Home movie 'format wars' break out

[Rocol]

A 21st century repeat of the 1980s battle between Betamax and VHS is under way with Blu-ray players hitting the stores ahead of rival HD-DVD models.

Manufacturers claim the two systems represent the future of home cinema, offering far greater clarity and storage capacity than existing DVDs.

But although they will both play standard DVDs, the two new systems cannot play discs in the other's format.

This means one of them could become obsolete as the other rises to dominance.
The first Blu-ray machines will be followed next month by a rival HD-DVD player from Toshiba costing around half the price of its cheapest Blu-ray rival.

Samsung claims its DMP-BD-P1000 was the "world's first commercial Blu-ray disc player".
It launched in the US in June and will go on sale in the UK from Monday priced at around £999.

Rival technology giant Panasonic's DMP-BD10 Blu-ray disc player is available at around 50 Shop@Panasonic stores priced at around £1,299 and will go on sale at John Lewis this week.

Blu-ray discs have five times as much visual and audio storage capacity than standard DVDs.

Jason Jenkins, deputy editor of gadget magazine T3, said consumers would need an HD television set to get the most out of the next-generation DVD players.

"It is Betamax and VHS again, that's the easiest way of explaining it. They are two formats that do exactly the same thing but are incompatible with each other," he said.

I shall certainly be waiting to see which one becomes the most dominant format, and I doubt I would pay those sort of prices either .. the good old standard DVD Player will do me for a few years yet

I agree with you Rocol

[Saurgrist]

I think blu-ray might win this one... one large reason is the Playstation 3. But I can't afford either right now, gonna be a while for me too.