Why the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war is a repeat of VHS vs. Betamax
Two titans of technology have been at each other’s throat, once in the last century and so far, once in this century. Those who were around in the 1970s and mid-1980s will remember the VHS vs. Betamax format war which mirrors what is happening with the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war, only the current war has a different outcome.
Back in the 1970s and mid-1980s there were two formats for VCRs. Sony supported Betamax and JVC was behind VHS (video home system). Both were expensive at the time, some VCRs could reach prices of $2,500 (in adjusted dollars) or more which seems ludicrous by today’s standards. Consumers held off for a while since the machines were so expensive to see which one would come out on top.
In the early years of the war, VCRs could be bought or rented since some consumers didn’t want to decide on one format or the other until a clear winner was obvious. Though, Betamax was essentially a technologically superior format offering better picture quality but that was a trade-off as recording times were shorter. VHS eventually gained a 70% market share and won the format war.
The reason VHS came out the winner was because as the machines became more common, they became cheaper to produce and lowered prices. Betamax essentially lost because VHS was cheaper and Sony couldn’t lower prices enough. It is slightly more complicated than that and books could be written about the subject.
Here we are today with Sony’s Blu-Ray technology and Toshiba’s HD-DVD backed format. Before the war began there was a conference to see if it could be headed off, if the corporations and studios could agree to a single, standard format. They couldn’t.
It seemed in the early days that HD-DVD had an advantage, it was cheaper and used existing DVD technology for production. Blu-Ray offered more storage capacity but required heavy modifications of production facilities. The Blu-Ray hardware was also more expensive to produce as was the media itself.
Some also said that consumer would associate HD-DVD with HD-TVs which is rather simplifying consumers but “average” people could be swayed into believing that HD-DVDs must be more compatible with HD-TVs.
Both Sony and Toshiba engaged into a sort of price war which didn’t last too terribly long. During the holiday season last year Toshiba lowered the prices on some of its HD-DVD players to $100~$120 making them dirt cheap when compared with Blu-Ray offerings. But, that would not save them.
For whatever reason, consumer demand, market share, pressure from Sony on the studios, several major studios decided to drop support for the HD-DVD format which gave Blu-Ray a majority share of movie studios and the market. With Wal-Mart, Netflix and Best Buy all embracing Blu-Ray players and media the fate of HD-DVD has been determined. Toshiba lost and knows it.
The company has decided to put an end to HD-DVD production in its entirety. Sales of current HD-DVD products will continue at no doubt insanely low prices just to clear inventory but once it’s gone, it’s gone. It’s not clear how long the existing products will take to clear out but I’d say, it’ll take a good few months. By the end of the year, HD-DVD will probably be a thing of the past. HD-DVD what?
In this war, Sony came out the winning party with its technologically superior Blu-Ray format, who knew such a thing would be possible? The score is tied now, 1 to 1, what’s going to be next, digital content format wars? Bring it on.
[ERROR CORRECTION:] A comment correctly pointed out that JVC, not Toshiba was behind VHS.
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February 17th, 2008
If I recall correctly, the biggest VHS backer was JVC and not Toshiba.
February 17th, 2008
VHS won because JVC allowed the format to be licensed cheaply. Betamax stayed the proprietary Sony format that has doom all their media.
February 17th, 2008
It appears you may be US based as here in Europe we had 3 formats fighting.
The additional one was V2000 or Video Compact Cassette from Philips.
This had a tape cassette that could be turned over to give 4 hours per side. As the recording only used half the tape width a signal was encoded that could be tracked and the head positions adjusted on the fly by piezo crystals given virtually noiseless fast and pause speeds. ( Later taken up by VHS )
February 17th, 2008
Too many people are forgetting this “format war” was against a content provider (SONY/COLUMBIA/TRI-STAR) against two middle men (TOSHIBA & MICROSOFT). Tos. and MS had to “lease” /pay for content for their systems, were as SONY was starting with an installed base.
HD DVD could’ve never won this “format war”.
February 18th, 2008
Why don’t you proof read your article before posting it, it’s a bit embarrassing:
“just to clear inventory but once its gone, its gone. It’s not clear” — what happened to the apostrophe on the first two its?
“By the end of the year, HD-DVD will probably be a thing of the post.”
–so, I’ll be able to put my letters in those HD-DVD players instead of going to a mailbox?? COOL!!!
February 18th, 2008
Interesting, the apostrophe’s were shown in the editor and deleting and inserting them again seems to have corrected that, I don’t know why some were shown and others weren’t. The internet is a strange place.
Yes, sure, put those letters in a mailbox, that works for me. But seriously, we’re only human, mistakes have and will continue to get made. An “o” can look an awful lot like an “a” when you’ve been looking at computer monitors for 6 hours straight.
Luke, do you want a job? ;-)