Week 3 Thing 7 - Technology - HD DVD vs. Blu-ray and implications for libraries

I'm back!! Must find the time to finish. On to the topic at hand.
There are two competing formats for the next generation of DVD. A manufacturers forum that was supposed to prevent this from happening fell apart as Toshiba and Sony decided to go their different ways. This blog is not about which may be better, but the implications of each as to there ability to be included in the media that a library provides. Currently, all earlier CD and DVD formats can be repaired by a resurfacing process that basically sands, buffs and polishes the surface ( a 0.6 mm surface layer) that protects the data layer. This surface layer is the same on the new HD-DVD format allowing the current repair technology to be applied. This means that the product can be repaired again and again and again and play like new. Blu-ray DVD's however have a thinner (0.1 mm) layer to allow the laser to focus better on the data because the track pitch of the laser is set differently so that more data can be stored on the disc. Now comes the fun part.Because the layer is so thin, Blu-ray DVDs have a special hard coating added to protect the surface. It is somewhat scratch resistant and is supposed to make it easier to clean off fingerprints. Notice that it is only scratch resistant. I f you do manage to scratch the surface, and we know how a number of our customers (not all) treat our media, you can not repair the surface. This raises the issue of whether to invest in the newest DVD technology or stick with the current format which newer DVD players with up-conversion can boost the signal so that they look acceptable on HD-TVs. Food for thought.