The first time I heard about Holographic Versatile Discs (HVD) was about 2 years ago, I had heard that it was the sleeper technology that was going to rise above HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and win the next-gen disc war. Just to make things clear, HVD’s don’t actually project some sort of 3D holographic image, the name stems more from the technology used on the disc itself.
Well, as we all know, the battle between BR and HD-DVD is over. Blu-Ray won, HD-DVD backed off and things felt simple again. Unfortunately, this is not the case. HVD’s are making a couple of headlines again, reason being that they are offering 150GB discs as a start, with the release of 300GB discs in september and promises of up to 1TB discs by 2010.
So if all this is true and the discs become affordable in not too long, what will happen to Blu-Ray?
Now the issue I see here is that we have to look at Blu-Ray from two different angles. You see, everything has been pretty simple over the last couple of years. If you wanted to watch a movie, it was a DVD. You want to buy a game for your PC, it was a DVD as well. The same goes for other software as well as buying blank discs to make some backups.
Technology is moving too fast, things aren’t simple anymore. Blu-Ray is a great way to move the home movie industry forward. Things would be simple then if all PC games, software and writable discs came out on using Blu-Ray technology as well.
Blu-Ray has barely arrived and it’s going to take a long time for it to replace DVD. Many people aren’t even interested in BR, so what is going to happen when something else comes along? The storage size of HVD’s means that they can’t just be ignored, but I also think that Blu-Ray is a good standard to stick to for media and software for the next couple of years at least.
For your average consumer, technology is confusing enough as it is. Advancements are moving at such as speed now that it is getting very difficult to keep up. When is a standard going to be set? Where do we go from here?
source: arstechnica.com
[Thanks doobiwan for the tip]Last Updated: June 11, 2008
Fox1
June 11, 2008 at 11:41
The reason why BR hasn’t become a standard is because of the price of the hardware to actually play the discs. And add to that the cost of the discs 😯
koldFU5iON
June 11, 2008 at 11:58
sounds cool I’m all for HVD, but why don’t we have bigger HDD yet?
kabraal
June 11, 2008 at 12:08
This is all about when the industry decides that it’s a good time to move from one technology to the other. Not the consumer really. We all know movie studios jumped onto the HD-DVD / BD band wagon in 2006 because they were looking for a new revenue stream. They, together with hardware manufacturers dictate the success of a format.
Warner announced yesterday (Hidefdigest) that they are going to start increasing their direct to video blu ray catalogue. From next year onwards they’re going to put even more effort and money into BD and VOD, while DVD will start taking the back seat. This will probably ring true for most of Hollywood as well as the hardware manufacturers. Seeing that these new distribution methods are only beginning their life cycle, I doubt whether any of the software/hardware developers will jump onto something new just yet.
What does it all mean for this HVD? Well nothing really. It’ll remain a “sleeper†technology for quite some time. You got to remember that both HD DVD and BD started development in the late 90’s with BD demonstrating the tech as early as 2000. But both these’s tech remained a sleeper technology for quite some time until the industry actually decided it was time to go for a new revue market.
Optical disc will keep getting bigger and bigger and better, but Industry decides when to shift the market. And at the moment lots of money is invested in BD and VOD and lots of money is yet to be made. HVD will have to wait it’s turn.
Jinja
June 11, 2008 at 12:09
Well, technically Blu-Ray technology has been around since the CD era. But only became a viable option very recently.
So, yes the HVD might make an appearance at some stage, but by then there will be another disc format on the horizon.
You can have the same argument with Plasma’s and LCD TV’s…
There are already OLED’s coming out that are thinner and better, but still way too expensive.
There will ALWAYS be another tech on the horizon.
Jinja’s last blog post..Evolver Music Video featuring Koekoemoer
LazySAGamer
June 11, 2008 at 12:16
I still think that if Blu-Ray is going to take off it will only happen next year, if it hasn’t become mass market in Christmas 2009 then I think it won’t ever take off.
From what I have seen so far, no one is really interested in pushing it hard.
kabraal
June 11, 2008 at 12:20
Yeah agreed. I’m sure that when the first working samples of HD DVD and BD were developed in 90s, both Sony and Tosh were like: “No worries people, this will all be affordable, in working order and complete by 2001. No worries”
David
June 11, 2008 at 12:49
Imagine the games that could be made using 300GB I mean Blu-Ray has 50GB of space and look at some of the games on playstation 3 some of the games are awesome I mean I don’t have a PS3 but stil games on PS3 and XBOX 360 could be 6 times better if the games had 300GB to flourish.
