Tech Titans Prepare to Battle Over Next DVD Format

securitas writes "The New York Times Technology has an excellent feature by Ken Belson about the coming battle over the next-generation DVD format that consumer electronics and technology giants are already preparing for. The article covers the (high-definition) HD DVD group, led by Toshiba and NEC, and the Blu-ray Group, led by Sony and Matsushita (Panasonic/JVC). Mass production is expected to begin in 2005, but both sides are expected to show prototypes and aggresively pursue partners at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week. Add to the mix a nine-company Chinese faction that says it will develop its own DVD format because - fearing their technology could be used by Chinese rivals - the Japanese manufacturers haven't shared much information, even within the DVD Forum. Finally, Disney, Microsoft, IBM and Intel have yet to weigh in. The worst thing that could happen would be another Betamax/VHS-type war. In that case, 'Everyone is a loser, particularly Hollywood studios, the retailer community and, most importantly, the consumer,' says Warren N. Lieberfarb, developer of the original DVD format."

Comments

Re:How are the media companies losers

[squiggleslash]

Region encoding on current DVDs is optional. If the media companies thought it was in their best interests to press just one DVD, they'd do it.

Unfortunately, they don't think it's in the best interests. Now, to me, that's plain idiotic because leaving aside any stuff about just pressing one DVD (which isn't actually that practical as someone else points out - you'd want slightly different DVDs for different markets because of language and censorship differences), there's the not-insignificant issue that region encoding promotes piracy: because someone can't get the movie they want, or version of the movie they want, in their region, they're more likely to get a pirate copy that's region-free.

But MPAA, etc, members have never been terribly bright on the issue. Given the choice between screwing their own customers, and reducing piracy, they'd rather go for the former.

My family sent me a BBC DVD of "Have I got News for You" this Christmas, which I watched on my de-regioned PowerBook. I'm still trying to work out the logic of region encoding it - this is a disc of no interest whatsoever to people outside of Britain other than ex-pats, and ex-pats are not a large enough market to make it remotely likely a foreign publisher would see any value in buying their region's rights. So instead of the BBC making money from ex-pat sales, they're basicly ensuring that, beyond a few technically orientated people like me, nobody will be able to watch the DVD who wasn't able to see it on TV in the first place.

Mindless. Utterly stunningly mindless.