Why Blu-Ray Will Win The Format Wars
Our own Robbie Otal sounds off on Sony's decision to (surprise, surprise) go with their own media format, and what it could mean for the competing HD-DVD medium.
Published: June 6, 2005
If we look back to 2001, and the release of the PlayStation 2, one will most likely find a correlation between the platforms’ release and the rise in popularity of the DVD format. Sure, DVD’s were steadily growing in popularity ever since their introduction in 1997, but it was the availability of low-cost DVD players within the PS2 (and later in the Xbox) that helped further the proliferation of the DVD format as the standard for movies and other media. In the same way, we will probably end up seeing a very similar effect happen to the Blu-Ray medium, as the PS3 will provide both an excuse for consumers to pick up a new Blu-Ray player (it plays games too, so you don’t feel as guilty for throwing away your old DVD player in favour of a PS3), as well as a low-cost means of bringing the Blu-Ray standard into a person’s living room.
Ironically, the only thing that could have helped the HD-DVD format become truly competitive against Blu-Ray is if companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo had stepped up to make their respective systems compatible with the new high-definition format. Originally both the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Revolution were rumoured to be compatible with the HD-DVD format, but both companies ended up choosing the current-generation DVD format instead.
Just for the record, in case you believe that the days of the DVD aren’t over and that both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD could flop in favour of the current DVD standard, think again. There’s a good reason why these two high-definition formats exist: storage capacity. As it stands, current high-definition media, which provides a far clearer image than the standard definition media that currently exists on the market today, takes up five times more bandwidth, and therefore requires a medium that can hold up to five times more information. A double-layer Blu-Ray disc, even with its 54 GB of total capacity will only be able to hold upwards of 4.5 hours of high-definition video (but more than 20 hours of standard definition video). A newly created triple-layer Blu-Ray disc, produced by TDK, will hold upwards of 100 GB of data. This new disc was created in response to a new triple-layer HD-DVD disc which will store up to 45 GB of data, which still is 5 GB less than a dual-layer Blu-Ray disc.
Incidentally the one feature of HD-DVD that has garnered the most attention from movie studios has been its improved anti-copy protection and security measures over the Blu-Ray format. Specifically, HD-DVD discs will be manufactured with a narrowband containing “write-once” material in one of two possible locations, depending on whether the disc is single-layer or dual-layer. Each disc will also receive its very own serial number produced in the form of an embedded bit modulation within specific frames of the film itself. These watermarked frames will be burned directly into the HD-DVD media. The application locations of these watermarked frames where the serial numbers can be located, will be stored within a centralized database controlled by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Furthermore the location of such watermarked frames will be kept at random, never being in the same position from one movie to the next. When scaling and/or remapping the content of these discs from one format to another, the serial number and the watermarked frames will be kept intact due to the fact that the size of these areas along with the depth of the modulation will be able to survive during any remapping procedure.
Whenever an HD-DVD movie is sold within a store, physical retailers and online stores will be required to obtain extensive purchase information from the consumer, based upon credit card and/or debit card transactions, which will then be sent back to the MPAA for storage into their database. Physical stores may also be required to go as far as using their surveillance cameras (which would be positioned above cash registers) to capture images of consumers purchasing such HD-DVD products. In one possible scenario, the MPAA could install networked cameras of their own, in which the shutter would be triggered by a bar code scan or manually by the salesperson. This means that once a pirated copy of a specific movie has been produced and made available on the internet, the MPAA will be able to analyze the specific watermarked frames within the pirated movie, recover the corresponding serial number, and then trace back the route to where the movie was purchased, ultimately identifying the purchaser of that movie. HD-DVD players may require constant connections to the internet, so that the stored serial numbers can be scanned from within in order to obtain a Digital Rights Management (DRM) license in order to play the inserted content. The corresponding information on the disc, serial number and all, will then be sent back to the MPAA for storage in their centralized database.
To movie studios, such a rigid and complicated process in order to obtain information about the movie and its purchaser may be the only way to combat the millions of pirated VHS and DVD movies that continue to be sold on the streets in record numbers. To the consumer however, such a procedure may be viewed as an invasion of privacy, and could produce even more momentum towards the Blu-Ray format. As it stands right now, Blu-Ray supporters hope to create their own copy protection system, but if the MPAA has their way, both high definition formats could be incorporating the same anti-piracy measures by the time the first high definition players and movies arrive in North America. It should be noted that one of the primary reasons why the UMD has garnered favour by the vast majority of movie studios has been due to its own rigid copy-protection systems in place. In this case, because no UMD recorders exist and because Sony is expected to keep the UMD as a closed format (as of right now, both game companies and movie studios must still submit their content to Sony in order to actually manufacture the proprietary UMD media), movie studios can feel safe knowing that their UMD-released movies will not fall into the hands of pirates.
