Paramount Drops Blu-ray DVD Technology

An unfortunate truth in the area of TV technology is that the best technology is not always the one that triumphs when two competing technologies go into competition with each other. The history of TV technology is littered with examples of this. The one that most people are most familiar with is the format war between the Betamax and VHS video cassette tape formats. Even though VHS won that particular format war, many people have argued that Betamax was actually the superior format. A less prominent example can be seen in the early Laser Disc video format that was introduced at about the same time as the VHS and Betamax tape formats. Laser Discs were essentially primitive DVD's that were about the same size as an old fashioned vinyl LP record. Even though DVD's are the preferred format over video cassettes now, the two video cassette formats soundly defeated the Laser Disc format when it came to consumer video.

Right now we can see another example of this unfolding with the High Def DVD format war. There are two formats in this war that are both vying for control over the market. One format is called Blu-ray and it's backed by Sony and a number of other computer hardware manufacturers and movie studios. Its rival is called HD DVD, which was invented by Toshiba and is backed by Microsoft and a few other movie studios. Both of these formats are based on similar laser technology, both use discs that are the same size as standard DVD's, and neither format can be played on the other format's players.

The Blu-ray format is the superior one in terms of data storage capacity. It can store about twenty five gigabytes per side of a single disc for a total of fifty gigabytes per disc. By contrast, the HD DVD format can store about fifteen gigabytes per side of a disc for a total of only about thirty gigabytes. Twenty gigabytes per disc is an extremely big difference between the two formats. To be fair though, HD DVD has some proprietary interactive features that Blu-ray doesn't have.

In spite of Blu-ray's technical superiority- at least as a storage media for computers- and the fact that it has been outselling HD DVD by two to one in terms of number of discs sold, Blu-ray has failed to win the format war. That's because a format war is waged through propaganda, forming alliances, and pricing tactics at least as much as it's waged through technological expertise.

The latest blow to Blu-ray's superior position has been the decision of Paramount to release high def DVD's only in the HD DVD format. Previous to this announcement, Paramount had been releasing its titles in both formats, but now it has taken a pay off in order to market and produce HD DVD exclusively.

This has been a blow to consumers and retailers as well as the Blu-ray format. Retailers who are currently selling Paramount titles published on Blu-ray won't be getting restocks of those discs, and Paramount has even made an about face on announcements that it will publish recently released movies on Blu-ray.

While this move may be good for HD DVD, and Paramount may have gotten a short term profit from it, Paramount's reputation is sure to be damaged. Perhaps even irreparably.