Will HD-DVD or Blue-Ray offer better storage quality?

[Rich]

Hi Everybody,

I just saw more news headlines for HD-DVD and I wondered if either camp has claimed their new technology will use some of that tech' or vaulted capacity to actually increase burn quality over our current DVD burners.

Anyone heard any good news in this area?

Shoot, I think it'd be a deal-maker if one of them effective measures to make burn errors a concern of the past.

Rich

[rdgrimes]

There are some basic differences in the way the 2 formats write discs that could affect the resulting burn quality, but it would be media dependant (it always is) Any time you increase data density on an optical disc there are potential problems, but given a properly functioning drive and media, no one optical disc will be superior to another. Longevity is another issue, I would expect BD and HD-DVD discs to be even more suseptable to decay and damage than DVD, but nobody really knows.

The winning format, if there is one, will be the one that is cheaper and most readily available and is supported by the movie industry.

[Rich]

There are some basic differences in the way the 2 formats write discs that could affect the resulting burn quality, but it would be media dependant (it always is) Any time you increase data density on an optical disc there are potential problems, but given a properly functioning drive and media, no one optical disc will be superior to another. Longevity is another issue, I would expect BD and HD-DVD discs to be even more suseptable to decay and damage than DVD, but nobody really knows.

The winning format, if there is one, will be the one that is cheaper and most readily available and is supported by the movie industry.

I agree with all you said. I'd just sure appreciate and I think it would greatly bolster trust in optical media if they'd take a bigger margin of the resources and keep burn quality at such a high quality that users could forget about error's all together.

It reminds me of how my Grandfather taught me to skate, like 45 years ago. He always preached go slow and learn to do it well, speed will come on it's own.

I remember when I first read about CD's, years before they landed. They were described as being optical and not suffering the decay of magnetic media; last forever and so on.

The first CD drive ad I saw was for a 1x with like 40 applications and games. It was $1500.00 buckazoids.

Finally I got one, a 2x Reveal and finally years later a burner. Right off I learned how tempermental the technology was when doing 650 meg burns that took 38 minutes and each time hoping it wouldn't hic-cup and make a coaster.

Now with DVD's I do find it much better quality wise. That's really cool.

I guess I'm just hoping that this time around they try putting more importance of quality and dependabilty and such. Gee, when I start burning 20 gigs at a shot I'd sure like to just-know that it will burn correctly and be dependably readable in other devices.

We'll see, that's for sure.

Thanks for the Reply,
Rich

[rdgrimes]

Most of the advances in optical drive speed and reliability have been due to advances in error correction technology, and due to improved disc manufacturing technique. (fewer errors to correct). HD-DVD uses essentially the same disc technology as current DVD, none of the disc plants will have to re-build to make them. BD requires all new disc making machinery. I think the writing is on the wall as to which format will be readily available and cheap. The movie studios will all fall in with HD-DVD because they don't want to try to sell BD discs at high prices when HD-DVD will be priced similarly to current discs.

DVD-RAM is the only format that has thus far mastered all the issues of reliability and error correction for opticals. BD is still not a finished prodect, there are still problems to be worked out. HD-DVD is ready to go.

I'm sure we will see both formats in use, but BD will be relegated to computer geeks and technophiles and very expensive.