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RIVAL FORMATS: UNITED BY FATE!

From STORAGE Magazine Vol 6, Issue 7 - September 2006

The two emerging superstars of high-definition digital videodisc are set to do battle - But who will emerge victorious? Editor Brian Wall reports

The battle to become the new global standard format for high-definition (HD) digital video disc is approaching the end-game phase. In the blue corner is the Sony-led Blu-ray Disc (aka BD-DVD). And in the red corner is the Toshiba-backed HD-DVD. And only one of them will survive the shake-out.

That is the view of Astley Gayle, product marketing manager (UK & Ireland), CMS Peripherals. "Are we not going back to the future?" he asks. "Remember the VHS versus Betamax video-cassette war of the 80s? We've been here before. Potentially, billions of dollars are at stake and there can only be one winner. Global comm- ercial forces dictate that there is no room for two." With its remarkable 50GB capacity (enough for more than four hours of HDTV video or more than 26 hours of standard definition TV), Blu-ray Disc technology is ready to take advantage of all the exciting opportunities of HD currently capturing the imagination of many sections of the digital consumer community, states Gayle.

"The secret behind Blu-ray Disc lies in its use of a blue-violet laser to read and write data. With a shorter wavelength than the red laser used by current optical media, the blue-violet laser can be focused with even more precision, allowing more data to be stored on the disc."

Although HD-DVD drives are significantly less costly than Blu-ray Disc drives, Gayle concedes, they only store up to 30GB (more than triple the capacity of the standard DVD). "The first Blu-ray and HD-DVD players are about to appear in retail stores, along with a small, but growing, number of movie titles. Blu-ray discs will not play in HD-DVD players and vice versa. So, until multi-format players come along, which is possibly six to nine months away, if you want to watch pre-recorded movies in HD, you'll have to choose sides."

So, the battlelines are drawn. "There is no middle ground in this end-game," adds Gayle. "Combatants will have to lead, follow or get out of the way. As always, the market will decide."

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD both use blue lasers, which operate at lower wavelengths (405 nanometers) than current red lasers (650 nanometers). That microscopic difference goes a long way. Longer wavelengths suffer more diffraction, which limits their ability to focus tightly on a surface.

But a blue laser's shorter wavelength allows it to read and write data over a much tighter surface area, which in turn allows storage of far more data. The benefits for backward compatibility are clear. New players will be able to handle both old and new DVD formats in the same machine (outfitted with both red- and blue-laser diodes) - a major consumer benefit that manufacturers hope will drive unit sales.

Each side wants to convince consumers that they should shun the other side's format, of course, and go with them. On the Blu-ray side is a large group of CE manufacturers, including Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony, TDK, Thomson and Disney. Some videogaming frontrunners and content providers are also on board.

The main backer of the HD-DVD format is Toshiba, along with other key players NEC and Sanyo. Several entertainment content companies have also thrown their weight behind HD-DVD, including Paramount, Universal Studios and Warner Bros (along with Time Warner-owned New Line Cinema). And then there is the weight of Microsoft and Intel - not insignificant!

Toshiba firmly believes its camp will win the marketing battle for consumers' loyalty and coinage. It has formed the HD-DVD Promotion Group to back the format and help to give it a powerful impetus and market penetration. Meanwhile, the gloves are off and many vested interests are awaiting the outcome.

Meanwhile, with many companies increasingly overspending on new hardware to rectify storage issues, James Patmore, of Kodak Service & Support EAMER, highlights the areas where businesses can improve existing system performance before committing to potentially costly upgrades.

"Companies - and specifically IT managers - often struggle to run faster, more robust, systems on ever tighter budgets," he says. "The storage industry continues to grow and, as a result, many businesses are spending heavily on hardware upgrades in order to access and maintain important data. But implementation of a new or upgraded storage system is not always essential, as significant measures can be taken to maximise existing system performance and, ultimately, make significant long-term cost savings.

"As technology continues to evolve at an impressive pace, vital information can become inaccessible, locked away in an old and unreadable format or stored in an obsolete database, which can be costly to maintain. This has obvious 'knock-on' effects on productivity, security and efficiency. Rather than companies having to spend more on new equipment to address this, data conversion can be a cost-effective solution to address this and prevent the possibility of this information becoming compromised."

