The war between new DVD technologies, Blu-ray and HD DVD are reminiscent of the battle between the VHS and Betamax videocassette formats. Who will be the winner in this war is yet to be seen as these formats are now becoming available in retail outlets. Supported by Sony, Blu-ray is the next generation optical disc which was developed to store large amounts of data and to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high definition (HD) video. Unlike existing optical disc technologies such as DVDs which use a red laser to read and write data, Blu-ray uses a blue-violet laser. Blu-ray is also supported by the leading electronics companies, music companies and the major movie studios including Sony Pictures, Fox, Warner, Paramount and Disney. HD DVD is also a high density optical disc format designed for storage of HD video and data. As with Blu-ray, the HD DVD format is also supported by some of the leading players in the music, electronics and movie world. Spearheading this group is Toshiba.
Another new media item on the market is the Universal Media Disc or UMD which is a new proprietary high capacity optical disc designed to hold digital data including music, games and feature length movies. It was developed for use on portable entertainment players like the PlayStation Portable system. What is still uncertain is whether the UMD is a separate right or can be treated as another DVD format.
This all means that film distributors will have to keep up with the fast changing technologies and media for the exploitation of film and to ensure their distribution licences with licensors will include rights to exploit the film in all such forms of media. |