DVD dead in three years?

The association backing the Blu-ray next-generation storage format aims to oust the DVD as the leading storage format within the next three years, according to Australian IT.

The Blu-ray format offers up to five times more storage capacity than DVDs, but is contending against rival format, HD DVD, for the next-generation storage crown. The latter format has the advantage of cheaper discs, players and burners.

Every Sony PlayStation 3 games console is fitted with a Blu-ray drive, enabling the console to double as a Blu-ray player. The number of PlayStation 3s sold in Japan and North America in December hit 1.84-million and Sony plans to launch a further million in Europe in the next week. As a result of this, Blu-ray already exceeds HD DVD in the number of players sold and with a total of 5.2-million Blu-ray discs having been sold, it won’t be long before it outstrips HD DVD in this area too.

Although many film houses in Europe and Asia will continue to use HD DVD because it is cheaper and simpler, five out of the eight big Hollywood studios support only Blu-ray in comparison to the one studio (Universal), which supports only HD DVD.

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Want to know more about Blu-Ray?? Here it is from Wikipedia
The name Blu-ray Disc is derived from the blue-violet laser used to read and write this type of disc. Because of this shorter wavelength (405 nm), substantially more data can be stored on a Blu-ray Disc than on the DVD format, which uses a red, 650 nm laser. Blu-ray Disc can store 25 GB on each layer, as opposed to a DVD's 4.7 GB. Several manufacturers have released single layer and dual layer (50 GB) recordable BDs and rewritable discs.[1] All supporting studios have either already released or have announced release of movies on 50GB discs.

Blu-ray Disc is similar to PDD, another optical disc format developed by Sony (which has been available since 2004) but offering higher data transfer speeds. PDD was not intended for home video use and was aimed at business data archiving and backup.

Technical Specifications:
1. About 9 hours of high-definition (HD) video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
2. About 23 hours of standard-definition (SD) video can be stored on a 50 GB disc.
3. On average, a single-layer disc can hold a High Definition feature of 135 minutes using MPEG-2, with additional room for 2 hours of bonus material in standard definition quality. A dual layer disc will extend this number up to 3 hours in HD quality and 9 hours of SD bonus material.

Blu-ray Disc / HD DVD comparison
Main article: Comparison of high definition optical disc formats
The primary rival to Blu-ray Disc is HD DVD, championed by Toshiba, NEC Corporation, Microsoft, and Intel. HD DVD has a lower disc capacity per layer (15 GB vs 25 GB). However the majority (70%[29]) of Blu-ray titles are in 25 GB single layer format while almost all (over 90%[30]) HD DVD movies are in 30 GB dual layer format. In 2007 only 46%[31] Blu-ray movies were released in 25GB Discs so far (03/2007). The Blu-ray Disc version of the Adam Sandler movie Click was released on October 10, 2006 as the first ever dual-layer release. Sony's goal is to use 50 GB dual-layer discs to store up to nine hours of HD video content. Alternatively, studios releasing movies on Blu-ray Disc can choose to use VC-1 or H.264/AVC instead of MPEG-2 as an alternative way to put four hours of high-definition content on a (single layer) BD.

In terms of audio/video compression, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are similar on the surface: both support MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264 for video compression, and Dolby Digital (AC-3), PCM, and DTS for audio compression. The first generation of Blu-ray Disc movies released used MPEG-2 (the standard currently used in DVDs, although encoded at a much higher video resolution and a much higher bit rate than those used on conventional DVDs), while initial HD DVDs releases used the VC-1 codec. Due to greater total disc capacity, the Blu-ray Disc producers may choose in the future to utilize a higher maximum video bit rate, as well as potentially higher average bit rates. In terms of audio, there are some differences. Blu-ray Disc allows conventional AC-3 audiotracks at 640 kbit/s, which is higher than HD DVD's maximum of, 504 kbit/s. Nevertheless, Dolby Digital Plus support is mandatory for standalone HD DVD players at a maximum of 3 Mbit/s, while optional for BD players with support at a bitrate of 1.736 Mbit/s.[32]

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc support the 24p (traditional movie) frame rate, but technical implementations of this mode are different between the formats. Blu-ray Disc supports 24p with its native timing, while HD DVD uses 60i timing for 24p (encoded progressively, replacing missing fields with "repeat field flags"). Decoders can ignore the “flags” to output 24p.[33] There is no impact on picture resolution or storage space as a result of this, as the HD DVD format uses the same video information — it simply adds notational overhead.

Currently, five Hollywood studios exclusively support Blu-ray Disc: Columbia Pictures, MGM, Disney, Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox (Columbia Pictures and MGM are owned by Sony Pictures). Four Hollywood studios support both Blu-ray and HD DVD: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema (the former two are owned by Viacom, and the latter two by Time Warner). Two Hollywood studios exclusively support HD DVD: Universal Studios and the Weinstein Company.

(Source: iafrica.com, wikipedia)

-Mumbaikar