Dave Horvath
6 Jun 2006 8:15
The war between Sony's Blu-Ray technology and Toshiba's HD-DVD has been compared by many as the old drawn out battle between VHS and Betamax. Each competing for industry standardization, hoping for the huge royalties that will come from manufacturers using their products.
Recent discussions at the Computex trade show have shown different PC manufacturers showing their support all over the board. Companies like Dell, the world's largest PC manufacturer, has clearly stated they are in support of the Blu-Ray technology. While their competition, and 2nd largest PC maker, Hewlett Packard, states that their new machines will offer their customers both HD-DVD as well as Blu-Ray.
Smaller, but equally as powerful companies like Acer and Asustek Computer Inc. say they have plans for using both players, but were only showing off laptops with the HD-DVD technology in place. They were quoted as to saying that a lack of supply has left them without a working Blu-Ray model. "Right now we have no supply (of Blu-ray drives)," said Asustek's Vicki Hsiao. "We're expecting some this month."
Several disc manufacturers were showing off both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, however Chairman Bob Wong of CMC Magnetics Corp., the world's largest compact disc producer said that Blu-Ray's technology is a good six months behind HD-DVD.
With the battle lines drawn, it's still anyone's ballgame as to who will eventually reign supreme in this format war. Price seems to be the foremost thing on consumer's minds regarding which format is adopted. As supplies are made more readily available, we should see prices drop dramatically. Until then, it seems that from a consumer's standpoint, this battle is more of a spectator sport between the corporation than an honest effort to bring the next big technological breakthrough to the masses.
Source:
Reuters