Blu Ray Won the Format War vs HD DVD

"When DVD first launched it was anything but the perfect product," said Andy Parsons, Pioneer executive and chairman of the Blu Ray Disc Association. "There were many doubters that said there was little chance of overtaking VHS." Now, he said, the same thing is happening with Blu Ray, the natural evolution in audio-video technology.

First of all, when looking at the Blu Ray vs HD DVD specifics, you'll notice that Blu Ray discs have far superior storage space. Traditionally, DVDs were first made to hold 4.7 GB of material on a single-layer, and later, the double layer boosted storage capacity up to 8.5 Gigs. HD DVD promised to more than triple that, delivering 15-30 GBs.

Blu Ray DVDs, can hold an astounding 25-50 GBs of data, meaning that they use more advanced coding to include more audio tracks and more stunning visual information, as well as adding more bonus features. You will notice the high definition of a HD DVD or Blu Ray disc at once. Regular DVDs supported a resolution of 720x480 pixels, while HDTV offers 1920x1080 pixels.

The next major difference between Blu Ray vs HD DVD was their alliances. Early on, motion picture companies, manufacturers and distributors understood that they would need to get aligned with the new technology. But could Blu Ray and HD DVD coexist? It would be costly, not to mention extremely confusing for consumers. When the DVD format first came out, there was no mistaking a VHS tape and a DVD on the shelves.

Unfortunately, the other major difference between the Blu Ray vs HD DVD players is price. You could purchase the XBox360 HD DVDs upgrade accessory for $130 and a stand-alone player for as low as $150. Sure, you could buy those super fancy combo players for nearly $1,000, but the average offering was as affordable as a regular DVD player.

The victorious Blu Ray players are currently retailing at over $499, with $399 PlayStation3s being the cheapest way to get the BR technology. There is one other relatively inexpensive option for buyers: you can get the Denon DVD-1730 up-converting DVD player that is compatible with Blu Ray discs for less than $300.

So what about all those buyers who fell prey to the Blu Ray vs HD DVD war, and are now stuck with a useless HD DVD player? The retail giants have shown some sympathy as they sheepishly pull out their checkbooks. Best Buy, for example, is making a $10 million offering by giving $50 gift cards to nearly 200,000 customers who purchased the obsolete HD DVD players. Incidentally, this is right in time for Bush's economic stimulus tax rebates to arrive in the mail. Circuit City is going one step further to allow consumers to return their HD DVD players in exchange for an equal dollar amount of store credit toward the purchase of the Blu Ray disc player.

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