One day, you"ll watch movies at home on 5-inch discs that make today"s DVDs look like VHS. We know the basic technology that will make this happen: blue-light lasers that increase disc capacity, allowing one DVD to hold hours of HDTV-quality video. But what we don"t know is which of the two blue-laser, HDTV-compatible formats will make it into your living room.
The two competing formats are Blu-ray and HD-DVD. If you remember the VHS versus Betamax war of the early 1980s, be prepared--a similar format war may be starting again. And the war will be about more than just home video. Today"s DVDs are a medium for computer software distribution, retail videos, and PC backups. So next-generation, blue-laser DVDs will have to do all these things as well. The first retail blue-laser units on the market--which are currently available only in Japan and cost thousands of dollars--are set-top video recorders