Seems there has been a LOT of debate (*cough*hdguy28 stirring up #@$!*cough*) about BluRay, HD-DVD, and apparently the new favorite is HVD.
To get the BluRay vs HD-DVD support out of the way... here is a listing of some of the key players and my take on the situation:
- Computer Manufacturers Supporting BluRay: Apple, HP, Dell, Sony.
- Computer Manufacturers Supporting HD-DVD: Toshiba, NEC, Acer.
HP and Dell by themselves own the majority of the marketshare, Apple pretty much ensures that the Mac kool-aid drinkers will be using BluRay, and Linux users are screwed (like they always are). Toshiba and NEC haven't been big names in the computer industry for awhile (NEC and Acer in particular, Toshiba is the strongest of the three in terms of market-share).
- Studios Supporting BluRay: Columbia-Tristar, 20th Century Fox, Disney (and by extension ABC), Warner Brothers, Paramount, Buena Vista (whoever the hell actually owns them), and recently: Lions Gate Films.
- Studios Supporting HD-DVD: Universal, Warner Brothers, Paramount.
20th Century, Disney, and Buena Vista have not shown any indication of supporting HD-DVD, and Universal has been tight-lipped, although rumors persist that they might support BluRay. My guess is that Universal still wants to wait things out a little longer before deciding to stay backing HD-DVD exclusively.
- Media Manufacturers Supporting BluRay: TDK, Memorex, Maxell (Hitachi sits on the board)
- Media Manufacturers Supporting HD-DVD: Maxell
This really doesn't have much of an impact, IMO, as they will take their advances to the other side if one fails, but it is interesting to note that the major companies all support BluRay, and Maxell is playing both sides simply to hedge bets.
- Video Card Manufacturers Supporting BluRay: ATi, Nvidia
- Video Card Manufacturers Supporting HD-DVD: *crickets chirping*
'nuff said. This is important for getting hardware assist early on in PCs and Laptops.
- STB Manufacturers Supporting BluRay: Panasonic, Phillips, Sony, Pioneer, Daewoo.
- STB Manufacturers Supporting HD-DVD: NEC, Toshiba, (Intel + Microsoft).
The (Intel + Microsoft) bit is from the announcement that they are jointly making a CE-based HD-DVD player. In reality, that means there will be 3 brands of HD-DVD drive available. Sony has gotten more support from the major 3rd party guys without having to resort to bringing a whole new player into the market. Unless the 'fight' drags out for a really long period of time, then new players will not have a huge impact on adoption. It is also interesting to note that Kenwood, one of the oldest and largest audiophile equipment manufacturers is with BluRay, not HD-DVD.
This information is straight from each side's main websites.
Total Count:
- 147 companies supporting BluRay worldwide.
- 114 companies supporting HD-DVD worldwide (I even included all 4 susidiaries of Toshiba, and 2 subsidiaries of NEC who were listed under the same name... so Toshiba is counted 5 times, and NEC counted 3 times... account for the multiples and it drops down to 108 members).
These numbers are accurate as of 5 minutes ago.
So, if you want the lists themselves...
http://www.bluraydisc.com/Section-13469/Index.html BluRay Member List
http://www.hddvdprg.com/about/member.html HD-DVD Member List
As for HVD... well, that is another story. This is a format that will be hitting sometime in 2007 at very steep pricing (want a blank disc? Pay 100$ for it). Because of the costs, which are still quite good for the storage, it is being marketed as a backup format. Much like Magneto Optical and Tape before it. However, the 1.6TB discs that people have been drooling over won't even be ready until 2010. When they are, a single blank in a jewelcase will still cost more than a box set of Friends Season 1 on BluRay.
It has NO support currently to store movies, music, or any other content on it... just prosumer and corporate storage. It is NOT a contender in the current BluRay/HD-DVD spat, nor will it replace either one anytime soon. Manufacturing costs are just too high for mass-produced content (HD-DVD and BluRay are both under a quarter a disc to mass-produce, HVD would be mass-produced at costs over 50$/disc for blanks).
