Format Wars of High Definition DVD Players

Series Summary

So you've noticed a strange new arrival at the video rental store that you're not quite sure how to approach. This stranger requires a new mindset and even new equipment just to sit down and watch it. No, we're not talking about the latest movie from Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam, we're talking about that mysterious new video format called Blu-ray. Will it be another horror story like the Betamax format, an alternate video cassette format which struggled along for a few years in the mid-70s and early 80s, then flopped miserably as the world ignored it in favor of VHS? Betamax was a Sony product, as is Blu-ray. Will history repeat itself? Why should you even consider a new format when your dvds look great already? High definition television, that's why. A Blu-ray disc can hold almost six times as much information as a regular dvd, enabling it to play back much higher quality video. But an HD DVD offers the same capacity. Another format war for the new millenium.

In this free series of home entertainment videos, our electronics expert Tony Ramirez tells you what you need to know about Blu-ray and HD DVD players. He begins his series with a discussion of the differences between these two formats and then explains the latest advances in high definition technology. You will also learn how to hook up and use you new player, whichever format you choose. As an added bonus, Tony talks about HD burners and camcorders. Keep up with the latest technology with Expert Village!

Video Transcript

"TONY RAMIREZ: Hi, my name is Tony Ramirez and this is the high-definition movies and players. Format wars, a lot of people are comparing this format war to the VHS Beta war that we had, I guess back in the '70s just before I was born. Well the format war now is Blu-ray which of course is this versus HD DVD. We got it right here, Blu-ray versus HD DVD. Now these are both high-definition DVDs. I will in further chapters go into detail about each format, but really there is no major, major, major difference. It's all preference. Right now, Sony has a lot of the bigger name companies behind them with their Sony Blu-ray, HD DVD has of course Microsoft, Intel, Toshiba--a couple of big companies, but they don't seem to have backing that Blu-ray has. Like I said, quality wise, there's really no difference. They're all--resolution wise, they're going to be 1920 x 1080 which will be, you know, of course standard high-definition HD DVD or excuse me, HD TV ready. And that is the basis of the war, Blu-ray versus HD DVD. There's really no major difference. I will go into detail on each format in the next few chapters."