Blu-ray threatens to become the last physical medium in the video world, but if history had played out a little differently, HD-DVD, Toshiba's failed but promising brainchild, might have taken its place. Howtogeek.com portal speakHD-DVD lost the format war.
Before streaming became the de facto way to watch movies and TV shows, shiny vinyl records were considered the future of home media. Just as the great war between BetaMax and VHS tapes ended, the world had to choose between HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs. With both formats vying to be the successor to the hugely successful DVD, the competition is sure to be fierce. Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray promise excellent sound quality at 1080p image resolution, but neither player is the cheapest.
Blu-ray has one big advantage: volume. Blu-ray discs allow 25 GB of data per layer, while HD-DVD only offers 15 GB. But in reality, at that time these numbers were not as important as people thought. In all other characteristics, the HD-DVD format is ahead of its competitors.
First of all, HD-DVD created a popular and attractive name: ordinary consumers saw it and automatically considered the new product to be the new DVD standard. The power of a brand should definitely not be underestimated. Additionally, HD-DVD was designed so that existing disc printers could simply convert existing equipment to the new format at a relatively low cost. Meanwhile, Blu-ray requires new and expensive production lines.
HD-DVD also uses common open standards like XML for menus, while Blu-ray uses Java. This is probably the reason for the split into two formats. HD-DVD also has no region restrictions, a headache for Blu-ray fans.
Toshiba and its partners launched HD-DVD several months before the Sony-powered Blu-ray release, so Toshiba had the first-mover advantage. The fact that disc manufacturers were able to switch up their product lines meant the technology could spread quickly, keeping prices low.
It is worth noting that not only the disc itself but also the player is cheaper. According to various estimates, early HD-DVD players could cost 50% less than Blu-ray players. Since Toshiba's new products hit the market early, it's reasonable to assume that product enthusiasts will buy them first. But “cheaper” doesn't mean they're cheap. Additionally, not many movies were printed on new discs for release.
But the situation changed with the advent of PlayStation 3. Xbox 360 came out a year earlier, but Microsoft, which was even one of the sponsors of the new format, sold games on regular DVDs. To watch HD-DVD on Xbox, you must purchase a separate drive. But the PS3 has a built-in Blu-ray player – Sony pulled the same trick before by giving the PlayStation 2 a DVD drive. Therefore, many buyers find it cheaper to buy a console that supports Blu-ray than to buy a separate player.
As the number of PS3 users increases, so does the number of Blu-ray users. As a result, in 2008, Toshiba officially surrendered and announced that it would stop producing HD-DVD players. The major studios that produced films on these mediums also stopped production and the format race was over.
