The long-pending Blu-ray and HD-DVD format war that initially gained momentum in the year 2006-after Toshiba released their first HD-DVD player-is now over. Blu-ray is now the unrivalled next-gen optical disc format. Toshiba ended this war on 19th Feb 2008,with an official statement declaring that it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD-DVD players and recorders. But was this war, which divided high-def AV content manufacturers in two separate camps, justified? Maybe, maybe not. But yes, these formats were necessary and that was felt in the late 90s, when consumer HDTV sets entered the consumer market. At that time there was no inexpensive option available for consumers to store high-def content. As high-def content has more data associated with it; more storage space on a single disc is a must to store such content. That time, DVD was the only available format offering maximum storage space of 4.4 GB. But that wasn't enough for storing high-def content. An affordable format with more storage space was the call of the hour.

A number of innovations were being thought of and several experiments were carried out by several companies. Finally a revolutionary step was taken by Sony and Toshiba. They thought of replacing the existing red-laser technology which was being used to store data onto discs with blue-lasers. As blue lasers have a shorter wavelength compared to red-lasers, they allow more data to be stored in the same size disc. Both Sony and Toshiba then came up with their proprietary Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs that had certain technological differences which made them incompatible with each other. Both Sony and Toshiba did try to figure out a common way so as to avoid any market confrontation, but couldn't. Finally we had two rival formats-Blu-ray and the HD DVD-and two rival camps. The HD-DVD camp said “You want it and we are here now,” and the Blu-ray camp insisted “We won't be first but we will be better.” Both these camps threw their hat in the ring by launching their products in the market and each camp had a group of loyals backing them. Initially it was Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel on HD-DVD's side. Sony, Dell, Apple, Disney and Fox were in the Blu-ray camp. Several others including Hollywood movie studios joined in and some even changed their loyalties. It was only after Warner Bros studio backed out from the HD-DVD camp in Jan 2008, and when Wal-mart and other retailers started following, the camp weakened-and dissolved soon after.

Sigh of relief for customers & manufacturers
This decision brought forth a feel-good factor for both consumers as well as content manufacturers/providers. Consumers needn't decide the format they should go for. Previously, making a decision was difficult as HD-DVD products were aplenty and being affordable they seemed lucrative to the customers. Since, both formats offered high resolution, great HD experience and almost had similar features, this added more to the confusion.

But with Blu-ray being accepted as the unrivalled format now, those people who bought HD-DVD players are at a disadvantage, as what they have is just a glorified DVD player. With Blu-ray, consumers are in for a visual treat. Agrees Takikiyo Fujita, GM Marketing, Sony India. “For consumers, the end of this war brings certainty to the market as there is only one high-def disc format i.e. Blu-ray. With this format, the consumers will be able to enjoy the best picture and sound quality on HD,”

As far as content manufacturers or providers are concerned, the end of this war means they can now be sure that their content will be reaching more people. This wasn't the case earlier; similar to the market base, the customer base was also divided in groups: HD-DVD users and Blu-ray users. But now unification of the market has automatically increased the customer base. The first attempt to unify these users was done by LG and Samsung when they came up with HD-DVD & Blu-ray combo players. However, these are priced really high and couldn't prove to be of much help.

Takikiyo Fujita, GM Marketing, Sony India For consumers, the end of this war brings certainty to the market as there is only one high-def disc format i.e. Blu-ray. With this format, the consumers will be able to enjoy the best picture and sound quality on HD

R Zutschi, Dy MD, Samsung India says “Now that Blu-ray has emerged as the dominant technology, we are very confident that it will create a bigger consumer base for itself.”

Note: The first standalone device by LG was the BH100 while for Samsung it was the BD-UP5000 Duo HD Player.

Is Blu-ray actually better than HD DVD?
Well, answering this one is really tough. None of the analysts ever referred to any of these formats as the best. Whenever they were asked about which format they think would win, most of them pleaded for content and that is exactly what has happened in this case. So, what was the reason behind this win?

Takikiyo Fujita feels that consumers are responsible for this win. He says “Overwhelming support from Hollywood studios, consumer electronics and IT companies, retailers and video rental stores is clear proof that consumers have chosen Blu-ray as the next-gen disc format.”

