Write a 300-500 word article that tells the audience about a recent multimedia technology that is being or has been developed in the last six months.

Blu-Ray V HD-DVD.

Over The Last few months the long battle between the two high definition movie formats may have come to an end. Both formats were originally announced back in February 2006, with different movie studios taking sides. Blu-Ray was invented by these group of companies: Hitachi, LC, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sharp , Samsung and Sony. HD-DVD was created by Toshiba/NEC. http://www.blu-ray.com/ and http://www.toshibahddvd.co.uk/.

Both technologies use the same blue-violet laser, this means they can focus more sharply than a standard DVD, resulting in a higher quality picture. It also means that far more data can be stored on the discs. There are however bid differences between the discs. Blu-ray packs more data into a single spiral of the disc, this meaning that Blu-ray can fit more data onto each disc than a HD-DVD. The two formats are incompatible.

A blu-ray disc can fit about 25GB of data on a single disc only using a single layer. Double this can be fit on a dual layer blu-ray disc (about 50GB). HD-DVD can only fit 15GB single layer and 30GB dual layer, both these however are far more than a standard DVD which is only 4.7GB single layer and 9GB dual layer.

The most important thing for the consumers however is the price of each technology. For a product to be successful it obviously must function but also be affordable. Blu-ray is seen as a more advanced format, this means the price is quite high. Back in mid 2007 when both formats were competing a blu-ray player cost a staggering £450 while a HD-DVD player came in at £220, half the price. So which would the consumers go for? The more expensive but more widely used Blu-ray format or the smaller HD-DVD format. As time went on Blu-ray started to get more and more backing from the different film studios. The bigger studios were releasing their films on blu-ray rather than HD-DVD, meaning more films were becoming available on blu-ray and not HD-DVD. Because of this consumers were buying more blu-ray films, resulting in an announcement from Toshiba that they would no longer be producing HD-DVD technology.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2300109.ece

So now the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is over can blu-ray takeover from DVD? This totally depends on the consumer. New chart DVDs now retail at about £14.99 while blu-ray discs come in at about £20. Will society be willing to spend extra on the same product for the better picture, specially in the current financial climate? The average blu-ray player is retailing at about £250 while a DVD player can be purchased for £20. Also, to take full advantage of the high definition picture a HD ready TV is needed also costing more money. Its up to the consumer, save money or spend more?