Yesterday I went to meet a representative of TDK, who wanted to show off the company's new Blu-Ray Discs. "We're ready to ship these now," he said with glee. I asked him why TDK wasn't supporting HD-DVD, and his response was bullish: HD-DVD was a format with a limited lifespan. Blu-Ray was a better product and a greater technological advancement.
But customers don't always want the best, especially when you could actually buy one product and not the other - and even when they were both on the market, one's going to be much cheaper than the other. Of course there's going to be competition in the US, he said, but in Europe the market is different. High definition TV isn't here yet, so it's going to be a while before customers demand recordable Blu-Ray discs. That will give Blu-Ray time to bed in, and the quick-to-market HD-DVD will stand less chance of success.
Nice words, but the crucial thing is going to be how much the format costs. Let's forget the players - that's all speculation - how much does TDK say it will charge for these little monsters? Well, the single layer disc (that's 25GB) will set you back about 20 euros before taxes. A dual layer disc (50GB) will cost around 30. I came away with two samples which you can see above; a BD-Rom (left) and a BD-RW (right). But I'm still not sure whether I'd plump for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.
Still, very nice to have a disc. Now I just need to find something to play it on.
