Blu-ray and HD DVD: A Guide to the Next Generation of DVDs

If you just went out and dropped a sizable chunk of change on a nice new HDTV, you’re probably realizing that normal DVDs aren’t HD. Yeah, it’s a real kick in the pants, you get a top of the line TV and movies look worse on it. It’s like a cruel joke. Don’t worry though, there’s a solution.

There are two new HD disc formats out there competing in an annoying and unnecessary format war: Blu-ray and HD DVD. You’ve got a couple of options, so which should you go for? Well, both Blu-ray and HD DVD offer the same benefits, and there’s really no noticeable difference between the two formats. There are only a couple of players out at the moment, including the Toshiba HD-XA1 HD DVD player and the Samsung BDP1000 Blu-ray player, and both are a bit on the pricey side — $600 for the HD DVD player and $1,000 for the Blu-ray player. However, if you were lucky enough to snag a Playstation 3 last week you also inadvertently bought the cheapest Blu-ray player available. It’s Sony’s way of sneaking their choice in the format war into living rooms everywhere. There’s also a new HD DVD drive available for the Xbox 360, which at $200 is cheaper than any standalone players (if you already have an Xbox 360, that is).

So what should you do if you didn’t get or don’t want a PS3? Well, if you really want to get HD movies going ASAP, just take your pick of the current players. Heck, you might as well get the Xbox 360 or PS3, as those are the cheapest ways to get HD disc playback at the moment. However, in the next year dual-format players that play both Blu-ray and HD DVD should be headed to market, and that should save you a lot of headaches. It may be worth just waiting it out.

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