David
June 11, 2008 at 12:51
now Imagine games If XBOX 360 and PS3 game developers used a 1 TeraByte of data space 1 TeraByte is = to 1000 GB wooooow
Gazza ZA
June 11, 2008 at 12:58
Um im not actually so sure that space is the main thing holding developers back from making the best games they can, theres always the multipul disc option, I just see BR and HDDVD and others as being the video equivalent of a sacd, i really just don’t see it going mainstream, but hey thats my opinion.
Gazza ZA’s last blog post..The Last Remnant ‘Ruler’ trailer HD Video
Syph1n
June 11, 2008 at 13:02
I find this extremely funny coming from you. Mr XBOX 360 IN FOR THE WIN!! 🙂
RossIRSA
June 11, 2008 at 13:06
But Blue Ray Disks will get to 1TB in size anyway. Why would manufactures start another format war for even considering HVR if there is not going to be any advantage? Unless they can be made on the cheap, we will never see HVR disks.
kabraal
June 11, 2008 at 13:12
But HVD will be able to hold 10TB? No one is starting a new format war. It’s called technological progression. BD won’t be with us forever. Go read Jinja post.
Banana hammock
June 11, 2008 at 13:14
HVD is too late i’m afraid, by the time it hits the market at reasonable consumer prices the Blu-Ray technology will have imporved signifcantly and the gap between then may be very small by then, also BD will already have the market.
David
June 11, 2008 at 13:21
HAY Watch it MR I get so angry over A game
David
June 11, 2008 at 13:21
Ya and thats wat yo mama said
David
June 11, 2008 at 13:22
Interesting
kabraal
June 11, 2008 at 13:23
Lazy, in all fairness you’re not looking hard enough. I really haven’t the faintest idea where you get your info from but as I’ve said before, you seem to always post extremely biased information wrt BD which you get from hell knows where.
You opinion that BD will only start taking of in a big way in 2009 might be quite fair, especially when considering current global economic woes. But it will take off.
Here a link for you. (Hope this post doesn’t get thrown out again):
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/news/html/breaking_article.cfm?article_id=12904
These sorts of articles make it into Hollywood news daily, but it doesn’t make it why to LGZA’s home media news. Disney is driving BD like it’s their newly discovered gold. Seriously, you should consider using actual news as your sources instead of either biased blogs or future speculations.
Syph1n
June 11, 2008 at 13:27
Dont get angry over A game. I get angry over A idiot. And in case you misunderstand, that idiot is you! At what exactly must i watch? let me guess? My mama? you monosylobic ignoramous.
David
June 11, 2008 at 13:32
I don’t speak alien sorry
Syph1n
June 11, 2008 at 13:38
Im convinced you are either a bot or a parody on a human being. I refuse to engage in anymore meandering conversations or subject myself to anymore meaningless tripe you insist on spewing out.
This is a site for gamers by gamers and i refuse to turn it into just another place where dumb people make stupid comments. so go for it. insult my mama till your little face turns blue. Have a nice day and insult away. you wont get anymore responses from me till you have an intellectual topic you would like to discuss. But i wont hold my breath
David
June 11, 2008 at 13:41
You Know I had Enough To I will leave you alone and you will leave me alone OK MGS 4 is pretty darn cool ok Sorry I like fighting over games ok
David
June 11, 2008 at 13:43
didn’t mean all that stuff about your mom ok its just that sometimes some people just need a little fight now and then sorry sorry
Nick
June 11, 2008 at 13:49
Hey Kabraal
The comments don’t get thrown out, the spam filter tends to remove posts with long URL’s sometimes because it thinks it’s spam.
Syph1n
June 11, 2008 at 13:52
When i can get a blue ray player for R1000 – R2500 with speakers i will look at it. but as it stands by home theatre is one those that is built into my dvd player so i just dont see the value in it.
LazySAGamer
June 11, 2008 at 13:57
I have never seen that article before and since we concentrate more on gaming you won’t find me browsing the hollywood news all the time..
But I have mentioned on countless time to countless people if you come across a great story like this please send it in.
Also Arstechnica are very highly regarded in the technical world so I wouldn’t claim they are a biased blog and if we didn’t report on future speculations what would we have?
