This is just one important factor.

Blu-Ray has 25% more capacity than HD-DVD today.

On top of that, a doubling of the Blu-Ray disk capacity is in sight.

HD-DVDs are slightly less expensive to make today, but that advantage is likely to disappear very quickly, and in the meantime it is overshadowed by its smaller capacity.

Ever notice how easy it is to fill up a disk regardless of its capacity? :O)

For any number of reasons, Blu-ray stands to win the long-term battle of the formats, even though it's more costly. HD-DVD has some serious benefits in the short term, but if they're going to be hitting market at approximately the same time, I hope the replication industry is ready for BD. As editors, BD makes more sense, and for storage, same thought process. But...it's more expensive for replicators to gear up to. That may hold sway over how quickly it gains traction.

Some of the articles I have read said current production lines can be converted to HD-DVD in 15 minutes. BluRay needs a whole new billion dollar factory and the discs are still more expensive. But don't get me wrong, I don't care which one wins as long as I can record and play them.

JJK

So let me get this straight. BluRay is abbreviated to BD. That's just great.

Blu-ray Disk=BD...Life is full of acronyms, eh?

in what significance could this effect us Vegas users?
Considering it appears to be MAC orientated?

//Garo

I'm not sure what you mean. Blu-ray is format/platform agnostic just like DVD is. In this particular announcement, it's just Apple announcing that they're jumping on the BD format. In 24 months or less, you'll see a huge insurgence of BD-related players, recorders, storage, and other products. Sony XDCam uses the BD format to record to now, with a lot more to come, I suspect.

I'm not so certain about any of this.
Last word I heard from the giant plants in Asia was they have no plans for BD. HD DVD on the other hand is a goer. Apples position seems very odd, they're busting a gut over H.264 HD in which case they don't need BD. BD is only needed for HD if you're sticking with mpeg-2. With HD DVD players costing around the same as SD players and the media costs being the same which way to you think Joe Average is going to jump? Sony's last foray into the realm of different but odd things (DVD+R) seems to have come to naught.

As for XDCAM and BD, don't know much about it down here other than one networked trialled it and sent it back. No one can or will say why. I think Sony may face an uphill battle getting broad acceptance of the format, it seems SX left a bad impression so no ones in a hurry to take on another new Sony format.
Bob.

That the D in BD stands for disc is fairly obvious. I wasn't expecting recordable quartz crystal balls yet. What else can they use.
BR is a better description. They should call it BRD, to make it a little more obvious. maybe they ought to call it BM. For BluRay Media, just in case the disc goes out of style. The BM will probably be flushed out by 2010.

How many people thought and perhaps still think that "DVD" means Digital Video Disc instead of Digital "Versatile" Disc? I am not sure myself why the word "Versatile" is even in there.

John

So the proper accronym right now should be
BRDVDTISNOYAPERN
(BlueRayDigitalVersatileDiscThat Is StillNotOutYetAndPrettyExpensiveRightNow)
Please refer to it that way to keep things simple around here ;)

LOL -- Good one, Eric!

Sounds like a bit of BS to me (Blu-ray Specifics).

Whichever format comes out on top, be prepared to open your wallet wide. Very wide.

I just recently got my SD stuff together, and now it looks like I'll have to pop for HDV stuff sometime in the next 3 - 5 years. And who knows what after that, when the next "Next Big Thing" comes along. I've certainly benefitted from technology but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it slows down to about half speed for a while so I can catch my breath.

One good thing about poverty is that it forces you (by "you" I actually mean ME) to wait until a lot of the bugs have been worked out and standards have been defined. I bet 5 years from now, $5000 will buy a lot more than it'll buy now.

Or maybe I'll go retro and find a cheap Super-8 camera somewhere....<g>

>How many people thought and perhaps still think that "DVD" means Digital Video Disc instead of Digital "Versatile" Disc? I am not sure myself why the word "Versatile" is even in there.

Maybe because it can allegedly hold stuff besides video?

Well I know I can put data on one. There is that directory called AUDIO_TS. I never bought an audio DVD but I think I heard they don't even use it.

A CD is about as versatile as a DVD. A DVD just holds more. Just another selling point. A way to sucker the innocent into thinking they're getting more.