Warp 1.9 Blu-ray and HD DVD

Warp 1.9

Blu-ray and HD DVD are competing optical disc formats aimed at storing large amounts of high-definition video. The competition between the two standards pits some of the biggest companies in the technology industry against one another. Blu-ray is supported by consumer electronics vendors Sony and Panasonic as well as PC vendors Dell and Apple. HD DVD is backed by Toshiba, NEC, Intel, and Microsoft. The Apple supported H. 264 technology is part of the technical specification for both Blu-ray and the competing HD DVD format that hopes to beat out Blu-ray as the industry standard. For the winner comes the spoils of being the industry warp 1.9 and having acceptance from movie studios and warp 1.9 translates to bigger sales. And since the formats are not compatible the loser could easily drop out of the consumer market, much like what happened to the Betamax video cassette format when it lost out to VHS in the 1980s. Toshiba began selling two HD DVD players in North America in April, beating rival Blu-ray Disc to market by about two months. Speaking in late May, a Toshiba executive said sales in North America were above 20, 0 Samsung began shipping its Blu-ray writer in mid-June and BenQ has said it will ship its Blu-ray writer in August. One drawback of the current format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray for the supporting companies is the confusion it causes in the market. Many people may hold off on buying products sporting either format until a clear winner has been found. For that reason, Technology Business Research senior analyst Tim Deal believes Apple will shy away from adding a Blu-ray optical drive to any of its consumer Macs. The format war will cause confusion in the market which will ultimately mean slow acceptance of the technologies in the consumer market, he said. But that doesnt mean Apple will avoid adopting Blu-ray until after the smoke clears in the format battle, analysts add. Apple is an active participant in the Blu-ray consortium, and they didnt let the last format war between DVD and DVD stop them from moving ahead with the drive, NPD Groups Rubin said. I dont see them rushing to support bothtypically Apple supports one and they support it well. Look for Apple to follow the same playbook it used in adding DVD-burning SuperDrives to its hardware lineup: pro-level machines first, followed by consumer offerings. The reason for that strategy, Rubin said, has much to do with minimize the cost of adopting new technologies. One reason Apple been able to introduce new technologies at relative low cost has to do with cost reductions, Rubin added. In DVD writing they were very good at timingthey made a volume purchase play and introduced the drives at a relatively warp 1.9 cost compared to what had been available. I see them taking that approach with Blu-ray. The most likely candidate? The as-yet unreleased machine that will replace the Power Mac as Apples professional desktop offering. Boy, I hope so. I can just see it now. Steve at introduction of the new Mac Pro: Oh, just one more thing. It has a Blu-ray drive. And no price increase. The crowd explodes into applause. Not to mention Star Wars, which being Fox/Lucas will likely be on Blu-Ray and 4 of which are worth seeing in HD! Yeah, but would they do the original trilogy? The original theatrical versions not those Special Edition travesties will be available on DVD for a limited time later this year, but I dont think thats enough time for Blu-ray. And theres always Lucas claim that he destroyed the negatives, so theres no good source material for HD masters. Thatd be a heck of a driver for Blu-ray sales if they did it, though. The theatrical versions, now available exclusively for the next best thing to the theater Blu-ray! Thered be massive adoption of the format by SW fans. Maybe they could suddenly find some long-forgotten reels in the vaults that George missed when he went to the dark side. Yeah, wouldnt that be surprising. :devil: Boy, I hope so. I can just see it now. Steve at introduction of the new Mac Pro: Oh, just one more thing. It has a Blu-ray drive.