LazySAGamer
June 11, 2008 at 13:59
😕 I just read the article now and I don’t see how it is a major story at all. It’s just a story about Disney trying to make more money and they mention once that they will push for a greater adoption of Blu-Ray…. that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?
Gazza ZA
June 11, 2008 at 14:04
I don’t see this article as being bias at all, infact it declares for a start that blu ray won the war, and infact mearly speculates as too “what if” HVD was to “become affordable in not too long” jeeze kabraal not everyone is out to get you relax a bit there your sounding like a blu-ray fan boy. secondly If all the guys on Lazy gamer where to do was “consider using actual news as your sources instead of either biased blogs or future speculations” there wouldnt be much to talk about would there as you would have already seen the same shit on 40 other sites. And finaly until Blu-ray DVD starts paying lazy’s bills i feel everyone here can say whatever the hell they want about it!
Gazza ZA’s last blog post..The Last Remnant ‘Ruler’ trailer HD Video
Gazza ZA
June 11, 2008 at 14:06
In your case i think you may mean “educational’
lol;)
Gazza ZA’s last blog post..The Last Remnant ‘Ruler’ trailer HD Video
Syph1n
June 11, 2008 at 14:07
How do you give a standing ovation over the internet?
doobiwan
June 11, 2008 at 14:07
Heaven forbid I say something lest kabraal piss his pants again.
Oh well.
Banana, there’s a big difference between having “the” market, and having “a” market.
doobiwan’s last blog post..The Games that made the consoles
kabraal
June 11, 2008 at 14:19
It’s Time Warner not Disney… are you sure you read it?
You said: “From what I have seen so far, no one is really interested in pushing it hard.”
Time Warner says:
“To accomplish this, the CEO said the studio will focus on building wider consumer adoption of Blu-rayâ€
That means, there are going to push blu ray.
“Bewkes said expansion of Blu-ray, VOD and related improvements in electronic distribution by moving away from physical DVD would help grow filmed entertainment.â€
That means they are going to push blu ray and VOD. DVD will take the back seat sooner or later.
Yes it’s not a 9/11 breaking article but it’s an article that shows there are people out there who is driving next generation content distribution. And in this case, it ain’t Jerry’s movie studios inc, it’s Time Warner. Disney is doing the same, Paramount is doing the same, so is Sony, Universal etc. The original article posted here, is an obvious thing which I don’t really understand the point off. Again, I’ll refer to jinja’s post and my previous post.
All I’m trying to tell you is that BD is most definitely being pushed hard. Articles like this proves it. And they make headlines daily. I know this a gaming news site, but if you start posting articles about BD you need to consider doing it in an unbiased why. Because, unfortunately, BD is also tied up in console war fanboyism, when its greatest market will potentially lie in Hollywood and the Film industry
LazySAGamer
June 11, 2008 at 14:22
lol I meant Time Warner..
Anyway I still don’t see that as anything being pushed hard, I see that as empty corporate promises.. Like Live in South Africa in our lifetime 🙄
But that article did mention that they would be pushing digital distribution which I see as way more viable than a new optical standard, but I would be in trouble for posting an article like that…
This article is actually about HVD not Blu-Ray and I thought it was pretty unbiased for a HVD article.
Banana hammock
June 11, 2008 at 14:30
True, but they will have much more than HVD will that’s for sure. DB is here to stay and that’s fine. It will replaced eventually and that’s fine too.
David
June 11, 2008 at 15:05
Ignore this message
Gazza ZA
June 11, 2008 at 15:08
Heres the thing, does it mean that because blu ray has beaten HDdvd in the high def format wars that it is automatically set to replace dvd?
I think not.
Im still pretty sure dvd is more than enough for your average consumer for a good while.
Gazza ZA’s last blog post..The Last Remnant ‘Ruler’ trailer HD Video
SlippyMadFrog
June 11, 2008 at 15:15
I don’t see myself getting blu-Ray until it is as common and cheap as DVD is now. How long will it take to reach that stage? Who cares realy 😉
kabraal
June 11, 2008 at 15:20
“But that article did mention that they would be pushing digital distribution which I see as way more viable than a new optical standard, but I would be in trouble for posting an article like that…”
But but but that’s also “empty corporate promises” 😉
You won’t be in trouble for posting that at all. It’s also a new market that studios WILL expliot. It’s also a market that WILL quite possibly make the most revenue for the studios from all their distribution methods. Doesn’t mean optical media is going anywhere anytime soon and I don’t really see how it’s more viable than optical tbh.
