New high-definition DVDs to use old video technology? | CNET News.com

Related link: http://news.com.com/New high-definition DVDs to use old video technology/2100-10…

This is pretty sad - so they're trying to get blu-ray vs. HD-DVD off the ground; we missed shipping it for xmas 2005 because of the argument.

Now, Warner is thinking of making 9GB blu-ray disks at first instead of 25GB, using Microsoft's VC-1 competitive codec. (Existing DVD's already hold 9GB, and some DVD players already play VC-1. But no DVD players natively support HD resolutions of VC-1 on DVD).

And, Sony has proposed to use MPEG-2 (instead of MPEG-4 AVC or Windows Media), since at the 25GB level, you don't need to use a more efficient codec, you can do good-old MPEG-2 which the studios are all familar with, and the larger disks will hold HD.

On top of all this is the fear of what will happen when these incredibly high-resolution versions of movies hit the market, and consumers arguably never need to buy another version of the movie.

Like Vietnam or another recent war who's name I forget, the HD DVD wars linger on with no timetable for conclusion...