Make Blu-ray The Next Betamax?" and "Blue-Ray Vs. HD-DVD: Lock-In, Co-Existence, Or Irrelevance?"). But now some folks at Time Warner seem to be saying to their fellow HD warlords: "Can't we all just get along?"
The New Scientist's website and the Wall Street Journal recently reported an application from employees of Warmer Bros. for a patent on disks that can simultaneously accommodate recordings in Blue-ray, HD-DVD and standard DVD formats (the data is encoded in layers at different depths in the disk). Content providers could thus release their product in all formats on a single disk, and they have significant reasons for wanting to do so. By eliminating the need for a buyer to bet on a format, offering content on a multi-format disk removes a significant deterrent to making a purchase and trying one of the HD formats. Further, current DVD users could buy and use one of these disks and decide later to adopt one (or both) of the new formats.
So does this mean all will be sweetness and light in HD land? Much of this will depend on the cost of multi-format disks relative to single format ones. To the extent that studios can pass on the higher costs of multi-format to buyers, the new disks could ameliorate the lock-in effect. But if few consumers are willing to pay a premium for flexibility, multi-format will not fly and the market might be forced to choose a winner. For at least one of the format alliances, the inability to give peace a chance could mean a great deal of pain.
Posted by jeffrey.trester (Permalink)
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://blog.pricescan.com/mtsystem/mt-tb.cgi/144
