The high cost of high-def discs

Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? Do consumers care? As important as this question may be - do the content creators really care? Without great content, no one is going to be compelled to buy into either format.

I've spent some time tracking down what it would take to actually author a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disc, and was very surprised by how difficult (and expensive) it is. The first step is to take the high-definition video and have it encoded to a supported Blu-Ray or HD-DVD video and audio codec. Currently both formats support either MPEG-2, Windows Media VC-1, or H.264. That seems to be the easy part. Getting the encoded video into a flavor acceptable to the high-definition disc authoring software of your choice (whether for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) is an adventure in frustration. There are so many caveats and problems with the better codecs (VC-1 or H.264) and so few affordable authoring packages that you'll likely end up falling back to MPEG-2 which is not as efficient. The lower efficiency means reduced picture quality compared to VC-1 or H.264 at equivalent bit-rates. Many of the first studio-produced Blu-Ray titles were encoded in MPEG-2 because of the authoring/encoding difficulties involved.

Once you get through all of that hassle, it's time to actually burn a disc. If you are creating an HD-DVD it's going to be really difficult. There are NO HD-DVD burners on the market to allow you to burn a disc. This last January, Toshiba announced with much fanfare their model SD-H903A HD-DVD burning drive, but it has yet to see the light of day on a retail shelf. Is there a conspiracy by Hollywood studios who don't want consumers to get their hands on high-definition recordable devices? No. Blu-Ray BD-R burners are readily available and set-top Blu-Ray recorders are surely headed to US shores as early as next year [see below].

In the process of authoring a standard-definition DVD, it is usually necessary to produce at least one - if not several - "check discs" in order to test the physical disc in various consumer DVD players. Without the ability to burn HD-DVD-R check discs, you must physically replicate an HD-DVD just to test it.

Rebecca Masterson at Deluxe's DVD Authoring division in Burbank told me that they have simulation software they use to test titles, but in order to create a "check disc" they must do a limited replication run using their small "micro-plant". This process takes them approximately 24 hours in-house and can cost upwards of $3,000 PER DISC each time a check disc needs to be created. Compared to the ease and low-cost of using virtually ANY DVD-R burner to create a check-disc for a standard-definition DVD, this is a major barrier for everyone but the largest content creators (ie. studios).

Even though BD-R drives exist for Blu-Ray, that doesn't mean it's any easier testing Blu-Ray discs. Most set-top Blu-Ray players have their ability to play BD-R discs turned off. This is supposedly to prevent piracy, but it has the ugly side-effect of eliminating playback for legitimate discs that you might want to create. I'm told that the latest Playstation-3 firmware (v1.92) will now allow BD-R discs to be played in a PS-3.

Another hindrance for Blu-Ray is the lack of any professional authoring software. The only low-cost authoring software I'm aware of is the PC-only Ulead MovieFactory Plus and DVDit Pro HD by Sonic/Roxio ($499). There is also the new Vegas 8 from Sony Creative Software which will support some kind of direct Blu-Ray burning. None of these are what I would consider "professional". Beyond that, the lowest priced software is Sony's own Blu-Print which is a minimum of $50,000 per license or the industry-leading Sonic Scenarist which is around $100,000 per license.

Sony announced four new Blu-Ray recorders (available only in JAPAN initially) and it's certainly interesting to speculate why there still aren't any HD-DVD consumer recorders.

To sum up... it's difficult, expensive, and frustrating to try to author high-definition discs for either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD at the moment.

Blu-Ray
Pros: BD-R burners are available today, set-top players are beginning to play BD-R discs.
Cons: Super expensive for true professional authoring software, VC-1 or H.264 encoded discs cannot be authored on low-cost software.

HD-DVD
Pros: Very good "professional" authoring is available in Apple's DVD Studio Pro.
Cons: ZERO HD-DVD burners available, difficult support for H.264 or VC-1 video

The high-def holy war

It's been a busy week for the companies behind the competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats, and their various supporters. The business as usual of the past few months was interrupted on Monday morning when Paramount and DreamWorks Animation announced they are going to be exclusively supporting HD-DVD only for their high-definition releases. Then comes the news (Wall Street Journal / LA Weekly) that the HD-DVD group is paying Paramount and DreamWorks $50M and $100M respectively in promotional considerations and incentives for their decision to drop support for Blu-Ray. This leaves Sony/MGM, Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Brothers as the backers of releases on Blu-Ray while HD-DVD will now exclusively add Paramount/DreamWorks to the lonely Universal Studios.

The early adopting consumers are all in a commenting tizzy on the blogs over what this will eventually mean for their beloved formats. Does this mean that HD-DVD has a chance after all? Will another studio like Warner Brothers be tempted by cash to drop their support of Blu-Ray?

Some people like to further speculate that if there isn't a clear "winner" between the two formats soon that the current crop of high-definition discs may go the way of SACD and DVDA. What?!? You've never heard of SACD or DVDA? That's because they died in the womb of their great "idea". These were supposed to be "super" high-fidelity audio discs which would give music lovers unparalleled sound quality. The problem was, very few people could actually hear the ultra-high frequencies and sound differences between the high-definition audio discs and normal audio CDs. Worse yet, most people were willing to have less quality for more convenience and less money (ie. free) in the form of downloadable MP3s. Not enough people cared about the quality to make a compelling reason to pay for all new CD players and buy new versions of the CDs they already owned.

There are many other differences in this format war than any previous ones of the past. SACD/DVDA never achieved any marked level of market penetration nor did they get enough labels on the bandwagon to release CDs to drive those sales. Not the case with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Sony sold a mere 18 million Betamax units globally in its entire 27-year span of existence starting in 1975 and ending in 2002 (US availability ceased in 1998). There are already over 4.5 million Blu-Ray equipped Playstation 3s sold and in consumer's homes.

The true "battle" for which format has dominance will start to take place this holiday season when Toshiba has their sub-$300 standalone HD-DVD player available. Sony is rumored to have a similarly priced Blu-Ray player in the works for the holidays as well. Past CE hits have told us that the sweet spot for most American consumers is in the under $200 price range. This level of pricing won't be achieved by either format until at least the 2008 holiday season.

Until then, I'll still be a content producer trying to find affordable ways to actually produce high-definition discs. Right now, that doesn't exist for either format.