Incidentally, this entire format war between the HD-DVD camp and the Blu-Ray camp could be averted if the two sides would come together to adopt a single format. The only problem is that neither side is willing to budge, and while both sides have commonly discussed the possibility of a unified format, we still haven’t seen any real action.
Next week, I will talk about Microsoft’s recent decision to use a 7.5 GB DVD disc for its Xbox 360, and how this will impact the next-generation console wars.
Ironically, the only thing that could have helped the HD-DVD format become truly competitive against Blu-Ray is if companies such as Microsoft and Nintendo had stepped up to make their respective systems compatible with the new high-definition format. Originally both the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Revolution were rumoured to be compatible with the HD-DVD format, but both companies ended up choosing the current-generation DVD format instead.
Just for the record, in case you believe that the days of the DVD aren’t over and that both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD could flop in favour of the current DVD standard, think again. There’s a good reason why these two high-definition formats exist: storage capacity. As it stands, current high-definition media, which provides a far clearer image than the standard definition media that currently exists on the market today, takes up five times more bandwidth, and therefore requires a medium that can hold up to five times more information. A double-layer Blu-Ray disc, even with its 54 GB of total capacity will only be able to hold upwards of 4.5 hours of high-definition video (but more than 20 hours of standard definition video). A newly created triple-layer Blu-Ray disc, produced by TDK, will hold upwards of 100 GB of data. This new disc was created in response to a new triple-layer HD-DVD disc which will store up to 45 GB of data, which still is 5 GB less than a dual-layer Blu-Ray disc.
Incidentally the one feature of HD-DVD that has garnered the most attention from movie studios has been its improved anti-copy protection and security measures over the Blu-Ray format. Specifically, HD-DVD discs will be manufactured with a narrowband containing “write-once” material in one of two possible locations, depending on whether the disc is single-layer or dual-layer. Each disc will also receive its very own serial number produced in the form of an embedded bit modulation within specific frames of the film itself. These watermarked frames will be burned directly into the HD-DVD media. The application locations of these watermarked frames where the serial numbers can be located, will be stored within a centralized database controlled by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Furthermore the location of such watermarked frames will be kept at random, never being in the same position from one movie to the next. When scaling and/or remapping the content of these discs from one format to another, the serial number and the watermarked frames will be kept intact due to the fact that the size of these areas along with the depth of the modulation will be able to survive during any remapping procedure.
Whenever an HD-DVD movie is sold within a store, physical retailers and online stores will be required to obtain extensive purchase information from the consumer, based upon credit card and/or debit card transactions, which will then be sent back to the MPAA for storage into their database. Physical stores may also be required to go as far as using their surveillance cameras (which would be positioned above cash registers) to capture images of consumers purchasing such HD-DVD products. In one possible scenario, the MPAA could install networked cameras of their own, in which the shutter would be triggered by a bar code scan or manually by the salesperson. This means that once a pirated copy of a specific movie has been produced and made available on the internet, the MPAA will be able to analyze the specific watermarked frames within the pirated movie, recover the corresponding serial number, and then trace back the route to where the movie was purchased, ultimately identifying the purchaser of that movie. HD-DVD players may require constant connections to the internet, so that the stored serial numbers can be scanned from within in order to obtain a Digital Rights Management (DRM) license in order to play the inserted content. The corresponding information on the disc, serial number and all, will then be sent back to the MPAA for storage in their centralized database.
To movie studios, such a rigid and complicated process in order to obtain information about the movie and its purchaser may be the only way to combat the millions of pirated VHS and DVD movies that continue to be sold on the streets in record numbers. To the consumer however, such a procedure may be viewed as an invasion of privacy, and could produce even more momentum towards the Blu-Ray format. As it stands right now, Blu-Ray supporters hope to create their own copy protection system, but if the MPAA has their way, both high definition formats could be incorporating the same anti-piracy measures by the time the first high definition players and movies arrive in North America. It should be noted that one of the primary reasons why the UMD has garnered favour by the vast majority of movie studios has been due to its own rigid copy-protection systems in place. In this case, because no UMD recorders exist and because Sony is expected to keep the UMD as a closed format (as of right now, both game companies and movie studios must still submit their content to Sony in order to actually manufacture the proprietary UMD media), movie studios can feel safe knowing that their UMD-released movies will not fall into the hands of pirates.
Incidentally, this entire format war between the HD-DVD camp and the Blu-Ray camp could be averted if the two sides would come together to adopt a single format. The only problem is that neither side is willing to budge, and while both sides have commonly discussed the possibility of a unified format, we still haven’t seen any real action.
Next week, I will talk about Microsoft’s recent decision to use a 7.5 GB DVD disc for its Xbox 360, and how this will impact the next-generation console wars.