Recordable HD: A Clearer Picture

[Gregg Lengling]

March/April 2004

By Phillip Swann

 
Sam Diaz knows something about technology. After all, he's the personal technology reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. However, after recently trying to master the seemingly endless number of DVD recording formats while helping a cousin record a home movie, Diaz wonders about his chosen profession. With look-alike formats such as DVD+R and DVD-R, and DVD-RW and DVD+RW, it's enough to make a grown man cry. What works on one DVD player may not work on the next.

"The movie turned out great, and being able to pop it into the living room DVD player to watch it on the TV set—just like a Hollywood motion picture—made it that much better," Diaz says. "But when he took the DVD to the grandparents' home and pressed Play on their DVD player, nothing happened. The older DVD player wouldn't recognize the homemade DVD."

Of course, technology companies are not deliberately trying to confound people, despite what some might think. Multiple formats exist for many legitimate reasons, from feature differences to company disagreements over what should be the industry standard.

But Diaz is not alone in his frustration. Industry research suggests that some consumers are not buying new CE products, such as DVD recorders, because of format confusion. They are afraid that today's hot product could be obsolete tomorrow. They also fear that the product might not be compatible with similar machines. For instance, as Diaz learned, some recordable DVDs will not work with certain DVD players.

The war over formats—and feature differences—is expected to heat up during the next year as technology companies launch various products that permit the recording of high-definition TV (HDTV) programs. From new DVD formats to hard-drive HD recorders, the industry hopes the new services will further boost sales of HD sets. For the first time, an HDTV owner will be able to make a copy of a HD show and play it back for friends at any time, creating more awareness of the technology.

However, could the explosion of new products and formats add to consumer confusion, as seen with past technologies, such as the DVD recorder? With that in mind, here's a look at the future of recordable HD formats, services and products—and their likely impact on HDTV sales.

Next-Gen DVD

The DVD format conflict is about to reach a higher ground—a higher-definition ground, if you will. Several leading electronics companies are proposing formats for a new DVD technology that promise to store four to five times as much video and audio data as current discs. The DVD's expanded capacity will permit HDTV owners to record HD shows, which require more storage space than current discs provide. In addition, the new DVD will deliver better picture resolution and create new opportunities for interactive programs, such as multiple outcomes in a TV show or movie. You could, say, decide how a movie plays out, based on the instructions you give the main character in each scene.

The discs, and players, are not scheduled for launch in the United States until 2005 (some are now on sale in Japan). But the technology's potential is endless, which, of course, explains why there's a battle over what should be the standard. The winning companies could dominate the DVD market for years, generating billions in licensing and royalty fees, while the losers would have to play by their rules.

The combatants can be lumped into two groups. In one corner: NEC and Toshiba, which have proposed a "blue-laser" format to the DVD Forum, the industry organization that is trying to settle the dispute. The format for the NEC-Toshiba "HD-DVD" specifies a 20GB rewritable disc and a read-only disc with 15GB on a single layer and 30GB on dual layers.

In the other corner: the "Blu-Ray Group," a 10-company consortium led by Sony, Philips and Matsushita. Blu-Ray advocates say their technology is better because the disc is significantly thinner, will hold more data and can be overwritten—meaning that you can record over previously recorded content—unlike the NEC-Toshiba disc. On the down side, the Blu-Ray disc could be more expensive to produce. But proponents say its greater capacity is ideal for HD recording.

"The market already has been established, and although it's still looking for direction, there will be a growing number of users who want high-definition recording," says Sony spokeswoman Shoko Yanagisawa.

Clearly, both DVD models have pros and cons and, consequently, each could find an audience. In addition, industry politics could thwart efforts to reach a compromise. With heavyweights such as Sony and Toshiba involved—and with so much money at stake—it's hard to envision the CE industry coming together to approve a single standard. The DVD Forum says it will endorse only one format, and it approved the NEC-Toshiba format late last year. But that doesn't mean the Blu-Ray Group will sit on the sidelines if the DVD Forum does not support its format as well. For instance, Sony and Philips launched the DVD+RW recordable disc, although the Forum did not endorse it. Perhaps both formats will find the ultimate verdict in the marketplace.