Migrating archived data into a format that can be integrated into a modern storage system is straightforward - a process of particular benefit to companies with large amounts of information locked away in old database programmes. With cost the overriding factor when addressing Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) issues, the spending on training and maintenance of old databases and archive systems can potentially be avoided through data conversion.

"Over the last 40 years," says Patmore, "we have witnessed industries convert printed data into digital format. Today, with any electronic data being a target
for conversion, and technology ever changing, the time has come for companies to migrate digital assets as well.”

A cost-effective storage infrastructure also relies on taking advantage of improvements in technology. Services are available that allow companies to convert formats such as Magneto-Optical (MO), DAT tape, Linear Tape Open (LTO), Advanced Intelligent Tape (AIT), CD-ROM and DVD formats into almost any current or legacy media format. “This reduces the total cost of ownership [TCO],” he adds, “as it simplifies the management of the data and reduces the long-term maintenance of legacy systems, given that a cost-effective solution five years ago is probably not so today."

Every business has critical information that must be protected from loss, corruption or theft, but contamination or damage to media in storage systems can have far-reaching consequences as well. Taking such action as media cleaning can save companies substantial costs in the long run.

"When media contamination does occur, storage networks run slower, which reduces productivity; whereas if regular media cleaning took place before a contamination happens, then potential server down time is prevented.

“Media cleaning fits into a long-term cost-saving programme, while at the same time delivering benefits that are both immediate and tangible. This includes quicker access to data, less time spent on managing the system due to slow performance and, ultimately, less downtime.

"By examining an IT system and infrastructure, it is possible to identify the areas where long-term savings can be made around total cost of ownership, while implementing rapid gains in IT efficiency, capacity and profits. ILM provides a framework by which a clear set of policies and practices can be defined and implemented."

Specialist service and support organisations can certainly help companies to review the best way of approaching this and provide a cost-effective, one-stop-shop suite of professional services that will improve IT operations and directly contribute to the bottom line. In the longer term, argues Patmore, this ensures IT managers and departments can save money before additional spend is allocated on unnecessary hardware upgrade purchasing.

ROBUST SOLUTIONS
Of course, the technologies that already prevail today are, in the main, highly robust, and will continue to serve users reliably and effectively for a long time to come, even as the new technologies stake their claim. The evidence to support that is continually before us. For example, while the occurrences of major incidents may seem rare, one need only consider the New Orleans floods and Buncefield explosions to evaluate the need for safe, flexible backup, something that Fujifilm Recording Media is at pains to point out.

So, when carrying out a needs analysis for any back-up solution, it is important to weigh up cost versus risk to business continuity, and consider carefully the best solution for your business and its individual requirements: tape, disk or hard drive.

Tape specialists would argue that tape is more robust than discs, especially for backup and archival applications. Specialist professional tape vendors will provide a range of complementary services to minimise the risk of loss of data. In the event of a tape being partially damaged, it is far easier to retrieve the remaining data than, say, compared to a hard disc crash. Meanwhile, the cost of storage per GB using tape formats such as LTO or SDLT is reducing dramatically year by year, while capacity and speed of retrieval is nearly doubling every two years.

Fujifilm typically guarantees its tapes for the lifetime of the product under broad environmental conditions, further testimony to the durability of modern data tapes. Add this to the convenience, profitability, cost and compatibility issues and the arguments for back-up tape are overwhelming, it comments.

With optical media now gaining more credence - particularly with the constant advancements in coating technology and increased storage capacities - Fujifilm engineers have perfected the craft of applying layers of material down to nano-scale level. "The significant increase in storage capacities of optical discs with the introduction of Blu-ray and HD DVD has opened up opportunities for small to medium-sized companies to back up on optical media," it states.

The benefits of Blu-ray and HD DVD for recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data, are clear. For example, a two-hour programme in HD creates a digital file roughly 15-25 gigabytes in size, the equivalent of 13 hours of standard-definition TV. Fujifilm recently launched Blu-ray discs and will also be launching HD DVD media later this year.

"Fujifilm coating technology will ensure the precision and quality of signal strength in new media formats," notes Roger Moore, strategic business unit manager, Fujifilm Recording Media.

"The success of new recording technologies depends on availability of affordable, reliable media and our scientists are already working to perfect next-generation storage solutions, long before they hit the market." ST