Blu Ray

Getting a Blu-Ray representative to speak on the subject is surprisingly difficult considering that unlike the consortium of companies that run HD-DVD, Blu-Ray is pretty much run by just one: Sony. Sony Home Entertainment's Fritz Freidman has attempted to arrange an interview for us but, by time of going to press, had not yet occurred. What is clear though is that Sony are playing a very forceful hand, going 'all in' in order to win sole control of the next-gen disc format. The blue laser technology is a clever one, and can be used to provide a 200Gb disc, but its relatively inefficient use of such space in encoding video makes this less amazing. Also, its treatment of the UK market, the second largest home video market in the world, almost seems exploitative. Factoring in VAT, Sony's Blu-Ray hardware is consistently 30-40% more expensive here than in the US, and the decision to make the cheaper 20Gb Playstation 3 (which uses Blu-Ray for its games as well as for HD video playback) completely unavailable was not appreciated by many consumers. The Playstation 3 is central to Sony's overall plan, the discs' high capacity there for game developers to create games of massive scope, but equating the future video game market with the future home video market is a presumption rather than an accurate prediction. At the moment, people buy more far DVDs than games, but the fact that games are twice to three times as expensive means Sony are keen to combine the two media, supposedly making it simpler for consumers, but also shutting out any competition, thereby letting Sony control your home entertainment.

Pros: Major film rights, A Playstation 3 will allow you to play video games on the same player

Cons: After taxes, Sony still make the UK pay more than elsewhere