DVD Format Battle In Full Force

Boston (dbtechno) - The battle of the DVD formats continues in full force with no clear victor in sight.

The rival DVD formats are both seeking to be the heir apparent to the DVD generation. Each offers improvements in resolution, picture clarity and sound over the standard DVD format, but therein lies part of the problem.

Without a pricey dual format player, neither Blue-Ray nor High Definition DVD disks will play on the others machines. So if you purchase a Blue-Ray disk, unless you have a Blue-Ray player you wont be able to access the disk.

Blue-Ray is ahead in the current battle for supremacy, but not by much.

Sales for this season have put Blue-Ray disk players in the lead, with just over 2.7 million sold over the holiday season. HD DVD players have lagged this season only selling about a quarter as many, with about 750,000 HD DVD players going into the hands of consumers.

“People think that hardware is the bellwether, but actually we need to look at the software and content sales instead,” said Andy Parsons. Mr. Parsons is with Pioneer Home Entertainment Group, and a member of the Blue-Ray Disc Association.

As of December 1st about 4 million titles had been sold for the Blue-Ray system. Only about 2.6 million titles have sold for the HD DVD systems.

“We have been pleased that Blue-Ray has been outselling HD DVD at about a two to one rate this year,” stated Parsons.

One thing that both formats have had to deal with is the relative satisfaction that most consumers have with the standard DVD format. Many people find the quality of standard DVD sufficient, and enjoy what they have, or buy software and movies for standard DVD.

“Why buy a brand new system, and expensive disks when the regular DVD ones are cheaper and just as good?” said one shopper speaking at a store at the Mall Of America.