Competition in the DVD Format - Essay Example

These features make the Blu-ray discs capable of storing not only data-intensive, high intensive movies, but also endow them with the ability for more special features (Crompton. 2008). The Blu-ray discs are more expensive than the standard DVDs and require special Blu-ray players, which are also expensive, at almost $400 a player. Yet the feature-packed Blu-ray disc is expected to garner a large portion of the $1.1 billion high-definition movie market this year. Competition for Blu-ray was expected to come from the HD DVD format being developed by Toshiba Corporation.

However, in February 2008 Toshiba Corporation announced the termination of the competing HD DVD format. This announcement is believed to stem from the inability of the HD DVD format to match the features offered by the Blu-ray discs. This has left Blu-ray discs as the only format for high-definition movies, enabling the companies involved in the manufacture of Blu-ray discs to exploit the large high-definition movie market (Crompton. 2008).