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April 15, 2005
The Coming War
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Dear Gary: I have seen the future of what is to come with the forthcoming war between Blue-ray and HD DVD, and it is a nightmare. How have I had this vision? Just take a look at the debacle that reigns in the format war in high-resolution audio for a precursor of what is to come. Having recently purchased a high-quality universal player, I was excited to purchase my first high-resolution audio disc at my local store, and that is where the reality of the situation set in. First, there is a dearth of material available locally, since the war between these two formats has relegated both formats to being a niche product that local retailers are loath to support. Second, having a universal player actually makes things somewhat more complicated because some labels are releasing the same material in both formats. Do I choose the DVD-Audio version of Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or the SA-CD version? Do you realize that there are at least four different versions of Sting’s Brand New Day; the regular CD, SA-CD, DVD-Audio, and DTS Surround? I’m sure the DualDisc version is on its way as well. The average consumer is going to stare at all of these and not know what to do. And, of course, not all the features of the DVD-Audio and SA-CD's are the same, since some are just stereo, some just surround sound, and some have both. Adding to this fun is the fact that to select stereo or surround mode usually involves either walking through the disc menu for a DVD-Audio disc, or drilling down into the setup menu for a SA-CD. It is also ironic that there are no high-resolution digital outputs with high-resolution audio, since the record labels are worried about the “digital hole,” while movie studios are worried about the high-definition “analog hole.” Needless to say, all of this does not translate into a “user friendly” experience, and while I am willing to suffer through the idiosyncrasies of the differing formats, the everyday user will not. While I thoroughly enjoy the high-resolution music that both these formats offer, the fact that the two camps have been seeking to dominate the market has done nothing but muddy the whole experience. The only thing that seems to have been done correctly in any of this is the fact that hybrid SA-CDs will work in my old CD players. The release of DualDisc may be a response to this compatibility issue, but it will likely just confuse things even more. If the Blue-ray and HD DVD war shapes up in a similar manner, then both formats will be severally crippled out of the gate. If they do nothing but confuse the average consumer with bogus claims, trumped up advertising, and multiple versions of the same material, then they are both doomed to wither in the same conundrum that DVD-Audio and SA-CD are in now. It will be years before any momentum is obtained, if at all, and if there is not some sort of backward compatibility to allow playing either format in standard DVD players, which there won't be, the majority of the public will not care. But here is the real issue that all of the high-definition arguments for one format’s claimed superiority seem to be missing. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD are just the storage medium. If the codecs are the same, and the source material is encoded in the same manner, then it doesn’t matter how the damn thing is stored, or what it is stored on, as long as it can be read, decoded, and displayed. In their bitter finger-pointing and political mudslinging, both format supporters have forgotten that the people they are trying to serve––those that will be buying their product––are going to become disenchanted to the point where nobody will benefit.
Kevin Davis
mailto:kcdavis1@optonline.net
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