FAQ: Blu-ray beats HD DVD -- now what?

Computerworld - So the high-definition DVD war's over, and to the victor go the spoils.

Now that Sony's Blu-ray Disc DVD format has beat out Toshiba's HD DVD , the question arises: Just what spoils are there? Many consumers have been put off by the high-definition DVD format wars, leaving sales of both formats sluggish at best. Some are speculating that because of the end to the war, sales will pick up. Let's look at some of the numbers.

Last year, about 32 million DVD players were sold in the U.S.; of those, only 4%, or 1.5 million, were high-definition DVD players. Blu-ray Disc players accounted for 578,000 of that number, and HD DVD accounted for 370,000, according to Adams Media Research Inc. That's almost a 2-to-1 ratio. After Warner Bros. pulled its support of HD DVD last month, the percentage of Blu-ray to HD DVD sales skyrocketed. Blu-ray accounted for 93% of high-def DVD hardware sales in North America in the week after Warner Bros.'s announcement -- although the overall number was small: 21,770 players. Multiply those sales out over the full year, and you're still looking at just over 1 million high-def players sold.

After the news broke yesterday that HD DVD was about to raise the white flag, geek news site Slashdot.com put up an impromptu poll for its readers, asking, "Now That Blu-ray Has Won ...?"

• I'll Get A Player By Summer
• I'll Get A Player By the End of the Year
• Still Not Convinced HD is Worth It
• Holding Out For Downloads
• I Want My HD DVD
• My Media Is In CowboyNeal's Hands

So, what was the big difference between HD DVD and Blu-ray?

In a word: capacity. HD DVD offers 15GB capacity on a single-layer platter, while Blu-ray offers 25GB. More capacity means more data; more data generally means better images and better sound when it comes to high-def movies.

From a manufacturing standpoint, HD DVD had it all over Blu-ray, in that machines used to press standard DVDs could also be used to produce HD DVD discs with just minor tweaking. Blu-ray, on the other hand, required DVD manufacturers to change out their disc-pressing equipment, vastly increasing start-up costs. That also explains how HD DVD made it to market before Blu-ray.