War is so messy. Mayhem, destruction, and casualties. The same has been true of the great format conflict between the two opposing camps of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Both vying for the privilege of replacing the ubiquitous video DVD as the next generation of digital high-definition movie media, the struggle had been going on for two years. Primarily the big beef was between Sony (Blu-Ray), and Toshiba (HD-DVD). Similar to the epic videotape clash of the late 70’s and early 80’s, only one media format would ultimately come out on top. Avenging for the death of the superior BetaMax videocassette, Sony’s perseverance paid off with Blu-Ray, and won over the heart of the market.

The Blu-Ray format is truly superior in that it uses blue lasers to bounce off the disc’s reflective layers. Blue light has shorter wavelengths, therefore allowing smaller dots on the substrate, which equals - more data! It has taken many decades for manufacturing technology to advance enough to mass produce small blue lasers and LEDs. Besides, blue is just a really cool color when associated with techy stuff. BlueTooth for your cell phone stuffed in your ear, blue lights on your satellite receiver - so soothing…

So now is the time we can go ahead and upgrade our home theaters and media rooms with a brand-new, high-definition, all-digital, uber-blue, movie watching MACHINE! Just make sure your fancy LCD TV has an HDMI connection for the highest resolution signal possible. Yeah, I know… but you really need a bigger one anyway - don’t you?

shotchkiss@grandhome.com