Sony has pretty much sealed up a victory in the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD, but the prices of capable devices for Blu-ray are still fairly expensive. Easing the pain, Sony announced a Blu-ray drive for $200 that will be released next month. It might seem like a great value, but it does have a few issues that might turn people off; however, if you are into high-def content, it still might be worth consideration.

What It Is

The BDU-X10S by Sony is an internal Blu-ray drive that allows you to play Blu-ray discs.  You shove this thing in your computer case, and you have high-def content on your computer.  The included Cyberlink PowerDVD BD Edition software allows you to decode Blu-ray discs, and play the content in H.264 or MPEG-2 formats.

The $200 pricetag is also a sign of decreasing prices for Blu-ray hardware.  It is about time that this happens.

What It Does

This drive will bring the latest in high-def video content to PCs at a cheaper price.  While it does read (play), this drive will not write (burn) to Blu-ray, and that is quite disappointing to know.

This player is also backwards compatible with DVD and CD discs.

What It's Worth

The $200 BDU-X10S could be worth the price if you are going to purchase Blu-ray discs with the intent to play them on your computer.  Unfortunately, the lack of the ability to write to Blu-ray media is a huge downer.  It might be reason enough for people to hold off on purchasing.

My Thoughts

I am very disappointed that this drive does not have the ability to write to Blu-ray media.  Most people who install a Blu-ray device in their computer system will likely be looking forward to writing plenty of data to the huge 25GB or 50GB discs.

In the end, I would strongly urge most to avoid buying the BDU-X10S.  Eventually, a good number of people will have the desire to write to Blu-ray media--just as we do with DVD media today.  If you have ever written to a DVD disc, then consider waiting until later this year.

The HD-DVD and Blu-ray format wars continue on, but a drastic development has recently occurred. Warner Bros. has decided, after support both formats for quite some time, that they will release their videos on Blu-ray exclusively. What does this mean? It means that it is time to forget about that HD-whatever format and look forward to what Blu-ray has to offer.

The HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats are not that different from one another. Blu-ray has advantages over HD-DVD in the areas of capacity, price, speed, and support. Check out this media format comparison by CNET for the detailed specs.

The History Of Blu-ray

The history of the Blu-ray disc is not all that hard to follow. A laser capable of reading/writing in shorter wavelengths was developed--this allowed more data to be written on the same surface area. The laser has to write closer towards the surface of the media, and this left the media vulnerable to scratches; this resulted in the Blu-ray discs initially having protective cartridges (shown on the right).

A single layer of a Blu-ray disc allows over five times more storage space than a DVD. Officially, their is support for two layers (with each layer supporting 25 GB), but there has been discussion of the capability to store upwards of 250 GB of data on a single disc--ten layers of data.

The Numbers

A report released by Nielsen VideoScan had revealed that 76% of the high-def market has gone to Blu-ray in a one week period in December. It would appear that the Blu-ray format is earning the nod by consumers. While HD-DVD was gaining strength, it might all be irrelevant now.
The studios are taking the side of Blu-ray, and that, in the end, is all that really matters. People that wish to take advantage of high-definition content will purchase Blu-ray media in the future.

The End Is Near?

A press conference by Toshiba, the primary supporter of HD-DVD, which took place yesterday morning at CES has revealed that the company is extremely disappointed with Warner Bros. decision to support the Blu-ray format exclusively.

The vice president of marketing for digital audio and video products, Jodi Salley, had little to say. CNET reported her statements:
"As you can imagine, this is a tough day for me," she said as she took the stage. "I fully expected to come here this morning to share with you the successes of the last year of HD DVD, (but) the events of the last few days have shifted the focus of my comments."

"It is difficult to read pundits declaring HD DVD dead...but we've been declared dead before," Sally said.
While the disappointment is warranted, it was not the best way to start the year by showing heavy remorse at the largest consumer electronics show. The future is looking grim for HD-DVD, and while their were still hints of optimism at the press conference, truth be told, the worst has yet to come.

The Future

The amount of people that will purchase Blu-ray media and players is very likely to grow, and I expect to hear some announcements from CES for improved devices. While there is still a slim possibility that some other format could pop up at anytime, the high-def market is likely to embrace Blu-ray as the format of choice; for now anyways.

We might hear of new camcorders that write to Blu-ray media, instead of DVD, in the future. This would be an incredible improvement as the storage limitations of a single DVD are far too low for high-def video.

New questions could be asked now: How long will the industry support Blu-ray before something else better comes along? How long before Blu-ray would be phased out? How will the Blu-ray format perform with copy protection? How will companies like Microsoft and Toshiba bounce back? I am sure we will be able to answer a few of those questions soon.