This article is labelled “Is BD a waste of time?”, the previous one was “Evidence (god knows what evidence) mounts that blu ray will struggle.
My point:
BD will not struggle, neither will VOD. If anything DVD is doomed, and the gun is loaded for it to start struggling. It just doesn’t make studios any money anymore. This new HVD is old news. It’ll remain a sleeper tech until BD is where DVD is atm.
kab123
June 11, 2008 at 16:15
Where have I said everyone is out to get me? I’m enjoying myself here.
I’m not gunning at Lazy, I’m arguing with him. If he can take that article I posted and claim that it’s only weak nonsense “corparate promises”, but in the same breadth says he agrees with VOD part, I smell biasness. And like you said there, whether I’m right or wrong, I’m pretty much entitled to say whatever I want right??
abe
June 11, 2008 at 19:49
boob 🙄
Lupus
June 11, 2008 at 22:16
Remember when DVDs first came out, their prices were astronimical, now they are as cheap as chips :-D. I’ll hold out till there is a winner.
MaXiM
June 12, 2008 at 01:19
LOL… What winner?.. HVD is not up against Blu-Ray… Blu-Ray is here already as the next Optical Disc format of choice to succeed DVD… Read the first few posts… HVD will most likely make an appearance, just not as a competitor to Blu-Ray for some time… You will be waiting till you are 90 if you take that stance…. 🙂
Fox1
June 12, 2008 at 07:58
No. Sony tried their luck with exclusive storage media and the consumer never except it. Remember that junk Hi-8 that they expected to rival DV 😉
MaXiM
June 12, 2008 at 17:50
You do realise CD’s were co developed by Sony and Philips 🙂 That worked out well… and this time around, the other competitor has already thrown in the towel, so there really isn’t any other viable or afforable medium other than Blu-Ray right now and the studios are going big guns to get it off the ground…. 😉
kab123
June 12, 2008 at 19:17
Wtf is all this BS with me pissing in my pants and being a fucking fanboy? If you want to say something, fucking say it. But please, and don’t let me break your concentration, please say something useful.
kab123
June 12, 2008 at 19:43
Oh and please, do keep on “blogging†, speculating and keep on looking into those crystal balls. I’ll make sure to feed LGZA the significant REAL news developments in the HD scene like I have over the last few arguments while ya’ll ponder over each other blogs. Have fun.
Milesh Bhana
June 13, 2008 at 05:17
BR disks will NOT hold 1TB. It’s 25GB PER LAYER! For a terrabyte you talking about 40 layers. I’d like to see a player that can differentiate 40 layers on a disc. In the labs they sitting on about 8-12 layers.
doobiwan
June 13, 2008 at 10:17
Sure, here’s some useful advice: use Pampers or Huggies Gold. Whatever nappies you’re using now are just not good enough.
doobiwan’s last blog post..The Games that made the consoles
SgtFiddler
June 13, 2008 at 11:37
According to the link below, BR adoption is actually faster than DVD in it’s comparative launch cycle. The actual link is blocked here at work, so can’t confirm on the validity of the report.
http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/06/09/tech-manufacturer-says-blu-ray-adoption-quicker-than-dvd/
kabraal
June 13, 2008 at 12:23
Sgt, links link that do not work here.
By now ya’ll probably know I’m passionate about anything movies and home theatre related and this whole HD things brought new technologies to the fry, which unfortunately, I’m excited about and I’m not the only one. People like to garden, collect stamps, do quad biking etc etc. Heaven forbid some people like anime… wtf? I like all things home theatre / Hollywood related and I do believe I’ve followed the industry for fair amount of time now to know what’s going on.
Through out all these arguments I do believe I’ve posted sufficient evidence of real world developments to point out that BD is on the move and that it’s definitely not moving the SACD, DVD-A or UMD way. No, they’re not going to sell 100 million players in 3 months. Yes they are expensive, just like that DVD writer was in your PC you take for granted now. I believe I’ve been met with resistance by certain characters who are not at all interested in home theatre or the movie / video business (just like I couldn’t give a shit about collecting dolls or anime books) and who still, as of yet, needs to supply me with reputable links that BD is in trouble or that BD is a waste of time. I think I got own link that quoted January sales slump of BD players. I didn’t even comment on that…
Oh and remember…keep it real: “PS4, Xbox720: Is the PS3 and 360 a waste of time?â€
Think about it.
