X
Business

HD DVD guys: You don't need no steenkin' 50 GB (of Blu-ray's capacity)

HD-DVD and Blu-ray are two competing formats for the forthcoming wave of High Definition video on DVDs.  They use the same laser technology but have enough differences (platter design, financial backers, etc.
Written by David Berlind, Inactive

HD-DVD and Blu-ray are two competing formats for the forthcoming wave of High Definition video on DVDs.  They use the same laser technology but have enough differences (platter design, financial backers, etc.) to make them completely incompatible with each other.   According to BetaNews, the HD-DVD camp was slingin' mud at the Blu-ray camp during CES saying that any claims of superiority based on Blu-ray's 50 GB capacity (vs. HD-DVD's 30GB) are bogus because that capacity will never get used.  Even better, BetaNews says the Blu-ray camp admits the HD-DVD camp is right:

...because of Blu-ray's complicated design, HD DVD will triumph in the format war [said a HD-DVD camp representative]....Through the use of better codec technology, such space is not actually needed for high-definition movies. In fact, Blu-ray admitted to BetaNews that most discs won't go beyond the 25GB mark.

Thanks to ZDNet reader Derek Flickinger for the link.  

Update: Meanwhile, EETimes has a story saying that Blu-ray will prevail.

Editorial standards