8/22/03
In a special panel discussion yesterday afternoon at the DVD Entertainment 2003 conference in L.A. (entitled The Battle Over the Next Generation), a panel of industry representatives extolled the virtues of moving from current DVD to a high-definition disc based format. In particular, proponents of the various concepts vying for the HD crown (including Advanced Optical Disc, Blu-ray and Pixonics pHD) discussed the advantages of their own particular proposal of choice.
Here's the bad news: It's a little too early to tell for sure, and there are industry forces that are trying to prevent it, but there's a real chance we might be headed for an AOD/Blu-ray format war. That said, here's the good news: EVERYONE on the panel (including representatives of leading hardware manufacturers on both sides AOD/Blu-ray divide, and even one of the major Hollywood studios) expressed confidence that whichever format ultimately gains the high-definition advantage, backwards compatibility with existing DVD software is considered a given in order to make the transition easier for consumers. So if you've been concerned about HD-DVD or Blu-ray (or whatever comes next) making your existing DVD movie collection obsolete, you can now rest easy. The new disc players (whatever format they may be) should all be able to play current DVDs in addition to next-generation HD software.
Also of note is the fact that some in the industry believe that the transition to the next generation format needs to happen earlier, rather than later, in order to ensure that prepackaged media remains the option of choice for HD consumers, instead of Video On Demand (VOD). Fascinating stuff and you can be sure we'll be talking a lot more about these issues in the months ahead.
Stay tuned...
is that good??
