HD-DVD versus BluRay - The specs
PC World has a nice chart listing the (minute) differences between HD-DVD and BluRay. Most importantly, the studio support and the support for burnable media lean towards the Sony camp. I realize it's hip to hate Sony now based on their public missteps as of lately, but in the end, even if HD-DVD is $5 cheaper per movie, if they've only got a fraction of the available content available, that's going to be a very limiting factor. If both formats had universal support from all movie studios and BluRay was $5 more expensive per title without any user-identifiable differences in quality or content, I'd say BluRay was an exercise in futility. As it is, it'll be an interesting battle and not one I'd like to be financially involved in (from a manufacturer's perspective) because the winner is not clear. I think one of the biggest unknowns is how the Playstation 3 launch goes down and how well the new machine is received once people stop bickering about the price. I'm personally leaning towards getting a PS3 (unless they completely hose their Linux offering and have no decent exclusive titles) so I'm sort of pulling for BluRay. I often end up on the short end of the stick when trying to guess winners though of things like this. Sony should know first hand that having the best spec does not mean anything in the final outcome. Betamax was technically superior to VHS. The Commodore Amiga computer was technically more powerful than the 8086/286-based PCs of the same era, etc. You need a decent product with good support (both content and hardware) and a decent lifespan. Price can be overcome if it's clearly a better product/value. I mean someone has to be buying these Sharp Aquos TVs that I see selling for $900 that look worse than the $100 no-name CRTs. The industry has made it hip to buy LCD TVs. The next-gen DVD guys need to figure out how to do the same. So far HD-DVD hasn't done it and well, technically BluRay isn't even out so I can't hold it against them yet.
