How Movie Formats Have Changed.
Any time you hear the expression “Home Video” what exactly is the first thing that comes to mind? For most people, it’s the term “DVD” or “DVD Video.” That will actually demonstrate how deeply rooted the DVD is now in our lives as well as in our culture. It is really difficult to recall when we watched videos on VHS tape, however it wasn’t that long ago. Actually, as time moves on the DVD itself is becoming outdated and one day very soon you will consider it just as much as a distant memory as you consider the VHS tape a far gone distant memory.
The past video format that DVD superceded was known as the VHS video tape. It had survived it’s own kind of “Format Warfare” against the Betamax video tape and won. However, almost 20 years after that, it’s time had come. Every piece of media we liked was making a hop from a magnetic format into a digital one. Home video would follow that trend, and it is the DVD that enabled the leap to really occur. The DVD was able to playing back higher quality audio and video and was a necessary advancement over the VHS. The HD televisions which were being released made this improvement in quality nearly a demand and really forced the hand of media manufacturers to obtain new and improved ways to deliver top quality material.
Fortunately the research had already began in the search for a new digital media format that would be able to store enough information to display true high definition digital content in terms of both audio and video playback. That eventually led to the development of the Toshiba backed HD DVD. The HD DVD offered full 1080p video playback ability along with 6.1 channel surround sound. It had a full set of features that no DVD might even imagine touching and was truly the gold standard for home video.
While Toshiba had been able to enjoy enough early success, the BluRay was nearing the market and the possible future of the HD DVD was in question. While the HD DVD was a serious leap forward over the DVD, the BluRay was not as significant to the evolution of home video however it did offer even more space than the HD DVD. The biggest advantage was it’s parent. Sony had established itself in the film industry as a significant player and so it’s home videos were in high demand. However, having control of it’s movies, they weren’t launched on HD DVD but BluRay instead and in the process Sony had caused some home theater lovers to simply accept the BluRay format as the media choice above others.
In the end the BluRay won the format war with the HD DVD being dropped by Toshiba in 2008. To this day the BluRay remains the one major video format that’s the current hot trend everywhere across the planet. However, few of us will forget the HD DVD, and the journey home video has made in the past 10 years from DVD to now BluRay.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.