There have been many discussions on the Net in regards to this annoyingly expensive war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD as High Definition entertainment standards for disc media, as well as the seemingly smaller battle between the Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft's Xbox360 (which is being purported as HD-DVD's biggest champion, aside from HD-DVD's patent holders, Toshiba).

As many would know, if you are gamers, or most would not, if you are simply just general laymen, the PS3 has a Blu-Ray drive built-in, whereas the Xbox360 has an HD-DVD add-on, purely for playing movies.

First of all, a technical dissertation. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs are basically the two new formats competing for the attention of AV-philes and Home Theatre nuts, as well as the average Joe who just wants to watch movies at home. Blu-Ray utilises a blue laser that can read BDs that are more densely packed with AV data. Due to the fact that the blue laser is smaller than the red laser used to read normal DVDs, BDs can pack up to more than 5 times the data of a standard dual-layer DVD. Blu-Ray discs can hold up to 25GB of data (single layer) or 50GB (dual layer). They utilise the MPEG-2 and/or the MPEG-4 AVC codec for visual streams, and either AAC or VC-1 for compressed audo, or Linear PCM for uncompressed audio streams.

HD-DVDs are basically Super DVDs, or upgraded DVD technology, and also utilise the blue laser technology. They have a capacity of either 15GB (single layer) or 30GB(dual layer). HD-DVDs also use the same codecs for compression as Blu-Ray, although they are compressed even more. The differences in capacity are due to the physical characteristics of how the discs are made (such as how many layers they have, and the amount of protective coating they employ).

Due to the fact that HD-DVD utilises much of the same technology used for DVD, and can be simplistically said to be merely expanding upon it, it is at this point easier and cheaper to manufacture. Blu-Ray uses more innovative technology and different standards and protocols resulting in higher manfuacturing and re-tooling costs. However, this is seemingly offset by the theoretical advantage afforded by Blu-Ray's bigger capacity, and consequently, its potential to deliver more visual and audio quality. There are many other deeply technical aspects that differentiate the both of these formats, but I shall not delve into them here.

Now, the small matter of content.

The main proponents of Blu-Ray are Sony, whereas Toshiba are the main technology holders for HD-DVD. To date, 9 of the 10 major Hollywood Studios (Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Disney, Paramount, Dreamworks, New Line Cinemas, Warner Pictures, MGM Studios, Fox) have software/content out on Blu-Ray, with 5 of those studios (Sony, Disney, Fox, MGM, Lionsgate) having exclusive support for Blu-Ray, with HD-DVD having only one exclusive supporter (Universal Studios). The other major studios (Dreamworks, Paramount, New Line, Warner) are format neutral, and support both.

What this basically means is that you can buy content for Blu-Ray players from all major Holywood studios, except for Universal Studios. Notable franchises that are available on Blu-Ray are The Spiderman Trilogy, Disney's entire backlog of animated motion pictures and the Pirates of The Caribbean trilogy. With Universal Studios the only exclusive supporter of HD-DVD, movies such as the The Bourne trilogy, Mr Bean's movies and Bruce Almighty will only be available on HD-DVD.

Movies aside, the only other main purveyor of Blu-Ray content would be the Sony PlayStation3 (PS3), which is a games console that has multimedia capabilities far reaching beyond its original mandate of merely playing video games. All PS3 games are available only on Blu-Ray, which in theory provides more storage for game developers to create more detailed environments and textures as well as more programming to create better gaming experiences.

Microsoft decided to counter this by realesing an HD-DVD add-on for its Xbox360  console, to undermine Sony's efforts to increase market penetration of Blu-Ray. However, Microsoft themselves have said that should Blu-Ray win the format 'war', they will simply release an add-on that plays Blu-Ray discs, which casts into doubt their motives for supporting HD-DVD in the first place, and casts a shadow over Toshiba, and its efforts to make HD-DVD the de-facto standard for High Definition content.

So what does this mean for the consumer?

Go Blu, as opined by various audio/visual enthusiast websites all over the Net. However, it doesn't hurt to wait. Prices will go down, and the showdown between the two formats will shake down more thoroughly to offer a proper appraisal of thow this format war will turn out.

Many people however, would not really care, seeing as it is that DVD is still the most popular format for conveying entertainment media into the average consumer's home, and shows no signs of dying yet. However, due ot the increasing number of HIgh Definition displays being sold, and the advent of High Definition TV broadcasts in the United States and Europe, as well as Japan and South Korea, it is a format war that consumers will have to take an interst in, sooner rather than later.

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