Can’t wait to get your hands on the new high-definition DVDs? Well, prepare to keep waiting, because the fighting between the HD-DVD camp and the Blu-Ray camp continues to rage unabated. The backers of the HD-DVD standard may have an ace up their sleeve, though, and it’s in the form of an approval from media manufacturers that might tip the balance in HD-DVD’s favor, as Taiwanese media factories gave HD-DVD a slight nudge this week by indicating their preference–although they stress that it is only a slight preference.

Unlike Blu-Ray, HD-DVD is designed much less agressively, so it diverges less from the tried and true current DVD standard. As such, existing DVD production facilities would have minimal retooling needed in order to start cranking out HD-DVDs. Blu-Ray, on the other hand, makes radical alterations to the existing DVD spec, changing pretty much everything except the disc diameter. Blu-Ray’s technology would require much more investment by media production factories in order to produce.

The tradeoff for HD-DVD, however, is much lower capacity; initial HD-DVDs would hold only 15-30 GB, with possible expansion to 45 GB. Blu-Ray discs would start at 25-50 GB, with the potential to go to 200 GB.

Posted by abow in Discount DVD R Media