Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2007 > January > 04 > Entry
More DVD complications
You may want to sit down for this one.
Ready?
There’s a new DVD format coming. Not HD-DVD or Blu-ray, which can already be found on store shelves (though not so much for rental). Warner Bros. plans to introduce “Total HD” hybrid discs, according to the New York Times, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week.
Still breathing?
The good news is that this isn’t an altogether different format. If the report is accurate, Total HD just combines the HD-DVD version of a movie on one side of a disc and a Blu-ray version on the flip side. So whether you’re using a Blu-ray player like the one in the PlayStation 3 or an HD-DVD player like the add-on for the Xbox 360 (or stand-alone players in each format), you’re covered when you buy one of these discs.
But … Total HD won’t include a standard version of DVD movies, so forget about lending your DVD to someone without an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player.
The new discs presumably won’t have artwork on the disc, so you’ll have to make sure you keep your discs in the right boxes so you can easily differentiate your movies. (Or you can squint at the tiny text in the center ring of the disc like you do now with DVDs that have a full-screen version on one side and widescreen version on the other.)
The discs will also cost more. HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies currently cost more than regular DVDs, topping out sometimes at more than $30 for a regular movie. Expect to pay even more for these hybrid discs because Warner Bros. will have to pay licensing fees for both formats.
Still excited?
An alternative is a hybrid DVD player (like one being introduced by LG) that can play both formats, but you can bet these players will be more expensive than the current HD-DVD or Blu-ray players.
It’s very likely that 2007 will be the year when all this shakes out and a clear format winner emerges, or the hybrid technologies make the format war irrelevant. My prediction: extras will become less a factor as everyone but film buffs finds they have less time to enjoy them, so what will be left will be a war based on pricing and what movies end up in what format. Most early adopters will vie for digital delivery of HD movies instead (via cable, satellite or Internet) and the longer the film studios and hardware companies engage in DVD brinksmanship, the more money they’ll lose.
The X factor, I think, is what Apple decides to do with its forthcoming iTV device and how soon it introduces Blu-ray in its future laptops and computers.
If Apple finds a way to stream Blu-ray movies to its iTV devices, or forgo the format entirely to deliver HD-quality movies over the device (it features an HD-capable HDMI connection), that could swing the needle enough to move people toward or away from HD discs.
Permalink | | Categories: Gadgets, Movies & DVDs, TV
