1. Price Competition: Here is where HD-DVD really pushed the envelope. Prices of HD-DVD players were significantly less that Blu-ray Disc players, and actually offered more functionality, and, for all practical purposes, with the same image quality as their Blu-ray counterparts.
In addition, HD-DVD discs are less expensive to manufacture than Blu-ray Discs. This means that HD-DVDs are actually more profitable on a per unit basis than Blu-ray Discs. Why the HD-DVD camp didn't advantage of this fact and lower disc prices with the expectation of producing more sales has me a little puzzled. I think that would have produced better market share in the long run than simply giving discs away with each player sale.
2.Technology Competition: Competition spurs technical innovation. In the case of Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the race was on to get to the market first. HD-DVD actually won this one by several months, bringing their players to market in April of 2006. Blu-ray didn't reach the market until later in 2006. This head start should have been a big advantage for HD-DVD.
3. Implementation of a Completed Format: Here is where HD-DVD should have taken it all. Unlike Blu-ray disc players, all HD-DVD players, from the first ones that hit store shelves, implemented the required specifications for the format, regardless of price level: Dual video and audio processing, Internet accessibility via Ethernet, and the ability to read Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD off the disc. For more on this issue, check out my article: Blu-ray and HD-DVD - Sorting Out Fact from Fiction.
Blu-ray, on the other hand, while developed with the eventual goal of providing the same hardware features as HD-DVD players, came to market as an immature format, at least in terms of actual functionality implementation. This has resulted in three classes of Blu-ray Disc players: Profile 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0. For details on what this means for the consumer, check out a previous explanation.
The main thing to take note of, with regards to Blu-ray Disc player profiles, is that they affect the basic hardware specifications that enable users to access interactive and/or web-enabled features on a growing number of Blu-ray discs. Profile 1.0 players cannot access profile 1.1 interactive disc features or internet-based firmware update downloads, and profile 1.1 players cannot fully access more complex profile 2.0 web-enabled features that require more player flash memory capacity.
In addition, due to the difference in the hardware configuration required by each profile, profile 1.0 players cannot be upgraded to become profile 1.1 players, and it is not known if profile 1.1 players can be successfully upgraded to 2.0 profile status.
If you currently own a profile 1.0 player, such as the Sony BD-PS1, Samsung BD-P1000, Pioneer BDP-HD1, or Panasonic DMP-BD10 or 10A, you are out of luck trying to access features on some Blu-ray discs, such as video picture-in-picture commentary or web-enabled content. In other words, you might have paid $30 for your favorite movie, but you can't access all $30 worth of features on the disc.
4. High Definition/Standard DVD Combo Disc Option: This is where the HD-DVD camp had a good idea, but needed better marketing execution. HD-DVD discs have the capability of including an HD-DVD version of a film on one side and a standard DVD version on the other. The benefit to consumers is that the high-def version can be played on an HD-DVD player, but the standard DVD version can be played on the remaining standard DVD players that might be in the house.
However, the HD-DVD/DVD combo disc concept was poorly executed. Instead of including the standard DVD version on the combo disc and keeping the price relatively the same as a HD-DVD only disc, the HD-DVD camp increased the price of the combo disc by about $10 over what it would have been if just an HD-DVD only disc. Paying $39 for an HD-DVD/DVD combo disc doesn't cut for most consumers looking for prices more inline with standard DVDs. If HD-DVD would have taken the lower price road on combo discs, they would have really offered a value that Blu-ray couldn't match at the same price point.
Proceed to Page 3: Why HD-DVD Really Failed
