The DVD Situation

For anyone who is not aware of this matter, there is a battle going on concerning the next generation DVD standard. The two new formats are HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. HD-DVD has Toshiba, Sanyo and NEC backing it. Blu-Ray is supported by Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, and Pioneer. Sound familiar? If it does, you're old enough to remember the Betamax vs VHS wars.

I, like many, still have a VHS collection that isn't going away. Sure, I've had a DVD player for five years now but I wasn't about to re-buy movies I already had. The VHS era lasted about 25 years, the first generation DVD era lasted about 8. As television technology is linked more to computer technology, don't expect standards to last the way they used to. For example, NTSC, the television standard that most of us use today, was established in the 1940's. Now before HD-TV even establishes a full foothold on the market, some companies are already looking at standards even better than that.

I'm not buying any more DVD movies in lieu of not wanting to feel the need to buy them again when a better standard comes out. I'm keeping track of how the DVD wars comes out. I'll decide on a standard eventually.