<div class='quotetop'>(Xbox360Fanboy.com)</div><div class='quotemain'>After reading Sunday?s New York Times (requires registration), I really wanted to find out a bit more around HD DVD. So I sat down with some folks working on Xbox 360?s upcoming HD DVD drive*, and asked: Why HD DVD? Why not Blu-Ray? (for the purpose of this post, I?ll lovingly call it ?Beta-ray?)
I found out a few interesting things on why we?re so confident of HD DVD:
Price. One company out there has a $1,800 Beta-ray player (no release date) ? one that doesn?t even play CDs! For 1,800, you could get a $500 Toshiba player, and about 40 HD movies.
Industry support: Looks like the pendulum is swinging back in HD-DVD?s favor. As an analyst quoted in the article says: ?It's only a matter of time before people start backing out of the Blu-ray camp." If that?s the case, it might be because of. . .
Beta-ray?s own difficulties: Microsoft had serious doubts around the technical feasibility and pricing of Beta-ray for some time and our fears now seem well founded. Sony is hinting PS3 will be delayed because of Beta-ray, and that?s with Sony driving the Beta-ray standards. If even Sony can?t get it to work right, it raises lots of questions. A little reported fact (and one that the New York Times was confused about) is that the first Beta-ray discs will actually hold less: only 25GB compared to HD DVD?s 30GB. That means less room for high definition extras and interactive features, which HD DVD says they fully intend to support.
So there you have it. A few more reasons why HD DVD is poised to win. Thoughts?
*No, I don?t have additional details about the product for you.</div>
Oh no....It looks like the new Beta vs VHS or BLU-RAY VS HD is on!
I found out a few interesting things on why we?re so confident of HD DVD:
Price. One company out there has a $1,800 Beta-ray player (no release date) ? one that doesn?t even play CDs! For 1,800, you could get a $500 Toshiba player, and about 40 HD movies.
Industry support: Looks like the pendulum is swinging back in HD-DVD?s favor. As an analyst quoted in the article says: ?It's only a matter of time before people start backing out of the Blu-ray camp." If that?s the case, it might be because of. . .
Beta-ray?s own difficulties: Microsoft had serious doubts around the technical feasibility and pricing of Beta-ray for some time and our fears now seem well founded. Sony is hinting PS3 will be delayed because of Beta-ray, and that?s with Sony driving the Beta-ray standards. If even Sony can?t get it to work right, it raises lots of questions. A little reported fact (and one that the New York Times was confused about) is that the first Beta-ray discs will actually hold less: only 25GB compared to HD DVD?s 30GB. That means less room for high definition extras and interactive features, which HD DVD says they fully intend to support.
So there you have it. A few more reasons why HD DVD is poised to win. Thoughts?
*No, I don?t have additional details about the product for you.</div>
Oh no....It looks like the new Beta vs VHS or BLU-RAY VS HD is on!