You could call it a battle for the hearts and minds of consumers. But it might be more accurate to say “for the wallets of consumers.” The neck-and-neck rivalry between high-capacity disc formats Blu-ray (championed by Samsung (News - Alert)) and HD-DVD (championed by Toshiba) has been hot and heavy for almost a year now.

 

Both formats offer roughly the same thing: a CD/DVD-sized disc with enough capacity to hold one or more high-definition, feature-length films (or the equivalent amount of other data).

 

Because the two formats are so similar in terms of functionality, neither has emerged as a clear winner despite various movie studios (such as 20^th Century Fox) choosing to release titles in one format or another, and disc player manufacturers (including Panasonic, Sony and Dell) making the same type of choices.

 

The battle over formats makes things rather confusing for consumers, who may be uncertain about which type of disc and player to buy. To some extent, this indecision could have an impact on sales if consumers simply decide wait it out and see which format ends up on top.

 

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, Warner Home Video unveiled a new type of disc that has the potential to cool the battle down somewhat. Total High Def discs, as they are dubbed, are double-sided—capable of recording HD DVD data on one side (as much as 30 gigabtyes for dual-layer version) and Blu-ray (max 50 gigabytes) on the other.

 

But, at least in China, there may be a third format to worry about: Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD). That format, according to Wikipedia, was introduced in late 2004 by China’s Zinhua news agency in response to the high licensing costs associated with DVDs.  

 

In a December 6, 2006 news release, the Chinese EVD Industry Alliance announced plans to replace the DVD format in the country with EVD.

 

“As the biggest country producing and consuming disc machines around the world, Chinese national brand is threatened by the fact that Chinese DVD player manufacturers pay a significant amount of licensing fees to foreign patent holders each year,” the announcement said.

 

EVD Industry Alliance added that the “Made in China” label, as applied to video and data discs and players, represents the cheap export of Chinese labor as well as resources and environmental impact.

 

The organization set out a number of goals, focused on the year 2008. Among them is to have Chinese manufacturers “stop making DVD players from 2008, replacing them with EVD players and expanding the popularization of EVD in Chinese marketplace.”

 

Even as EVD Industry Alliance is working to meet its own ambitious goals, though, the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats are making inroads in China. A SinoCast report Tuesday noted that American retailer Best Buy plans to introduce Blu-ray players to China during the first half of 2007.

 

The SinoCast report quotes Zhang Baoquan, general secretary of EVD Industry Alliance, as saying that it seems likely Blu-ray, HD-DVD and EVD players will coexist in China for quite some time.

 

Hmm… looks like the situation on the ground in China is just as confusing, if not more so, than in the U.S.

 

There’s also the price factor to consider. The SinoCast report said that Blu-ray players sell for $500-$600 in China, with discs typically running in the CNY (China Yuan Renminbi) 299-399 range ($38.46-$51.32). Those prices, the report implies, are high because elsewhere the price of discs and players “have been reduced several times since 2006.”

 

The report added a quote from Stan Glasgow, president of Sony, saying that prices for DVD players in the U.S. have dropped to the $299-$399 range during the past three years, and it will take at least as long for Blu-ray players to reach that level.

 

How do current Chinese prices compare to HD-DVD and Blu-ray players in the U.S.? A quick look around in the American market reveals widely varying prices depending on type of player and how new it is. At the low end is Toshiba’s (News - Alert) HD-A2, which retails for $499. Mid to high-range players include Samsung’s BD-P1000/XAA ($800) and Sony’s BDP-S1 ($999.95). At the very high end are the newest players, topping a grand—such as Panasonic’s DMP-BD10 for $1,300.

 

As another point of comparison, when Twentieth Century Fox in September announced the November launch of eight movies titles in Blu-ray format, they set the price at roughly $29 a pop. Blu-ray and HD-DVD format movies on Amazon.com (News - Alert) currently range in price from roughly $20-$30, depending on title.

 

No matter how you look at it, high-definition is rather pricy. It seems likely that, eventually, the format wars will fizzle out, as one type of disc manages to squeak ahead and gain momentum. But it seems worth asking whether it’s even worth worrying about discs at all—a possible scenario is that the future of entertainment lies in direct, digital content delivery using broadband connections, and storage on DVRs and/or solid state media.

 

The battle is hardly over.

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 Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles, please visit Mae Kowalke’s columnist page. Also check out her Wireless Mobility blog.