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As the tech industry gears up for the latest Beta vs. VHS, DVD-R vs. DVD+R debate, the rest of us gear up for a major headache.  If I have to match my PC to my DVD player to my movie, I won’t be happy, as I assume you won’t be.  Unfortunately, I’ll probably have to choose.  Do I care if I have 25/50gb with Blu-Ray or 15/30gb with HD-DVD?  No, I don’t.  I’ll have a 2 disk movie/program/game if I have to.  What I do care about is the one thing nobody else seems to: Access times and transfer rate.  Earlier today, as I sat in my room enjoying Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I became increasingly displeased with waiting 15 seconds to get into the next room to assassinate my victim.  If Blu-Ray can get me back to wielding my blade quicker than HD-DVD, I’m sold.  If I don’t ever have to see "Loading…." again, I won’t cry if there’s an HD-DVD in the tray.  Price is a concern of course, but who cares if the HD-DVD folks promise a cheap disk if you’re 10 years older before your player is ready to play the disk.

With that rant, who is going to offer the better disk?  I don’t know.  1x transfer rates for the two are nearly identical and I have no idea how fast players will get and how quickly.  If you see a 4x HD-DVD drive while Blu-Ray is at 1x, the choice is obvious.  Let’s see how things play out.     

Chris Leckness (3547 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.