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Yet Another Format

Entry 605, on 2007-09-10 at 20:22:16 (Rating 1, Computers)

As a technology freak I like to try out new technologies before most other people. I have a home theatre system with lots of cool audio features, but I still use standard definition video. High definition video would be nice, but until the battle between the two main competing standards for high def DVD: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, is resolved I will stay away.

Now I see there is another "standard" called HD-DMV. The battle between the original two formats has swung back and forward a bit, with HD-DVD dominating first, then Blu-Ray leading when the PS3 was finally released, now HD-DVD seems to have swung back into the lead after a rather suspect deal with a movie distributor.

The two formats aren't really that different in terms of what they can do, so it doesn't really matter which wins (if either does - maybe they will both win, or maybe they will both lose). But it would be good if the whole issue was resolved soon so that the technology can progress to the point where we can get reasonably priced, easy to use, players and recorders.

Its a situation where I'm a bit hesitant to say there should be one standard and no competition. After all, I'm a committed Mac user and if one standard was accepted for computer hardware I would be using a PC. I could almost cope with that, but if one standard was adopted for operating systems I would be using Windows, and I really can't imagine anything worse than that!

Of course, the problem could be resolved if we had super-fast Internet because then we could download movies and burn them to the format we choose to use. This is already happening with music. The number of CD sales is declining as on-line sales increase. Once you have an audio file it can be used on any medium: CD-DA, MP3 CD, MP3 player, etc.

So the ultimate answer will be to make the medium (and the player designed to work with that medium) a consumer choice instead of tying the medium to the content. When that happens I won't just groan when I see yet another format announced!

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