Make no mistake: the primary advantage of HD DVD over Blu-Ray at this point in time is price. HD DVD lost the format war and has been discontinued. This discontinuation has precipitated a major price drop. HD DVD players have been tumbling in price lately, after having lost the format war with Sony’s Blu-Ray, and having Toshiba cease the development of the format.
Although HD DVD might have lost the format war to Sony’s Blu-Ray, the current economic downturn has given new life to HD DVD. When Sony got the backing of the biggest Hollywood studios in spring, it appeared to be the knockout blow for HD DVD as the studios also dropped HD DVD. However, aggressive price cuts have kept the market alive for HD DVD players and HD DVDs. HD DVD players also play standard DVDs.
The cost of the HD DVD disks has fallen from $40 in some cases to as little as $10.Payers can be bought for less than $60, compared with about $250 for a Blu-Ray player. Thousands of HD DVD titles are still available, including some recent hits like American Gangster. In short, in spite of HD DVD being officially discontinued, HD DVD players’ availability at rock-bottom prices have stoked a lingering popularity for the format.
While the primary advantage of HD DVD over Blu-Ray is cost, which is sadly enough, fueled by HD DVD’s discontinuation. HD DVD does have some nice features, though. One nice feature of HD DVD players is that they are backward compatible, thus enabling users to use a single player to play all types of HD DVD, DVD and CD.
There is also a hybrid HD DVD format that contains both DVD and HD DVD versions of the same movie on a single disc. This format was intended to offer a smooth transition for the studios in terms of publishing movies, and to allow consumers with only DVD players to use the discs. DVD manufacturing companies can use their current equipment with only minor modifications when changing over to HD DVD.
For gamers, the fact that Microsoft offer a HD DVD drive for their Xbox gaming system may be a compelling reason to adopt the format, especially now that prices for these players have hit rock bottom. The Microsoft player attaches to the Xbox 360 with a USB cable.
HD DVD also offers a feature that Blu-ray doesn’t: Managed copy. Managed copy is the ability to allow a computer to make a copy of a movie onto its hard drive so that the movie can be beamed all over the house to any and all TV sets. This is a tremendous feature for people who use their PC as a media center. In fact, the Xbox 360 can work with Windows Vista by receiving this streaming content from your computer. Thus, without investing the modest fee for an Xbox HD DVD player, you can play HD DVD movies through your X Box if your computer supports HD DVD.
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