Okay, there’s a number of news updates here. Blu-Ray release dates announced and launch plans follow, Blu-Ray argues MPEG-2 or 4, HD-DVD 90% cheaper than Blu-Ray (initially), and are they both obselete to Holographic Storage?
All these issues are coming up in the main story, and are all worthy of discussion – if you’re interested in the new formats and their development that is. Definitely for Home Cinema fans such as myself!
Oh, and you’ll note for the nit-picking among you I’ve changed the image we’re using for Blu-Ray, so whoever moaned about the image being old, I hope you’re happy now and you have stopped fussing about that and are moving onto the content of the story!
MPEG-2 vs MPEG-4
First up is the news on Engadget that says that the Sony Content and Technology branches can’t decide on format.
Sony Pictures’ senior vice president of advanced technology Don Eklund apparently said, “Advanced (formats) don’t necessarily improve picture quality. Our goal is to present the best picture quality for Blu-ray. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, that’s with MPEG-2.”
Now that’s not what the other VP is saying, they’re working on the MPEG-4 format which does provide the same quality at lower bitrates and higher definition at comparable bitrates. So better is the word.
As they say over at Engadget, Sony will sort themselves out, this is a common theme when new technology is surfacing and different people in different divisions have different opinions. However we usually see the best out there when it launches. Here’s hoping it’s MPEG-4.
Big Blu-Ray announcements
Gizmodo have the news that there’s going to be a number of announcements on the Blu-Ray front very soon, although there is still a Spring 2006 launch date expected, the announcements may be from hardware developers at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
“At CES, you’re likely to hear some announcements from a number of companies as to when you’ll see our products on the market,” Andy Parsons, a spokesman for Blu-ray told a group of analysts, industry members and reporters gathered at the product demonstration at News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox lot.
Maybe the announcements are that we’re getting to see some!
Blu-Ray 90% more expensive?
HDBeat have the ongoing debate of startup cost on their latest story, something that HD-DVD seem to bring up again and again as a reason not to try the new technology. Frankly I think that’s a short sighted and narrow minded opinion, if we had that attitude we wouldn’t develop anything new!
Why is HD-DVD so much cheaper? Easy, they use existing production lines for our current DVD technology, Blu-Ray requires new production lines, or rather modifications of existing lines. So the figure is correct for the first batch out, but over time the price drops. Generally we no longer see these mad prices reflected in the cost of the hardware, although they are still expensive. After all my high specification DVD Player was £800 when I bought it, now it’s around £100, yet that’s years of mass marketing and when I bought mine you could still buy players for £100, you just had to be more careful.
Like Microsoft are with the XBox 360, the major hit will be taken by the developers until the production costs drop. Still, none of this is an excuse not to push the technology, and in fact it should be a reason to choose Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. Development isn’t taking a great leap when you can produce the new format on the same production line.
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD obselete already?
Yes, that’s what I thought when I read this from Joystiq. Apparently there is a new technology that promises to break storage barriers…wooo.
As someone pointed out in comments on another Blu-Ray post, storage isn’t everything, and they are right. There’s more to be concerned about than just storage. However…
…companies including Turner Entertainment Networks have already begun to move towards holographic storage…Early versions of holographic disk storage store up to 300GB per disk. By 2010, the disks are expected to cost $100 each and store 1.6 terabytes (that’s roughly 1,600 gigabytes) each.
Actually, I’m kinda thinking more hype and more “so what?”. Facts are they only store 300Gb just now…that’s it. You can predict all you like, hey I’m going to be a 50ft Robot come 2015, doesn’t matter a jot. The two other formats will be out and in well rooted in the home by then, I don’t see us taking kindly to another push to upgrade.
