Monday, March 3, 2008

Blu-Ray and HD DVD

The battle between Sony(Blu-ray) and Toshiba(HD-Dvd) lasted over three years with finally Sony winning the battle. The main technical advantage of the Blu-ray over Hd-dvd was that it could store more information with approximately around 50gb over HD that has around 8.4 gb. Also blu-ray supports 1080p while the hd-dvd has 1080i. But the tv's now days can transfer 1080i to 1080p meaning that the difference between quality is minimal at best. The image that each produce is again similar and there isn't a significant difference. Was that the storage factor the critical factor that eventually caused Toshiba it's downfall? Both formats sold dvd's that costs around $8-$20. The stand-alone machine for hd-dvd cost 150 dollars and up and average out usually around 280 dollars while blu-ray costs 399 and up. In my opinion Sony's ability to incorporate blu-ray into the it's machines it makes is an important factor that determined the winner. Let's take a look at Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. In our current day and age, gamers are on the rise with the gaming industry earning more than a billion dollars in profit each year. The playstation 3 has a blu-ray drive added in and costs total of 400 dollars while the xbox 360 by itself is around 350 and if you want an hd-dvd you need to pay an extra 200 dollars. To an average consumer/gamer they would choose the playstation 3 because you can get 2 things for the price of 1. While you would only get an xbox 360 machine if you buy xbox. Even through Sony is taking a loss for producing the product at 399 it is helping to expand both it's gaming industry while also in dvd. With every playstation it sells, it is also increasing the sales of blu-ray. Meanwhile Toshiba is lacking in this department. It needed to sell it's machines solely to increase dvd sales. Even though this may be a small part, it helped Sony to achieve dominance in the dvd war.