Nick
June 13, 2008 at 13:34
I see where you are coming from. The difference with the ps4 and xbox720 comparison isnt the same though because the ps3 and xbox360 have already been grounded in the market whereas Blu-Ray is still in its infancy phase. As much as it is ahead of HVD (which has been in developement for a lot longer than most people think) Blu-Ray is not yet seen as a standard, so there is the slightest possibility that it might be dethroned before its reached its peak. It probably wont have a problem, as I said in the article that I think that Blu-Ray will be the best best for a standard to take us forward from here on, but the article focuses more on the fact that new standards are trying to be set too often and it is going to confuse and frustrate consumers.
Take Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. All of us gamers knew what was going on and we expected one to probably fail and were aware of the risks involved. But I am sure that there were a lot of consumers out there who felt cheated when HDDVD died.
Amir
January 12, 2014 at 15:19
It’s funny but this format is still not out but most people just stream now. This will be the last format war. Optical disks are out of fashion. Why use it when you can stream instantly obv this is six years later but shows you the pitfalls of guessing the future.
kabraal
June 13, 2008 at 15:21
Nick if you read all my posts you would’ve seen that I actually do release that some new will come along eventually. I’m not discounting the fact that someday we’ll have HVD in our homes. I’m not discounting the fact that someday we will have 50mpbs internet capacity for full HD video on demand.
But this is where I disagree with you and this in my point (my opinion if you’d like, but the evidence is there). You have 8 major Hollywood studios who have invested in BD. They’ve done promotion tours they’re setting up websites; they’re spending millions on bringing catalogued titles to BD. All major hardware manufacturers have come to the party. PC manufacturer like DELL are promising $800 BD notebooks by years end. Yes I know the stuff is still expensive and I know some of these aspects are still in the “promising†phase. But the intent from this industry is clear. If you’re a follower of the Hollywood business you’ll know that.
Like I said, I’ve never discounted a new tech like HVD. But I can guarantee you by 2010 both BD and VOD will only start to seriously take off. If you work in the technical R&D engineering environment you’ll know all about cost escalations. HVD won’t be financially viable by 2010 and even if it was, all these hardware and software manufacturers will shrug it off as they’ve just invested millions in a new tech (BD) which will only start to become mainstream CE. Just like they shrugged of BD, DVD-A etc in 2000 because, they were still riding the DVD wave.
The main point where I disagree with you article is the title. It really makes no sense at this stage of the game.
That’s about it. I’ll stop before I run into some more childish comments about diapers and what not.
Nick
June 13, 2008 at 15:39
You make good sense. You know a lot more about this then I do for sure, so i cant actually make any decent arguments cause what you say seems correct when it comes to the movie industry. The title and article is merely about the bigger picture and the progression of technology and how any technology these days feels as if it has a limited time until some new kid knocks it off the shelf. What do you think of Blu-Ray in the future as a means of keeping data? Do you think it will remain used because it will be the popular movie format or do you think that they will seperate and it will remain the standard for movies will data takes a seperate path? Id like to hear your opinion.
kabraal
June 13, 2008 at 16:20
I suppose that what you mean by “keeping data†you mean it actually being used as a back up medium?
In big companies they don’t store their back up data on DVDs. Backing up data using DVDs is mainly used by individuals (like you say backing up your family photos or personal files or game content).
As for 50GB BD being used for back up? 50GB is still way to small for it to being used for serious back up. A company with a thousand employees easily has a work in progress directory of 1TB if not more. So, from a company point of view, they won’t expect an IT technician to back-up the work using 100 BDs… daily. They’ll still carry on with their type drives or raid servers or using a secure connection to back-up the data using the internet to a off site location.
So, you might soon use a BD disc to store your HD family movies which you recorded with you HD camera, but I don’t believe an optical medium will ever be used to back up a large companies WIP. Maybe HVD will? But it’ll have to be seriously big to make it viable.
So to answer your question, the main market for BD imo will be content distribution. Whether that be movies or games or whatever.
Wesley
October 8, 2008 at 14:08
I just see this formtat as a back up media nothing more… i mean how high more will defintion still get, look at BD example. I purely see it as a multi purpose disc, made for movies/games and backing up of personal data
Roi
October 14, 2010 at 15:53
:za: :angel: 🙂 :sideways: To Bluray!