Next generation video format war

Nick Verhaar
For many years now, DVD has been leading the industry as the standard format for digital video reproduction and data storage. However, over the next few months this may be about to change dramatically as next generation video formats hit the market.
Utilizing a new blue laser technology, the new formats use a much shorter wavelength than that found in current DVDs red laser technology, allowing them to offer much larger storage capacities than regular DVD.
Sporting more than triple the storage capacity of your regular DVD disc, the potential for these new formats is absolutely mind boggling, giving production houses the opportunity to deliver true high definition video and audio quality like never before.
It has become apparent that the transition to next generation formats will not be easy.
There are two main competitors, HD-DVD and Blu Ray, both of which are extremely eager to capture the marketplace and become the new standard format in video technology.
The two technologies have both recruited their own armies and are ready to go head to head in battle, lining up major hardware manufacturers and production studios against each other on opposite sides of the fence.
The up and coming war between the two new formats has been touted as a revisit to the familiar VHS v Betamax war of the 1980s, and has sparked many heated debates over which is better.
Only time will tell which format will be the successor as consumers begin to adopt, accept and embrace one format over the other.