When we asked R Zutshi from Samsung India about what he thinks is actually responsible for the end of this war, he said, ”I think it is a combination of factors-more movie studios putting their weight behind Blu-ray, large retailers supporting this technology and manufac-turers themselves innovating and launching next-gen Blu-ray players.”

Some people also believe that this win is an outcome of swindling that happened behind the scene. But various prominent people from the industry preferred to keep mum on this question. While R Manikandan, Business Group Head, IT, LGEIL, believes Blu-ray won because of its inherent advantages over HD DVD.

Happenings in the Indian high-def market
Whatever may be the reason behind the win, the verdict is with us and companies such as LG, Sony, and Samsung etc are strategizing ways to encourage Indian consumers to use Blu-ray products in the near future. For this they are planning to launch their high-def products in the Indian market. We spoke to people of many companies regarding this. Here are some of many interesting replies.

Takikiyo Fujita, from Sony asserts, “We will focus our energies on promoting Blu-ray's unparalleled home viewing experience to consumers by developing a wide selection of products that customers can choose with confidence, allowing them to enjoy the ever-expanding world of HD.”

He further adds, “In India we will accelerate our HD strategy across our categories not only for Blu-ray specifically but also for high definition camcorders, CyberShot digital still cameras and Bravia LCD TVs.”
Samsung expects to strengthen their Blu-ray business globally through more innovative product launches. R Zutshi from Samsung elaborates, “Based on the introduction of our Blu-ray players and home theater systems, we are looking at creating the market. The momentary issue in India is the availability of both hardware and software in the organized channel.” Dell's corporate spokesperson shared with us the information on the Inspiron 1525, a slim notebook with an optional Blu-ray drive which they have recently launched in India.

Should we adopt Blu-ray?
Blu-ray is the only high-def format in the market and people are really looking forward to an ultimate high-def audio/visual experience. But should they go ahead with Blu-ray right now? I won't say yes-not because I am unsure about this technology or its success, but because I think that waiting would be a wise decision on consumers' part. First, being early adopters, you will be paying a substantial premium, and prices will be dropping drastically in the next few months. Standalone Blu-ray players are really expensive; a decent player might cost you something around 30-35k. And to get the best out of your Blu-ray players, you first need to invest in an HDTV (that could be an LCD or plasma) which is fully HD capable i.e. which supports 1920 X 1080 pixels. Inclusion of an HDTV will really shoot up your budget by another 80k to 1.25 lacs. Your overall budget will be around 1.5 to 2.0 lacs; see if you are willing to spend that much. I definitely expect a fall in the recent prices by 30-40 per cent in the next six to eight months; that is exactly what happened with DVDs-prices fell down by as much as 50 per cent. So, waiting does make sense, at least to me. It will ensure that I get the best value for my money.

But, if anyhow you insist to be an early adopter then don't forget that market of high-definition products hasn't really picked up in India yet. Sony's Playstation3 is the only high-def product that has been able to carve a niche market here, so far. This is not the case with other high-def products; their market is yet to be jazzed up. Also, there are not enough Blu-ray players available in the Indian market.

From Sony, you have two Blu-ray DVD players: BDP-S1E (Rs 59,990) and BDP-S300 (Rs 29,990); Playstation3 and then the VAIO AR notebooks and PCs which includes Blu-ray writer drives. LG recently launched a Blu-ray writer GGW-H20L in India. It is not a standalone Blu-ray player, but a SATA device that can be mounted on any existing desktop PC. Interestingly, this writer (also named as super multi-blue) can read and write Blu-ray discs, CDs, and DVDs; and it can even read HD DVDs. Acer has also launched their Gemstone notebook 8920 which includes a Blu-ray reader drive. Some Dell XPS and Inspiron notebooks also come with an optional Blu-ray drive and can be yours for about Rs 22,000+ taxes extra (remember it is available in selected models only).

With so much happening in this field, there is a certainty that Blu-ray products will gain popularity in India soon. As of now, Blu-ray just seems to be unstoppable across the world.

Mr Manikandan, group head IT LGEIL Any new technology take time to be accepted by consumers, this is why Blu-ray hasn't picked up in India yet. But, now this technology is gradually gaining momentum and we are confident that it will create a bigger consumer base for itself here in India.	Mr R Zutshi, Dy MD ,Samsung India We expect to strengthen our Bluray business through more innovative product launches. In India, we are looking forward to create a market for Blu-ray players and Home Theaters.