Ian Morris
Ian Morris loves televisions so much he's been banned from wedding chapels in Las Vegas for trying to marry them. When he's not romancing technology, he can be found watching American TV. Ian likes roast potatoes, but he doesn't like digital rights management.
Wednesday 8 August 2007, 11:42am
I've got the solution to stupid format wars
The key difference between HD DVD and Blu-ray is the type of physical media they use -- for everything else, these formats are essentially the same. They mostly use the same video codec, the same audio codec and, on the whole, the interactivity is comparable, they're just run by different software -- Java on Blu-ray and Windows CE on HD DVD.
So, why is there a format war at all? Sadly, it's got everything to do with money and absolutely nothing to do with giving the consumer a good deal.
When a company creates a technology, it makes money from the royalties earned from licensing it to other companies. This money, in many cases, can outstrip the cash they make from actually producing and selling the equipment itself. JVC made a boatload of cash from VHS and both Sony and Philips made a good-sized wodge from CD patents.
It's this that drives companies to create competing formats. These companies try to convince us that it's their format that's better so we'll all flock to the shops to buy products that use their format. That's the problem with HD DVD and Blu-ray -- Toshiba wants us all buying HD DVD; Sony wants us all buying Blu-ray.
But it could all be solved very simply, and here's how: a law is passed that states all films released on Blu-ray must be available on HD DVD and vice versa. Oh, and the same law will apply to SACD and DVD-A. We then back this up with a second law, which states if it isn't available on both, then the consumer can legally download it off the Internet. Mark my words, the format war will be over in the blink of an eye as opposing camps magically set aside their differences.
Articles by Ian Morris
Don't hold your breath for Wii HD, says Nintendo
Crave Nintendo cautions against holding your breath for a new Wii HD. Such action won't make it release an HD console any quicker, and might result in the breath-holder getting dizzy and passing out
Adobe launches Photoshop Mobile for Android handsets
Crave If you take loads of photos on your phone, you're probably in need of a little extra re-touching help. If you have an Android phone, Adobe is on hand with its new Photoshop mobile app
Oppo opts not to sell its BDP-831 Blu-ray player in Europe
Crave When Oppo announced that it was making a Blu-ray player, we were very excited. Unfortunately, the company recently announced it won't be coming to Europe so now we're very sad instead
Blu-ray to get managed copy. At last
Crave Years after it first launched, Blu-ray is now set to get managed copy, to allow users to copy their movies to another device or keep a backup. But you'll need all-new hardware to do it
Phone love: When an iPhone meets a Hero
Photo He was wildly successful. She was from the wrong side of the tracks. But their passion would not be held back by firmware updates, nor Bluetooth incompatibility. This was true phone love
Digg is dead: Twitter killed it and Google helped bury the corpse
Crave We've checked its pulse, and the link-sharing site is dead. Here's how the rise of social networking -- and Google's ceaseless evolution -- stuck the knife in and twisted
Plug versus Plug
Crave We take a 100 per cent objective look at the plugs of the world, scientifically judging their attributes to decide which will come second to the mighty British plug. Oh, did we give it away?
Moon lands on Blu-ray this November
Crave One of our films of the year -- and one of the most stylish sci-fi films of the last decade -- Moon is soon out on Blu-ray and we're vibrating with excitement
