When Sony/Philips technology released the first Digital Video Disc (DVD) digital technology's goal in the early 90's, it was toward a goal to enable a world united by one language. We've come along way since then with the advent of high definition DVDs. The war continues as to which format will replace standard DVDs in the future, especially after the recent Warner Bros. Entertainment decision to support Blue-ray technology over the rival format, HD DVD.

"We are getting close to the spontaneous emergence of global network-based virtual awareness. In a very short period of time, the worlds of printing and publishing changed dramatically, and as the Internet wakes up, technology continues to congeal into one global interconnected network," says the author of The Extreme Future, James Canton.

What is the difference between HD DVD and Blue-ray? "The difference is that they are different formats of discs that are used to deliver content to the end user. Both formats support high definition video, and have nothing to do with resolution," says one DVD duplication services provider, Asheesh Barman, of Acutrack, Inc.

There is confusion about the video resolution of each format. Both formats support high definition video format. High definition video is what standard definition DVD video quality was to VHS video quality back in the old days. High definition video is 720 lines to 1080 lines on the TV screen. By comparison, the now old standard NTSC format used in the US and North America is only 480 lines of resolution.

HD DVD is easier and less expensive to manufacture, and the interactive component which was co-developed by Microsoft Toshiba and Disney, is much easier to use. The value is in authoring capabilities because the discs are not as expensive.

Also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD), it is a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). Developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data, the format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. The capacity is needed because films in high definition video are space consuming.

Whereas HD DVD is an optical disc format that stands for High-Definition Digital Versatile Disc. It uses a laser, which allows for far more data density per disc than a standard DVD. That means HD DVD delivers six times the picture resolution of normal DVDs, up to 7.1 channels of high-resolution audio, and interactivity and bonus content capabilities.

Blu-ray discs come in single and dual layers. Blue-rey 25 holds 25 gigabytes (GB) of data, while the Blue-rey 50 holds 50 GB. HD DVD has three versions including single layer with 15 GB, dual layer with 30 GB and triple layer with 51 GB. There's basically no difference in the audio and video qualities, just some differences in features.

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