Featured Article: TMO Quick Tip - Tracking Application Updates in Dashboard
DVD Format War Officially a Draw
by , 12:35 PM EST, January 28th, 2008
The format war for recordable DVDs, DVD-R and DVD+R, is officially over. Last week, the DVD6C consortium added DVD+R and DVD+RW to its list of licensable products, according to The Register on Monday. The wide availability of dual format DVD players/writers, in practice, terminated the war long ago.
Ten years ago, Pioneer developed the DVD-R format. I was officially backed by the DVD forum. In 2001, Philips decided to roll out DVD+RW and later DVD+R even though it didn't have the official support of the DVD forum.
Just as in the current high-definition TV disc format war, each supporting camp tried to persuade customers that their format was somehow better. In the end, however, it was the widespread availability of dual format players/writers that made the choice of DVD format irrelevant.
Toshiba may be hoping that the same happy fate will come to their HD DVD format. However, Phillip Swann at TVPredictions doubts that the price of dual format Blu-ray/HD DVD players can come down faster than the momentum Blu-ray is now gaining. In addition, Mr. Swann suggested that Toshiba's Super Bowl commercial may be a Hail Mary for the HD DVD format in his e-mail to subscribers on Monday.
Observer Comments
Unfortunately, since the war never actually ended (or, as stated here, ended in a draw), we've been paying higher prices for media. While this may be moot, since it is easy to find DVD-+R blank discs for as low as $0.08 per piece, it is pretty much obvious that they would have been even cheaper had the manufacturers been able to build single product lines for just one type. This way, instead of two (DVD R, DVD RW), they must have four, in order to compete in all markets.
Let's hope Toshiba throws in the towel in the coming months and we end up with one single standard for HD.
Recent Headlines - Updated Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
- Tue., 4:00 PM
- Montage 1.5 Gets New Styles System, Scene Navigation Enhancements
- 3:45 PM
- RIM's Empire Strikes Back at Apple
- 3:00 PM
- C|Net: Remote Possibilities for Apple
- 2:55 PM
- Mac Gaming News - World of Warcraft Patched to 2.4.2 - Class Changes, Mac Fixes
- 2:20 PM
- Apple Publishes Details on WWDC Keynote
- 1:40 PM
- Office 2008 for Mac Sales Soaring
- 11:50 AM
- Apple Gives Retail Store Site a New Look
- 11:10 AM
- Mac Gaming News - Friction Games Ships Penumbra: Black Plague
- 10:40 AM
- Hot Forum Topic - The Mighty-dirty Mouse
- 10:05 AM
- Adobe Updates DNG Specification with Camera Profiles
- 9:35 AM
- iPodObserver - HBO Joins iTunes with Two-tier Pricing
- 8:35 AM
- Apple Rolls Out "New Get a Mac" Ads
- 8:10 AM
- PageSender 4.3 Enhances Menu Options, More
- 7:40 AM
- Podcast - Apple Weekly Report #125: iPhone Expansion, NBC and Zune, Apple's Eco-stance
- 3:10 AM
- MS Office 2008 SP1 Improves Stability, Security, More
- 3:05 AM
- Microsoft Says Visual Basic Returning to Office
The Mac Observer Reader Specials
- Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
- Other World Computing: OWC Mercury On-The-Go FW400/800/USB2/eSATA Solutions: High Performance A/V Rated, **Bus Powered** Hard Disk Storage - **Now 40GB and up to ***250GB*** in the palm of your hand. Macworld Magazine Editor's Choice - from $87.99!
MacPro Memory 667Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB Kit $ 90 / 4GB Kit $140 / 8GB Kit $278 Click to Maximize your Macs...
Mac observers can now play Party Poker for Mac as well as Mac casino games by going to MacPokerOnline.com.For the latest Apple products use Ciao a comparison website to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate cell phones.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

