Do you own an HDTV?  Do you have your finished basement turned into a mini movie theatre?  Is there a difference between High Def cable and DVDs?  Perhaps you would be interested to know that the next generation of DVDs are high definition.

    In the midst of the newer technologies coming out, there is a format war that will be waged soon.  The two contributors are HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  Both formats are good in their own rights, but which one is best for you and why?  In this month's edition we will tackle this question and a few others for you.

     HD-DVD has already hit the market.  The technology has not hit every household yet, but eventually more people will be getting HD ready with their home entertainment systems.  Generally an HD-DVD player will play regular DVDs and CDs right out of the box.  They allow you to connect to the internet to download updates, and to play interactive games right off of the disk.  The disc will be able to hold up to approximately 15 GB of space on a single-layer disc and 30 GB of space on a dual-layer disc.  If you currently own a DVD burner on your computer, current day DVDs can hold 4.77 GB of space on a single-layer disc and 9.44 GB of space on a dual-layer disc.

     Blu-Ray has received scrutiny about its format.  The Blu-Ray disc will be able to hold about 25 GB of space on a single-layer disc, and almost 50 GB of space on a dual-layer disc.  In an HDTV environment, this means that you will get even better quality than the HD-DVD if you have a progressive HDTV instead of interlace.  On a computer, you have the possibility of 10-20 GB more data you can store on one disc.  Blu-Ray had issues in the beginning with being able to still play original DVD titles, but have since resolved this issue.

     HD-DVD is mainly backed by Microsoft, Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, and Memory-Tech.  Blu-Ray is mainly backed by Sony, Dell, HP, LG, Sharp, Phillips, Pioneer, Samsung, TDK, Panasonic, and Hitachi.  With more companies backing Blu-Ray, you would think that the format would easily win.  Blu-Ray will be built into the new PS3 out of the box, and will be able to do everything HD-DVD can and more.  However, HD-DVD has a jump start on the market and the discs are cheaper to make right now.

     So which format will win?  Some skeptics think that HD-DVD has too much of a lead on the market and Blu-Ray will fall easily.  Others think that with the power of Blu-Ray, HD-DVD will crumble the second they come out.  Many, myself included, think that the format war will wage on, eventually ending up with a compromise between the two formats.  This last theory eventually shows both formats being able to be played on a single player, universally compatible.  No one knows the future, but with the format war, it will sure be interesting.

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