In the early 1980s, two incompatible videotape formats called VHS and Betamax duked it out for the loyalty of the world's consumers. The losers wound up with Betamax equipment and tapes that eventually wound up as fodder for auctions on eBay.
You'd think the video industry might have learned something from that debacle - that it's good policy to agree on a standard for new technology ahead of time and then sell it. Indeed, that concept worked brilliantly for the compact audio disc, and later for the original DVD.
Unfortunately, the 21st-century version of Betamax vs. VHS is about to begin with a new generation of high-definition DVD players and disks. Over the coming months, you'll see new players and movie releases in two competing and incompatible formats known as HD DVD and Blu-ray.
The new formats are specifically designed for high-definition television sets (HDTVs). Like all new technologies, these gadgets will be expensive at first - in the $600 to $1,000 range, compared with less than $100 for a good standard DVD player.
Unfortunately, neither device will be able to play movies released in the other format. Given that the movie studios have also taken sides in the HD vs Blu-ray battle, buying one type of player may well shut you out of certain titles - unless you buy equipment to play the other format, too.
It's more likely that consumers with HDTV sets will wait out the war with their current DVD players to see which new format wins. There's no risk involved - studios will be releasing standard DVDs for many years to come. Still, it's a shame the industry can't agree on a single format, because the new high-definition DVDs promise a spectacular improvement in picture quality.
I'll admit I was oblivious to all of this until I hooked up my DVD player to our new high-definition television for the first time. I expected a spectacular home theater experience, but what I got was a lot less. Sure, the picture was okay - but not nearly as sharp and crisp as the HDTV broadcasts I was receiving via cable.
In some cases, the DVD picture wasn't as good as the one from my old analog TV set. Skin and faces, in particularly, took on a flat, angular, cartoon-like appearance.
What was going on? Shouldn't I be getting a far better picture from a DVD (a digital medium) on a new digital television?
Not necessarily, it turns out.
