DVD format war set to start
In the early 80s we had the home video wars, and 2005 is shaping up to be the year of the DVD format wars. If electronic giants like Sony and Toshiba get their way, by this Christmas regular DVDs will begin to be replaced by a superior technology. Just which technology depends on who wins the battle.
In one corner we have Blu-ray, a new kind of DVD that promises more storage space, higher-quality viewing and tighter protection against copying. These new DVDs are read with a blue laser (your current one uses red), which means that although your player might be able to read the disc, you'll need a new Blu-ray DVD player and in many cases a new TV to experience the high-definition content.
Sony, the biggest backer of Blu-ray, learned the hard way how to market a new format. In the early 80s, Sony's technically superior Betamax video tapes were squeezed out of the market by Matsushita's VHS format simply because Matsushita won the support of more Hollywood studios.
Sony has now partnered up with Matsushita to push Blu-ray, which has recently received a high-profile endorsement from 20th Century Fox. Its list of industry supporters already includes Samsung, Philips, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Apple and Hitachi.
