Just like VHS and BetaMax, there was once a format war between the winning Blu-ray format and the now-defunct HD-DVD format. The war between these two formats was over in a mere two years, so what happened?
Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: The Technicalities
Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD technologies were developed independently, although both aimed at the same goal: storing content for the new HD generation of televisions. From a user’s point of view, both formats are pretty similar. You put a disc into a player, and then an HD movie plays.
Under the hood, numerous differences exist, most of which aren’t big enough to warrant discussion. For example, the Dolby Digital audio bitrate for Blu-ray is 640 Kbps, while HD-DVD’s number is 504 Kbps. It’s a measurable difference but means little to nothing when watching content.
The biggest difference between HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs is the amount of data stored on each layer. HD-DVDs can store 15GB of data, whereas Blu-ray discs can store 25GB of data. That’s a significant difference, and coupled with a notably lower data transfer rate for HD-DVDs, it…
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