What Are The Differences Between Blu-Ray And HD-DVD?

Blu-Ray and HDVD are both high-storage capacity video disc formats being touted as replacements for conventional DVDs by their manufacturers and supporters. When it was recognised that a new format was needed, key corporations were unable to agree on a standard. Rival camps formed and a format war is now underway. Blu-Ray is supported by Sony and HD-DVD is supported by Toshiba and Microsoft. The consortiums behind each format have sought to persuade film studios to release their films exclusively on one or the other format and, in this, have had some success. This means that some films will appear on one format only.

Technically, the key difference between the two formats is in the sheer amount of storage capacity. Blu-Ray discs can hold up to 25 Gb (gigabytes) of data while HD-DVD discs can hold only 15 Gb. This means films released on HD-DVD could potentially have lower visual quality or have fewer extras on the disc. Blu-Ray players are not able to play older DVD discs while HD-DVD players are.