Whither Blu-Ray and HD-DVD?


Many of the regular readers of this forum have commented on the lack of commercial success of SACD and DVD-A, and have looked forward with anticipation to the launch of the new Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD formats.

The Saturday issue of The Seattle Times carried an article on the technology page, written by two of its reporters covering the CES in Las Vegas, that raises questions about whether either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will become successful as "hi-def" formats.

According to the article, a company called InPhase (located in Longmont, CO) has announced that is has begun distribution of a new holographic storage disc called the H-ROM. This new disc, which is shipping years ahead of its expected debut, has a storage capacity of 300 gigabytes (5-10 the capacity of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray), and is read by the same type of red laser used for CD's and DVD's. The data transfer rate for the H-ROM is 20 MB per second.

InPhase is currently shipping the discs to to companies that are developing consumer devices that will use the H-ROM, and it anticipates that professional systems using the H-ROM to go on sale later this year.

So, this poses an interesting dilemma for both the entertainment industry and for aduiophiles and early adopters of new technology: support Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, or simply wait just a bit longer for H-ROM to leapfrog both of these formats?

Opinions and commentary welcome...
sdcampbell

Showing 4 responses by robm321

If SACD and DVD-A haven't taken over for redbook, why would either of these formats?
The Absolute Sound also raved about SACD/DVD-A being the next big thing and tried to help promote it early on as well.

So, is Blu-ray or HD for home theater only or does it have anything to do with music and making music sound better? How many years will it take to get music releases on it?

I'm not trying to work against it, just wondering if it will be relavant any time soon. I'm an LP guy, but enjoy SACD and if one of the new formats sounds better, I'll go for it assuming there will be enough software to make it worth it.
Shall we start the "signs Blu-ray and HD-dvd are dying" thread yet or should we wait a few months?

I think mp3 will make any disk format obsolete in the future as far as music only stuff. Movies I don't care about. Hollywood just sucks anymore. :-0