Unfortunately for enterprises wanting to invest in this new technology right away, there's no way to ensure protection against a quick trip to obsolescence. We recommend keeping an eye on the prospects and technology behind HD-DVD and Blu-ray, but wait until the market shakes out before making an investment.
Format Evolution
There are good business reasons, especially for small and midsize enterprises, to take advantage of the huge data capacity of HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Data transfers, backups and archiving can all be done more efficiently because of the huge data capacities of these next-generation formats. But a big factor that companies need to consider is the sheer difficulty in changing media. For years the floppy disk dominated as the medium of choice, even when it was clear that it was insufficient in both speed and capacity, because of the virtually universal installed base. Eventually, Compact Disc largely replaced floppies and has been a default format for years; any replacement for it faces the same hurdles CD faced on its path to replace floppies.
HD-DVD (High-Definition DVD) uses a red 650-nanometer laser to read and write disks. The current capacity of HD-DVD is 15 GB per layer. A dual-layer, single-sided HD-DVD has a capacity rating of 30 GB (greater capacity is likely in the future). The laser technology used in HD-DVD equipment is the same laser used in past DVD formats such as DVD-Video and DVD+/-R. The main selling point for HD-DVD is its backward compatibility with existing players, ubiquitous and inexpensive laser, and the fact that manufacturers need to make only a small change to press HD-DVDs.
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