Blu Ray/HD DVD?

[hubblebubble]

Its all happening again, just like the battles between Betamax and VHS etc... The Xbox 360 is HD DVD based and the PS3 is Blu Ray based. Which format do you think will win the battle?

[Llamatron]

Well I've read that one of the reasons that VHS won out was because the folks behind it had no problem with the porn industry using it whereas Sony who were behind Betamax took the moral highground and were against it. VHS was also cheaper.

The same is happening now. The HDDVD peeps are helping the porn industry out whereas Sony are actually threatening factories that press bluray disks that if they do BluRay porn then they'll lose their license. Not to mention the fact that HDDVD masters are a fraction of the cost and don't require significantly different hardware to make like Bluray does.

However this time Sony has an ace in the hole in the shape of the PS3 which will bring a Bluray player into the home of every Playstation gamer.

I think Bluray will edge it.

[Mattk]

There will be room for both formats as hybrid players will emerge that play both types of format.

[Llamatron]

But will it be worth it for the studios to produce movies across both formats?

Although they'll probably produce HDDVD and BluRay versions of their movies each with different extras to try and screw yet more cash out of movie fans.

[heathfield]

Why not just wait and see?

[hubblebubble]

Well, we'll have to! But i was just wondering what people thought.

[mr_sparkle]

There are already plenty of Xbox 360's out there but NONE of them have HDDVD built in, and last I heard Microsoft said they never will - it will always only be an add-on drive. The PS3 does of course have a Blu Ray built in but will have to shift some units before it becomes a seriously viable format. Standalone HDDVD players are much cheaper than their regular Bluray counterparts. I think (and hope) that BluRay wins the day, it's larger capacity makes for more features on ths discs.