Choosing a DVD Player/Recorder

Soon we'll all be able to view our "pay-to-view" movies on-line, downloading them so that they can be saved on a DVD (or CD) disk. Already, pirate copies of most movies can be easily downloaded from the Internet using either binary newsgroups (like alt.binaries.movies.divx) or by BitTorrent P2P.

The format for this soon-to-arrive "pay-to-view" movie distribution is likely to be in a highly compressed video standard called DivX. Indeed the compression is so good with DivX that the filesize of only 700MB will support a 90 minute movie - and more importantly, can be downloaded far more quickly than with the DVD5 or DVD9 formats.

As a result, using DivX you can store a single move on a CD, and if you want to keep your disks down to a minimum you can store up to 6 movies on a single DVD. If you have failed to ensure that the DVD player you've bought (or are buyin) does not support DivX, there are computer programs that will convert DivX to DVD5/DVD9, though such conversions can take two or three hours to complete even on a highly-specified computer.

Only a year ago a number of DVD players (and recorders) supported DivX, though that wasn't well publicised. Even the "bargain-basement" DVD players sold at places like Asda for as little as £25 could be relied on to play DivX CDs and DVDs.

Today, the currently available DVD players seem to have missed out on DivX support. I've mulled over this, and have come to the conclusion that "The Industry" is making way for a raft of "new models" supporting DivX when the download-to-view becomes a reality in the next year or two. The same thing, I suspect, is currently happening with the sale of so many "HD Ready" television sets that don't support the full HD standard.

The problem you migh have is "does my DVD player support DVD". It's quite likely that there's nothing on the box or in the instructions to answer this question. The same thing applies if you are considering purhasing a new DVD player or DVD recorder.

All is not lost, however. Just make note of the make/model of your current DVD player/recorder (or the make/model of the DVD player/recorder that you're considering buying) and go here for playerrs and here for recorders.

Blue Ray or HD For High Definition?

Some of us are old enough to remember the Betamax/VHS format wars. Paradoxically, VHS eventually won-out though Betamax gave a better picture.

Now it's happening again - this time with High Definition video. In the Blue Corner is Blue-Ray, a Sony technology; in the Red Corner is HD DVD, this time sponsoed by a public forum with "open standards" - with a prominent supporter - Microsoft.

Now before I give my "take" on this format war, I should make it clear that while I'm currently sitting firmly on the fence, I do have a technical background in elecctronics/computers and software. I have done some research on the pro's and con's of each of the Hi-Def technology, it's cost of each, and the likely outcome of this format war.

The first point to make is that Sony are making a great deal of smoke about Blue-Ray. They claim (quite correctly) that there have been substantially more sales of Blue-Ray players as well as Blue-Ray disks than those of the HD DVD technology. What THEY FAIL to mention though, is that they are using Blue-Ray for their Play Station 3 (PS3) so the figures/comparisons are very distorted. If the take out the PS3 Blue-Ray player and disk sales attributed to their PS3 out of the equation, then there have been MORE sales of HD DVD players AND disks than Blue-Ray.

As far as technology/functionality is concerned they are very closely matched (or should be). The video quality of replayed disks of the two formats is indistinguishable except for motion artifacts in the current line-up of Sony players. So here it seems to be (almost) a draw. However, so far NONE of the Sony Blue-Ray players support the highest High Defitition standard of 1080p. This may well have changed by the time you read this. Most of the HD DVD players do support 1080p.

Now we come to the nitty-gritty - the cost. Blue-Ray DVD players are substantially more expensive than the HD DVD equivalent. However, the cost of the Blue-Ray media (aka the DVD disks) is about the same as the HD DVD disk equivalent. The cheapest Blue-Ray Sony BDP-S300 will cost your more than £230 (typically £350). Significantly, however, the Sony Blue-Ray players DO NOT support the highest Hi-Definition standard of 1080p, so the 1080i of the Sony gives rise to motion picture artifacts. The cheapest HD DVD player is the Toshba but the Toshiba HD-E1 at £174 like the Sonys DOES NOT support 1080p. However, the Toshiba E1 HD-DVD at a price of £194 DOES support the highest resolution of 1080p. So for a hgher-resolution picture (without artifacts) the HD DVD currently comes out on top and is also substantially cheaper.

Regarding media (DVD disks) are concerned, a browse around Amazon suggests at the pricing of Blue-Ray and HD DVD disks is much the same.

It's a bit "Geeky" I know, but there is a technical/cost issue relating to Blue-Ray. So far the only Blue-Ray players are manufactured (or at least designed) by Sony themselves. There is a significance to this. When developing a Blue-Ray player the firmware has to be coded in such a way that it takes a ratio of 2,000 lines of program code against only 100 lines of code for the HD DVD player development. In addition, things are easier for the HD DVD development because Microsoft have developed a structured (easier to learn and easier to use) programming language to support the development of HD DVD players.

Will this make a difference? Too early to say, but as we know competition lowers end-user pricing and if more manufacacturers are better able to develop HD DVD players, then Sony might begin to feel the pinch in the format war. They may have to substantially reduce their per-unit profit for each Blue-Ray sold. In addition, other manufacturers will have to pay Sony a licence fee for each Blue-Ray player that they sell - but HD DVD is effectivelly "open-source" so there won't be any licencing overhead.

At the time of writing, and only a few days ago, the HD DVD camp has been dealt a blow with Warner Bros' announcement that they are switching their HD DVD movie releases over to Blue-Ray.

At least one DVD player manufacturer, LG, is soon to offer the consumer a "belt and braces" solution to the HD DVD format war. LG are shortly to market players that support both Blue-Ray and HD DVD disks - so all is not lost. We don't yet know the cost of these "universal" HD DVD players - and there remains the question as to whether these dual-format players will have any impact on which way the format wars will go.

The waters get even muddier with the announcement by Netflix (the largest DVD rental company in the world) that they are soon to introduce HD movies for downloading from the Internet using a box manufactured by LG. Word is that once you pay for a download of an HD movie, you can redownload that same HD movie again and again - at no extra cost. I'd speculate that this new offering will make substantial inroads to both the high definiton DVD rental marketplace as well as on the direct high definition DVD sales. NetFlix's current marketplace is North America, so at a stroke they will expand their "DVD rental" market to the world-wide marketplace, sosmething that is bound to impact heavily on Blockbuster's and Amazon's DVD rental market.

Only time will tell. Though my personal take seems to put Sony's Blue-Ray ahead at the moment, I'm still sitting on the fence. And saving my shekels too :-)