Blu-Ray The shortwave laser making big waves in industry

Wayne Hall looks at the developing market for the competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats

Following the phenomenal success of DVD, the industry was keen to capitalize and started looking for the next big thing.  This didn't prove easy and as with VHS/Betamax, different corporations backed the two competing formats, Blu-Ray and High Density DVD (HD-DVD) The market has been awash with gossip and intrigue as to which format would finish as the winner and to date Blu-Ray seems to be coming out top.

Whilst the technology used to develop both BD (Blu-Ray) and HD-DVD are similar, the product roadmaps couldn't be more different.  Developments for HD-DVD is expected to end at a capacity of 90GB and bringing the product to market has been slow; conversely Blu-Ray is expected to reach around 200GB within the same time scale and the market has been swift to adopt this format.

The commercial potential for both mediums also runs along these lines, with many indicators pointing towards BD as the more acceptable format.  A lot of corporations involved with pushing these technologies have been hedging their bets; having learnt to their cost the risks involved in backing a single format, and this has left the market uncertain.  One of the deciding factors will surely come from the gaming sector with the new PS-3 console being launched with an integrated Blu-Ray drive and despite the delays in launch, this may well push the market further towards BD.  Microsoft have announced that they will launch an attachable HD-DVD drive for their Xbox 360, however it remains to be seen what kind of impact this will have.

Similarly the data storage sector has been quick to take up the BD format and its clear advantages over HD-DVD.  Almost every main manufacturer of optical media storage has launched BD compatible units and the reasons for this early adoption are clear.  The optical media storage industry has suffered due to much lower capacities and transfer rates in comparison to HDD and Tape storage; however the new BD format promises to be a more promising combatant.  Improved pricing (and a competitive TCO per GB on both media and hardware), ever increasing speeds for writing and reading and a much greater lifespan (some brands are offering 50 years) mean that the storage industry landscape will change over the coming years with many large companies expected to switch their long term archiving to BD.

Overall Blu-Ray promises to be a versatile format able to meet the increasing demands of both consumer and business markets and projected developments mean that this should become the format of choice for the coming years.