Standards? What standards?

There is no stopping it, the unstandardized high definition video disc technologies have been released out into the open, with free reign and and with every intention to compete with one and another to see who will gain the largest market share as consumers eagerly jump on the 1080p advantage. With Toshiba, Microsoft, NEC and Sanyo, RCA and Intel backing the HD DVD format and Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Inc., Dell, and Panasonic supporting the Blue-ray disc, there is no telling what these technology giants have up their sleeves to joust the other off their high horse.

Naturally, one would assume that the company with the bigger better product would win the battle. With this scenario, Sony's Blue-ray disc (BD) would tower it's rival in capacity as a single layer disc is only 5 gigabytes short of the dual-layer option of HD DVD and the BD's double-layer option is a capacious 50 gigabytes. With this advantage alone the Blue-ray disc has a tremendous lead. It would be one thing if the HD DVD technology could play on existing DVD players. Unfortunately, this is not the case and for a consumer who wants to upgrade to the new high definition home movie technology, either format forces them to buy new proprietary equipment.

The next major item to compare is what major movie studios are supporting the two formats. As of right now four Hollywood studios are exclusively supporting the Blue-ray Disc: Columbia Pictures, MGM, Disney and 20th Century Fox. Three Hollywood studios are supporting both formats: Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. Finally, two hollywood studios exclusively support HD DVD: Universal Studios and Weinstein Company. A layman's tally would show Blue-ray having the support of seven major Hollywood studios and HD DVD having only five.

A trend will and has already started to occur and it is only a matter of time that the exponential curve will take form. The issue here is not what format will win and what technology leader will claim the throne of the high definition optical disc standard, the issue is, what consumers are they going to step on in the process. When the war is over, what are those consumers to do that bet on the losing horse but to either stick with their undeveloped movie collection and obsolete player or to once again rebuild and provide money to the victorious challenger.

To the high definition home theater shopper, take heed when approaching this war. It is quite a mess right now. It will phase out soon enough. My bid is on the Blue-ray disc and other's may agree.