HD-DVD versus Blu-ray Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HD-DVD versus Blu-ray - Research Paper Example stages of technology battle, the HD-DVD and Blu-ray technologies pulled efforts in gathering decoder and disk manufacturers, retail outlets, and media companies towards their respective sides. The Blu-ray gained endorsements from some major retail companies; Blockbuster and Netflix, acquiring a victories string. On 2008 January, Warner Brothers Production Company announced its exclusive support of the Blu-ray format. The top DVD retailers: Best-Buy and Wal-Mart announced their support for Blu-ray as opposed to HD-DVD. The HD DVD from Toshiba continued to get support from major Hollywood production companies such as Paramount pictures and Universal pictures (Jim & Michael, 2008. Blu-ray technology is developed by Sony and has a slower start though slightly more expensive than HD DVD. Its proponents argue that the larger storage capacity of Blu-ray is at 25GB, single layer disk, as well as 50 GB dual layer that is about twice the HD DVD capacity. Blockbuster announced its greater support for Blu-ray than HD DVD in the summer of 2006, hence predicting a shift towards Blu-ray as the major technology of high definition. On 2008 January, Warner Bros announced its release of its DVDs in Blu-ray format only thus joining other production companies, resulting in roughly 70% new releases in Blu-ray. The formats are incompatible with each other and the HD DVD buyers cannot play movies presented in the Blu-ray format (Michael & Philip, 2007). There are companies that find both technologies vital, for instance, NVIDIA’s graphics, Seagate and MIPS Technologies, Sigma Designs and Broadcom, and ‘Moses Baer India Limited’. The winners of Blu-ray technologies are Sony, Apple, Dell, LG, Panasonic, Philips and Mitsubishi, among others. The HD DVD winners include Microsoft, Lite-On IT, Intel and Toshiba (Mark & Charles, 2007). HD DVD had a chance of winning the competition due to its low manufacturing costs and cheaper products. The flexibility to have HD and conventional