There is a big format war going on AGAIN. And yes, Sony, amongst others is a big player, AGAIN. And that’s the problem.
So, in the red corner we have HD-DVD, in the blue corner a prototype sounding Blu-ray.
Blu-ray is technically superior, it fits a vast amount more information on one disc, which could mean better quality, and also more data when storing files from your PC, very nice. At the moment, however, this technical superiority is its downfall. Discs are more expensive to produce, and players more expensive to buy. In fact, this is starting to sound a lot like Betamax. A technically superior format to VHS at the time as it was better quality, another Sony backed format (are you seeing where this is going yet?). To top it all, VHS is said to have won that war because it was cheaper, and, lets face it, porn companies favoured it, and kids could get “video nasties“. Blu-ray decided to not favour porn companies, while very nice and clean, the human race is filthy and this could be a thorn in their side.
Let’s not forget Sony have not only failed once before, but they also tried their hand at digital media, instead of mp3, they created ATRAC3, which has been getting phased out for a while. Nice idea at first, again, technically superior (I think), but all their mp3 players had to have mp3s converted to ATRAC3 before transferring instead of just having mp3s transferred to the player itself, making the process of putting tracks onto the thing a user’s nightmare, meanwhile other companies just went the mp3 route and Sony were left behind (I sometimes wonder whether companies test their products, in this case especially).
HD-DVD is the other player in this war. Players are getting cheaper by the week and the quality is good enough, consumers just want good enough.
Anyway, we’ll see, but while I think Sony make quality products, when it comes to formats, their track record is less than good. I’ll just wait and see anyway.
